prostrate, they varnished their proceedings with the fairest
colors of equity and moderation. ^53 The passes of the Alps, and
the walls of Pavia, were the only defence of the Lombards; the
former were surprised, the latter were invested, by the son of
Pepin; and after a blockade of two years, ^* Desiderius, the last
of their native princes, surrendered his sceptre and his capital.

Under the dominion of a foreign king, but in the possession of
their national laws, the Lombards became the brethren, rather
than the subjects, of the Franks; who derived their blood, and
manners, and language, from the same Germanic origin. ^54

[Footnote *: Gregory I. had been dead above a century; read
Gregory III. - M]

[Footnote 52: See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex
Carolinus, epist iii. p. 92. The enemies of the popes have
charged them with fraud and blasphemy; yet they surely meant to
persuade rather than deceive. This introduction of the dead, or
of immortals, was familiar to the ancient orators, though it is
executed on this occasion in the rude fashion of the age.]

[Footnote 53: Except in the divorce of the daughter of
Desiderius, whom Charlemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimine.
Pope Stephen IV. had most furiously opposed the alliance of a
noble Frank - cum perfida, horrida nec dicenda, foetentissima
natione Longobardorum - to whom he imputes the first stain of
leprosy, (Cod. Carolin. epist. 45, p. 178, 179.) Another reason
against the marriage was the existence of a first wife,
(Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom. vi. p. 232, 233, 236, 237.) But