Page:The Lady's Book Vol. V.pdf/37

 BERTHA.

BERTHA;

OR THE COURT OF CHARLEMAGNE.

35

THE palace of Aix la Chapelle was in sight. Its stupendous buildings, broken here and there to the eye by intervening groves and eminences, filled so considerable a space on the horizon as to give the idea of a city of domes and towers, the loftiest of which was surmounted by an immense apple of pure gold, as if the gorgeous pile had been meant to be enlightened by a sun of its own. A confused murmur of exclamations arose from the procession when the end of this long journey at length appeared to draw so near; and the eyes of all were eagerly bent upon what might as yet have seemed but a palace of cloudland. The eunuch, unwilling to compromise the dignity of his mistress by a show of vulgar wonder, commanded a halt, when they had reached the brow of a beautiful hill, from which a view of the whole surrounding country could be obtained; and after allowing his followers sufficient time to gaze, proceeded to arrange the ranks, and to remove, as far as possible, the appearance of carelessness and disorder, which is usually produced by a long journey. He then instructed them to move calmly and loftily on, mindful at once of the dignity of her from whom they came, and of the respect with which it was necessary to enter the presence of one of the mightiest potentates of the earth.

When the order was about to be given for a renewal of the march, a line of black figures on horseback was observed approaching from the quarter of the palace at full speed. The embassy continued their halt, and watched with admiration the seemingly interminable succession of the file; for when the commanding officer had already reached the foot of the hill, his followers extended in an uninterrupted line to the very gates of the buildings. The black appearance of this formidable body was caused by the armour with which every individual was clothed from head to foot, and which had all the effect of the uniform of later times; * they looked, indeed, as they sat grimly on their saddles, like statues of solid iron; and even the horses were defended by plates of the same metal, over which robes of rich cloth hung almost to the ground. Their offensive arms consisted, besides a sword, of a thick lance, which was not thrown like the darts, or angons of their fathers, but retained in the grasp after striking: and, wielded by these iron hands, it seemed a more formidable weapon even than the battle axe which it had displaced. † When the challenge was given to the strangers in the customary form of the time, and the eunuch had replied, as was expected, that his errand was to carry a salutation from the mighty Princess Irene, Empress of the East, to the renowned King of the French, the visitors were invited to approach the palace of the great Charles, and the black horsemen marshaled the way as a guard of honour.

“I pray thee, sir, “said a private cavalier, attached to the Greek embassy, riding up to the commanding.officer of the escort, when the march was begun, “tell me, I pray thee, whether the Princess Bertha, whom thou knowest we are come to demand in marriage, be as beautiful as she is described by report. “The soldier stared haughtily at the querist for a moment, and then replying coldly, “thou wilt see anon, “spurred his steed, and rode forward. The Greek, with an angry, or perhaps contemptuous capriole, leaped to one side, and, riding up an eminence, appeared to contemplate for some time the procession, so rich in variety of manner and costume, and partaking, in such brilliant contrast, of the pageantry of war and peace. Then, perceiving the road bend round the corner of a forest, to avoid the unequal ground within, and seeming to have been rendered reckless by the relaxation of discipline permitted on a long journey, or else protected by his insignificance from the interference of the chiefs of the cavalcade, he forsook entirely the line of march, and dived into the thicket. The shade of the trees and the trickling of water rendered the air pleasant after a hasty march, although it was now near the beginning of winter; and the stranger, whose blood was quickened not only by the warm pulses of youth, but by the curiosity natural in a traveller arriving in a new and interesting quarter, gave his horse the rein, and galloped on at the will of the proud animal, so far as this was unchecked by the intervention of barriers too high to be overleaped. He had not proceeded far when he heard the voice of some one singing cheerily in the wood, and he pulled in his bridle to listen. The song seemed to be one of the war hymns of the Celts, popularly known in France, since their collection, a few years before, by the king, and the manly and well tuned voice in which it was pitched, accorded well with the appearance of the singer, who soon after emerged from a jungle and crossed the path of the Greek stranger.

He was a remarkably tall man, in the prime of life, and portly and well formed in his figure; although, critically examined, his neck would have appeared too short and thick, and his waist

Soldiers did not begin to wear uniform generally till un. der Louis XIV. in 1672.

The French abandoned, in a great measure, the use of bows and arrows, when they established themselves in Gaul.

This prince did not receive the title of Magnus, or Charlemagne, till after his death.

The title “princess, “is not given to her in her capacity of King's daughter. The King and his high nobles were indiscriminately styled Princes; and women of lofty rank, whether royal or not, were princesses. The terms, nevertheless, for the sake of distinction, are used in this work more frequently than otherwise in their modern sense.