Ill] AND HISTORIC TIMES 333 



fresh bands swarmed over the Pyrenees, and Eudes, pressed hard, 

 had to purchase peace from one of the Saracen captains, by name 

 Munuza, by giving him his daughter Lampagie in marriage. 

 But this only gained him a short respite, for Munuza was soon 

 defeated by Abdalrahman, a chieftain of the Spanish Sara- 

 cens, who in his turn invaded Aquitania. Eudes was involved 

 in war against the invincible Charles, now head of all the 

 Franks, at the moment that he was threatened in the south 

 by the common enemy of all Christendom. His army was 

 annihilated before Bordeaux, and the Moslems reduced that 

 city to ashes. Aquitania was ravaged and its people mas- 

 sacred. In this sore strait Eudes determined to submit to 

 Charles rather than to the infidel, and he betook himself to the 

 Court of the former, acknowledged him as his suzerain, and 

 asked for and obtained the aid of the Franks. Charles roused 

 all the warriors of Neustria, Austrasia, and Western Germany. 

 His appeal met with a hearty response, and men flocked to join 

 his standards. On the plains of Poictiers in October, 732, the 

 Franks met the Saracen host. For seven days the armies 

 watched each other without joining battle. At last the Moslems 

 drew up in battle array on the plain, and Abdalrahman's cavalry, 

 mounted on the light, swift horses of Barbary, commenced the 

 fray by a rain of arrows, and then poured down like a whirlwind 

 on the Teutonic host. The Franks, large of limb and clad in mail, 

 sat immovable on their northern horses, which were of a heavier 

 build than those of their foes, and opposed a compact and 

 unbroken front to the repeated charges of the Saracens. Then 

 a war-cry was heard in the rear of the Moslem army, for Eudes 

 and his Aquitanians had turned the enemy's flank, and fired 

 their camp. To meet this sudden danger part of the Saracens 

 wheeled round, and thus their line became broken and dis- 

 ordered. Charles ordered his men to advance, and the men-at- 

 arms of Germany fell upon the light Saracen horsemen, and 

 mowed them down with their battle-axes and huge swords. 

 Abdalrahman fell in a vain attempt to rally his troops 1 . 

 Night alone stayed the slaughter. When the sun rose, nought 



1 Isidor. Pac. c. 59 : gens Austriae mole membrorum praevalida et ferrea 

 manu perardue pectorabiliter ferientes regem inventum exanimant. 



