with a numerous army, and took by storm the strong town of
Carcassone. So great was the terror excited by this invasion, that
the country for a wide extent submitted to the conqueror, and a
Mahometan governor for the province was appointed and installed at
Narbonne. Anbessa, however, received a fatal wound in one of his
engagements, and the Saracens, being thus checked from further
advance, retired to Narbonne.

In 732 the Saracens again invaded France under Abdalrahman,
advanced rapidly to the banks of the Garonne, and laid siege to
Bordeaux. The city was taken by assault and delivered up to the
soldiery. The invaders still pressed forward, and spread over the
territories of Orleans, Auxerre and Sens. Their advanced parties
were suddenly called in by their chief, who had received
information of the rich abbey of St. Martin of Tours, and resolved
to plunder and destroy it.

Charles during all this time had done nothing to oppose the
Saracens, for the reason that the portion of France over which
their incursions had been made was not at that time under his
dominion, but constituted an independent kingdom, under the name
of Aquitaine, of which Eude was king. But now Charles became
convinced of the danger, and prepared to encounter it. Abdalrahman
was advancing toward Tours, when intelligence of the approach of
Charles, at the head of an army of Franks, compelled him to fall
back upon Poitiers, in order to seize an advantageous field of
battle.

Charles Martel had called together his warriors from every part of
his dominions, and, at the head of such an army as had hardly ever