son Louis to be crowned lord over
the Empire and the kingdom of France, giving all his treasure to the
poor in God's name after this manner; for he left the third part of
his treasure (which was infinite) to all the poor Christians seeking
alms, and the other two parts he left to all his archbishops of his
empire and realm, that they might distribute them amongst their
bishops and all the churches and monasteries and hospitals.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: 814 A.D.]

And this done, he commended his spirit in holiness to Christ, in the
city of Aquisgrana, in Germany, and was there buried with great
honour, to wit, at Aix-la-Chapelle. This was in the year of Christ
814, and he lived seventy-two years, and many signs appeared before
his death, as we read in the chronicles of the doings of France. This
Charles much extended Holy Church, and Christendom both far and near,
and was a man of great virtue.

Sec. 16.--_How, after Charles the Great, Louis, his son, became Emperor._
Sec. 17.--_How the Saracens of Barbary crossed to Italy, and were
defeated, and all slain._ Sec. 18.--_Further, how the Saracens crossed
to Calabria and to Normandy in France._ Sec. 19.--_How and in whose
person the empire and realm of France fell from the progeny of Pepin._
Sec. 20.--_Of the same matter, and of how the lineage of Hugh Capet
reigned thereafter._

Sec. 21.--_How the city of Florence lay waste and in ruins for 350
years._

After the destruction of the city of Florence, wrought by Totila, the
scourge of God, as has afore been mentioned, it lay thus ruined and
deserted about 350 years by reason of the evil state of Rome and of
the Empire, which, at first by Goths and Vandals, and afterwards by
Lombards and Greeks and Saracens and Hungarians, was persecuted and
brought low, as has afore been related. Truly there were, where
Florence had been, certain dwellings and inhabitants round about the
duomo of S. Giovanni, forasmuch as the Fiesolans held market there one
day in the week, and it was called the Campo Marti, as of old, for it
had always been the market-place of the Fiesolans, and had borne this
name before Florence was built. It came to pass ofttimes, during the
years when the city lay waste and in ruins, that the said inhabitants
of the borough and of the market-place, with the aid of certain nobles
of the country which of old were descended from the first citizens of
Florence and of the inhabitants of the