before a fresh revolt amongst the Lombards recalled
him to their country. Once more he was victorious and once more he was
summoned from his career of conquest to meet the Saxons. As usual,
they were beaten out of the field, and so completely, that many of
them, seeming to have lost all faith in their gods, from repeated
defeats, presented themselves with their wives and children to receive
baptism.

Amid all these fatigues and battles, which might appear sufficient to
have occupied the attention of any one man, Charlemagne retained in
his own hands the general government of the state. The local
administration was distributed among twelve provincial officers, with
the title of Dukes, each of them having the command of a county.
Subordinate to these officers were the Counts, who, in fact, were the
judges of the land, and had full authority to decide and punish within
their jurisdiction. To secure the faithful performance of their duties
by these Dukes and Counts, certain officers, under the name of Missi
Dominici, were sent in visitations from time to time to inquire into
their conduct. In great ecclesiastical questions, or those affecting
the more powerful vassals of the crown, either the king himself, or
the count of his palace, sat as judge.

Spain next demanded his attention. That country had been subdued by
the Arabs, but the descendants of the first conquerors quarrelled
among themselves, and Ibn al Arabi, a powerful chief, sought aid of
Charlemagne, who marched thither, and being, as usual, victorious,
secured to himself a barrier against the Saracens and Gascons. This
was seen with ill-will by Lupo, Duke of Gascony, who when the Frankish
king was leaving Spain to meet fresh dangers on the Rhine,
treacherously laid an ambush for his destruction in the gorges of the
Pyrenees. The monarch himself was allowed to pass with the first
division of his army, the second was assailed and destroyed in the
valley of Roncesvalles, and the conquerors secreting themselves in
their mountain fastnesses, presented no object for the vengeance of
the indignant monarch. Besides, the barbarians were again ravaging his
frontiers, under the command of Witikind, with a fierceness that went
far beyond even the worst of their earlier incursions. Their cruelty,
however, was retaliated by their almost total annihilation while
attempting to retreat across the Adern, and in the ensuing season
Charlemagne reduced them, as it seemed, to a state