veracity.

The principal Italian poets who have sung the adventures of the peers
of Charlemagne are Pulci, Boiardo, and Ariosto. The characters of
Orlando, Rinaldo, Astolpho, Gano, and others, are the same in all,
though the adventures attributed to them are different. Boiardo tells
us of the loves of Orlando, Ariosto of his disappointment and
consequent madness, Pulci of his death.

Ogier, the Dane, is a real personage. History agrees with romance in
representing him as a powerful lord who, originally from Denmark and a
Pagan, embraced Christianity, and took service under Charlemagne. He
revolted from the Emperor, and was driven into exile. He afterwards led
one of those bands of piratical Northmen which ravaged France under the
reigns of Charlemagne's degenerate successors. The description which an
ancient chronicler gives of Charlemagne, as described by Ogier, is so
picturesque, that we are tempted to transcribe it. Charlemagne was
advancing to the siege of Pavia. Didier, King of the Lombards, was in
the city with Ogier, to whom he had given refuge. When they learned
that the king was approaching they mounted a high tower, whence they
could see far and wide over the country. "They first saw advancing the
engines of war, fit for the armies of Darius or Julius Caesar. 'There
is Charlemagne,' said Didier. 'No,' said Ogier. The Lombard next saw a
vast body of soldiers, who filled all the plain. 'Certainly Charles
advanced with that host,' said the king. 'Not yet,' replied Ogier.
'What hope for us,' resumed the king, 'if he brings with him a greater
host than that?' At last Charles appeared, his head covered with an
iron helmet, his hands with iron gloves, his breast and shoulders with
a cuirass of iron, his left hand holding an iron lance, while his right
hand grasped his sword. Those who went before the monarch, those who
marched at his side, and those who followed him, all had similar arms.
Iron covered the fields and the roads; iron points reflected the rays
of the sun. This iron, so hard, was borne by a people whose hearts were
harder still. The blaze of the weapons flashed terror into the streets
of the city."

This picture of Charlemagne in his military aspect would be incomplete
without a corresponding one of his "mood of peace." One of the greatest
of modern historians, M. Guizot, has compared the glory of Charlemagne
to a brilliant meteor, rising suddenly out of the darkness of barbarism
to disappear no less