942-954 elder child, the Crown Prince Lothaire; but she consented that they should take the recently born, the delicate Carloman. 915-946 Gerberga having refused to surrender other hostages given in A hard trial this, but there was no other remedy. Gerberga's sagacity prevailed; the Lothaire, French Prelates and Nobles cordially agreed with her in resisting the Norman demand, fully his stead. estimating the danger of exposing the royal race to destruction. The Normans, (or rather Hugh-le-Grand), then professed that they would be content with the infant, provided some other personages of sufficient importance amongst the French should be substituted for Lothaire. Guido, the Bishop of Soissons, offered himself; Hildegarius, Bishop of Beauvais, also; and several knights and nobles were delivered into their hands. When the hostages were received by Hugh at Rouen, lo and behold, the Normans treated Louis fraudently detained le-Grand and the Normans. Gerberga solicits the aid of Edinund the the agreement as null. It was not kept, indeed there had not been any intention of keeping it. Instead of liberating Louis, they merely shifted him from jail to jail. He was given over to Hugh-le-Grand, who had concocted the device, for the purpose which Gerberga and the French, guided by their well-grounded suspicions of his perfidy, had, in some degree, been enabled to countermine. § 36. Heavy were Gerberga's trials. The of France was utterly prostrated; neither Magnifi- help nor succour had she at home, yet Laôn cent. power 945-946 remained to her as a stronghold, and the lion- 942-954 hearted lady, her firm mind unshaken by calamity or misfortune, sought assistance from Anglo-Saxon England and Germany, truly her natural allies, their Kings the kinsmen of her unfortunate Consort and her own. It might have been expected that Ogiva, great Athelstan's daughter, Edmund's sister, the sister equally of pious Editha the German Queen,—Ogiva, who had so boldly rescued the babe Louis at the danger of her life-Ogiva, who had so tenderly trained the boy in her paternal home-Ogiva, who had so wisely counselled her son during the first critical years of his reign, - would No exerhave co-operated earnestly on his behalf. But, by Ogiva on whilst Gerberga's piteous letters are quoted of her son. emphatically, we hear nothing concerning the once active Ogiva. Possibly, the proverbial jealousies between mother-in-law and daughterin-law severed them, even during this season of common affliction; or Ogiva, intent upon her own enjoyments, may have shrunk from any trouble tending to diminish the luxurious ease enjoyed by My Lady Abbess in her Royal Monastery. At all events, Gerberga was left alone in her labour of love, when a dawn of success revived her in her desolation. Edmund the Magnificent seemed destined to effect a complete renovation of the Anglo-Saxon Commonwealth. Mercia, wholly subdued, the tions made the behalf 945-946 942-954 happy contingency of Olave's death had not merely restored Northumbria, but given to the Basileus the whole of England: and, at the same time, the Scottish kings, having acknowledged the supremacy of the English Crown, Edmund's Imperial authority extended over the whole Island. The Anglo-Saxon navy had acquired great efficacy, and Edmund prepared for the rescue of his nephew and foster-brother, employing all the resources of his Realm. promises offends Grand by An embassy therefore was despatched by Edmund to the Duke of all the Gauls, demanding the King's deliverance. Elated by success, Edmund Edmund's message was conveyed in an arrogant help, but tone, injudicious under any circumstances, but Hugh-le gratuitously offensive when addressed to his the haugh- father's friend and a member of the family. Hugh-le-Grand, on his part, was becoming vain and boastful; he retorted in the same spirit: he cared not for the threats of the Englishmen. If the proud English dared attempt the menaced invasion, they might one day have full cause at home to repent them of their audacity. tiness of his tone. This is a memorable passage.-The relations between the Anglo-Saxons and the Gauls had hitherto never been otherwise than very amicable, and the first distinct expression of rivalry between the nations was thus elicited by the communications exchanged between an English King and the father of the Capetian dynasty. But Edmund had no leisure to justify his words, 942-954 for the steel of the malefactor was sharpening 945-946 to shed his blood; and the Sovereign who seemed destined to renovate the Anglo-Saxon Empire, perished in an ignoble scuffle with an outlaw. Otho also Gerberga. §37. Equally encouraging, in the first in- The help of stance, were Gerberga's dealings with Otho, her sought by aspiring brother. He, so sagaciously combinative in his political views, could not, any more than Edmund, be an unconcerned spectator of the events which were occurring in the Gauls. The Danes who had so often invaded the German land were dangerous neighbours. Charlemagne and his successors had often to maintain, and always to expect, hard collisions with them on the Holstein border. Moreover, the advantages which the Norman vassals of Louis had usurped over their Sovereign might be the source of fresh political contagion; the restless Sclavonians, more encouraged to emulate the examples given by the Northmen, and the Magyars stimulated to fiercer enterprises. We may be amused at the uncouth display of geographical ignorance exhibited by Louis, when he figured to himself the Northmen taking refuge beyond the Hungarian marshes. But the error was grounded upon the clear perception of the truth, that a common feeling against Western Christendom subsisted amongst the Barbarian races, who were 942-954 all substantially engaged in the widely-waged conflict. 945-946 Otho was willing to forget his feuds with Louis. Strange in blood to Charlemagne, yet Charlemagne's successor, Otho, assuming Imperial grandeur, enthroned at Aix-la-Chapelle, ruling all Germany, and advancing towards Italy, was now beginning to comport himself as the Protector of France. Possibly, the offer, hinted or made by Gerberga, that the restoration of Louis, if satisfactorily effected, might enable him to requite Otho's friendship by an irrevocable surrender of Lorraine, encreased his desire to assist his brother. But, for the present, Gerberga was disappointed. Much employment was given to Otho at this juncture sist Louis by the unruly Bohemians; grievous trouble fell upon him in consequence of the sainted Editha's death, and the expectations of succour were frustrated. Hugh-le-Grand was therefore fully enabled to avail himself of all the successes he had gained, whether for furthering the cause of the Normans or his own. Throughout these singularly complicated transactions, Hugh-leGrand and the Normans were in partnership, conjointly interested for profit or loss, for fame or shame. Otho un able to as at this juncture. In some degree however, Hugh's position was weakened, and by a cause which no human forethought could have averted. The nefarious |