free spirit which had so long inspired them, the chiefs and people
listened with approval to his burning words, seized their arms, and flew
again to war. The priests were expelled from the country, the churches
they had built demolished, the castles erected by the Frank monarch
taken and destroyed, and the country was laid waste up to the walls of
Cologne, its Christian inhabitants being exterminated.

But unyielding as Wittekind was, his great antagonist was equally
resolute and persistent. When he had finished his work with the Arabs,
he returned to Saxony with his whole army, fought a battle in 779 in the
dry bed of the Eder, and in 780 defeated Wittekind and his followers in
two great battles, completely disorganizing and discouraging the Saxon
bands, and again bringing the whole country under his control. This
accomplished, he stationed himself in their country, built numerous
fortresses upon the Elbe, and spent the summer of 780 in missionary
work, gaining a multitude of converts among the seemingly subdued
barbarians. The better to make them content with his rule he treated
them with great kindness and affability, and sent among them
missionaries of their own race, being the hostages whom he had taken in
previous years, and who had been educated in monasteries. All went well,
the Saxons were to all appearance in a state of peaceful satisfaction,
and Charles felicitated himself that he had finally added Saxony to his
empire.

He deceived himself sadly. He did not know the spirit of the free-born
Saxons, or the unyielding perseverance of their patriotic leader. In the
silent depths of their forests, and in the name of their ancient gods,
they vowed destruction to the invading Franks, and branded as traitors
all those who professed Christianity except as a stratagem to deceive
their powerful enemy. Entertaining no suspicion of the true state of