406 CONQUEST OF AFRICA AND SPAIN. 



addincr to the faith of the Koran whatever yet re- 

 mained unsubdued of France or of Europe^ Having 

 suDcressed the domestic insurrection of Munuza, a 

 Srish chief, who had accepted the alliance and 

 the daughter of Eudes, Abdalrahman, at the head 

 of a formidable host, traversed the Pyienee^s and 

 hastened without delay to the passage of the Rhone 

 and thtsiege of Aries. The Christians at empted 

 ?herehef of the city; but they were routed with 

 severe loss Many thousands of their dead bodies 

 were caSed down the stream to the Mediterranean ; 

 Tnd the tombs of their leaders were still visible in the 



'^W?slS.\XtheWess of Abdalrahman was not 

 lesrsuccessful. He Jassed, without opposition, the 

 GSonS'S the Dar^dogne but ^^e found beyond 

 these rivers the intrepid Eudes, who had formed a 

 second army. After a bold resistance the duke sus 

 tained another defeat, so very fatal Jo the Christians 

 that, according to the confession of I^^f^^,^' ^^^^^^ 

 of Badaios, God alone could reckon the number ol 

 Se slain From Bordeaux the impetuous Saracens 

 overrai the provinces of Aquitaine, whose GaUic 

 nimes are disguised rather than lost m the modern 



SpTellat'ons o'f Perigord, ^ffirnJ^l^^Tes 

 Tours and Sens were compelled to 0P^"/,^f",f^^^^^ 

 to the conqueror, while detachments of his troops 

 oversprerd\he kingdom of Burgundy as far as the 

 rities of Lyons and Besangon. 



Everywhere the track of the invaders wasmaAed 

 wi?h fiS and sword ; ^o^ Abdalrahman spare^^^^^^^^ 

 the comitrv nor the inhabitants. The memory oi 

 SLe devlltations (to use the rapid and glown^ J^a- 

 rative of Gibbon) was long preserved by tradition , 

 Ind the invasion of France by ^be Moors or Moham- 

 mPdans affords the groundwork of those tables, 



wS have been so w&ly d^^Af -^ m ^^^^^HSu 

 uf chivalry, and so elegantly f omed by the It^ an 

 muse. In the decline of society and art the desertea 



