der the
leadership of Wittekind, who now first appears in history. With him was
associated another patriot, Alboin, Duke of Eastphalia.

Charles returned in the succeeding year, and again swept in conquering
force through the country. But a new insurrection called him once more
to Italy, and no sooner had he gone than the eloquent Wittekind was
among his countrymen, entreating them to rise in defence of their
liberties. A general levy took place, every able man crowded to the
ranks, and whole forests were felled to form abatis of defence against a
marching enemy.

Again Charles came at the head of his army of veterans, and again the
poorly-trained Saxon levies were driven in defeat from his front. He now
established a camp in the heart of the country, and had a royal
residence built at Paderborn, where he held a diet of the great vassals
of the crown and received envoys from foreign lands. Hither came
delegates from the humbled Saxons, promising peace and submission, and
pledging themselves by oaths and hostages to be true subjects of Charles
the Great. But Wittekind came not. He had taken refuge at the court of
Siegfried, the pagan king of the Danes, where he waited an opportunity
to strike a new blow for liberty.

Not content with their pledges and promises, the conqueror sought to win
over his new subjects by converting them to Christianity in the
wholesale way in which this work was then usually performed. The Saxons
were baptized in large numbers, the proselyting method pursued being, as
we are told, that all prisoners of war _must_ be baptized, while of the
others all who were reasonable _would_ be baptized, and the inveterately
unreasonable might be _bribed_ to be baptized. Doubtless, as a historian
remarks, the Saxons found baptism a cool, cleanly, and agreeable
ceremony, while their immersion in the water had little effect in
washing out their old ideas and washing in new ones.

The exigencies of war in his vast empire now called Charlemagne to
Spain, where the Arabs had become troublesome and needed chastisement.
Not far had he marched away when Wittekind was again in Saxony, passing
from tribe to tribe through the forests of the land, and with fiery
eloquence calling upon his countrymen to rise against the invaders and
regain the freedom of which they had been deprived. Heedless of their
conversion, disregarding their oaths of allegiance, filled with the
free spirit which had so long inspired them, the ch