eceived with it a wealth of personal
affection. So was it with Charlemagne and Fastrada. On presenting the
ring to his wife the Emperor straightway conceived for her a passion far
more intense than he had hitherto experienced. From that time to the day
of her death he was her devoted slave, blind and deaf to all her faults.
Nay, even when she died, he refused to quit the room in which she lay,
or permit the interment of her body; refused to see the approach of
corruption, which spares not youth or loveliness; seemed, in short, to
have lost all count of the passage of time in his grief for the beloved
Fastrada. At length he was approached by Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims,
who had learnt, by occult means, the reason for the Emperor's strange
infatuation. Going up to the dead Empress, he withdrew from her mouth a
large diamond. At the same moment Charlemagne regained his senses, made
arrangements for the burial of his wife, and left for the Castle of
Frankenstein.

The possessor of the ring was now the worthy archbishop, and to him the
magically inspired affections of Charlemagne were transferred, much to
the good man's annoyance. To rid himself of the unwelcome attentions
and fulsome flatteries of his sovereign, he cast the ring into the lake
which surrounded the castle. Once more the Emperor's affections changed
their object, and this time it was the town of Aix-la-Chapelle with
which he fell in love, and for which he retained a firm attachment all
through his life, finally directing that he should be buried there. And
so he was laid to rest in that wondrous old town in the church of St.
Mary. In the year 1000 his tomb was opened by the Emperor Otto III, but
the account that Otto found the body seated upon a throne with crown
on head and sceptre in hand is generally regarded as legendary. The
sarcophagus was once more opened by Frederick I in 1165, when the
remains were transferred from the princely marble where they had
hitherto rested and placed in a wooden coffin. Fifty years later,
however, Frederick II had them placed in a splendid shrine. The original
sarcophagus may still be seen at Aix, and the royal relics are exhibited
every six years.

Louis, Charlemagne's son, lived to see the division of his Empire,
brought about through his own weakness. His fair provinces were ravaged
by the Danes and the Normans. Teuton and Frank were now for ever
separated. Twice during Louis' reign his own sons dethroned him, but on
hi