Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/194

 158 Readings in European History The treaty of Verdun. Charles betook himself to a rendezvous with his brothers, and joined them at Verdun; and there they divided the land among them. Louis had as his portion everything beyond the Rhine, and on this side of the Rhine the cities and dis- tricts of Speyer, Worms, and Mayence. Lothaire received the territory between the Rhine and the Scheldt to their emp- tying into the sea, besides Cambria, Hennegau, Lomatsch- gau, and the provinces on the left bank of the Maas, and further on to the place where the Saone joins the Rhone, and the counties along the Rhone on both banks to the sea. The other lands to the confines of Spain they ceded to Charles. When each had given his oath to the others they parted. 70. An ex- tract from the Annals of Xanten. III. A MELANCHOLY GLIMPSE OF THE CONDITIONS IN THE NINTH CENTURY The Annals of Xanten give us a terrible impression of the disorder and gloom which prevailed in the Prankish kingdoms, owing to the civil wars and the devastations of the Northmen. The portion here given was probably written as the events occurred. (844) Pope Gregory departed this world and Pope Sergius followed in his place. Count Bernhard was killed by Charles. Pippin, king of Aquitaine, together with his son and the son of Bernhard, routed the army of Charles, and there fell the abbot Hugo. At the same time King Louis advanced with his army against the Wends, one of whose kings, Gestimus by name, was killed; the rest came to Louis and pledged him their fidelity, which, however, they broke as soon as he was gone. Thereafter Lothaire, Louis, and Charles came together for council in Diedenhofen, and after a conference they went their several ways in peace. (845) Twice in the canton of Worms there was an earth- quake ; the first in the night following Palm Sunday, the second in the holy night of Christ'S Resurrection. In the