the common name of Frisons, the same struggle was maintained as
that which formerly existed between the Salians and the Saxons.
Toward the year 700, the French monarchy was torn by anarchy,
and, under "the lazy kings," lost much of its concentrated power;
but every dukedom formed an independent sovereignty, and of all
those that of Brabant was the most redoubtable. Nevertheless
the Frisons, under their king, Radbod, assumed for a moment the
superiority; and Utrecht, where the French had established
Christianity, fell again into the power of the pagans. Charles
Martell, at that time young, and but commencing his splendid
career, was defeated by the hostile king in the forest of the
Ardennes; and though, in subsequent conquests, he took an ample
revenge, Radbod still remained a powerful opponent. It is related
of this fierce monarch that he was converted by a Christian
missionary; but, at the moment in which he put his foot in the
water for the ceremony of baptism, he suddenly asked the priest
where all his old Frison companions in arms had gone after their
death? "To hell," replied the priest. "Well, then," said Radbod,
drawing back his foot from the water, "I would rather go to hell
with them, than to paradise with you and your fellow foreigners!"
and he refused to receive the rite of baptism, and remained a
pagan.

After the death of Radbod, in 719, Charles Martell, now become
duke of the Franks, mayor of the palace, or by whatever other of
his several titles he may be distinguished, finally triumphed over
the long-resisting Frisons. He labored to establish Christianity
among them; but they did not understand the French language, and
the lot of converting them was consequently reserved for the
English. St. Willebrod was the first missionary who met with