great part to
the indolent character of the monarch. Charles the Fat, as he was
entitled, who had the ambitious project of restoring the empire of
Charlemagne, and succeeded in combining France and Germany under his
sceptre, proved unable to protect his realm from the pirate rovers. Like
his predecessor, Charles the Bald of France, he tried the magic power of
gold and silver, as a more effective argument than sharpened steel, to
rid him of these marauders. Siegfried, their principal leader, was
bought off with two thousand pounds of gold and twelve thousand pounds
of silver, to raise which sum Charles seized all the treasures of the
churches. In consideration of this great bribe the sea-rover consented
to a truce for twelve years. His brother Gottfried was bought off in a
different method, being made Duke of Friesland and vassal of the
emperor.

These concessions, however, did not put an end to the depredations of
the Norsemen. There were other leaders than the two formidable brothers,
and other pirates than those under their control, and the country was
soon again invaded, a strong party advancing as far as the Moselle,
where they took and destroyed the city of Treves. This marauding band,
however, dearly paid for its depredations. While advancing through the
forest of Ardennes, it was ambushed and assailed by a furious multitude
of peasants and charcoal-burners, before whose weapons ten thousand of
the Norsemen fell in death.

This revengeful act of the peasantry was followed by a treacherous deed
of the emperor, which brought renewed trouble upon the land. Eager to
rid himself of his powerful and troublesome vassal in Friesland, Charles
invited Gottfried to a meeting, at which he had the Norsemen
treacherously murdered, while his brother-in-law Hugo was deprived of
his sight. It was an act sure to bring a bloody reprisal. No sooner had
news of it reached the Scandinavian north than a fire of revengeful rage
swept through the land, and from every port a throng of oared galleys
put to sea, bent upon bloody retribution. Soon in immense hordes they
fell upon the imperial realm, forcing their way in mighty hosts up the
Rhine, the Maese, and the Seine, and washing out the memory of
Gottfried's murder in torrents of blood, while the brand spread ruin far
and wide.

The chief attack was made on Paris, which the Norsemen invested and
besieged for a year and a half. The march upon Paris was made by sea and
land, the marau