CONQUEST OF AFRICA AND SPAIN. 409 



and after a bloody field the Saracens retired in the 

 close of the evening to their tents. In the confusion 

 and despair of the night, the motley tribes of Yemen, 

 Syria, Africa, and Spain were provoked to turn their 

 arms against each other. The remains of their host 

 Avere suddenly dissolved, and each leader consulted 

 his safety by a hasty and separate retreat. At the 

 dawn of day, the stillness of the enemy's camp was 

 suspected by the victorious Christians ; but the 

 report of their spies dispelled these apprehensions, 

 and they ventured to explore the riches of the de- 

 serted tents. The joyful tidings were soon diffused 

 over the Catholic world, and formed a theme for 

 exercising the fancies of the credulous. We are 

 told of three consecrated and miraculous sponges, 

 which rendered invulnerable the French soldiers 

 among whom they had been shared ; and the monks 

 of Italy are made to affirm that no fewer than 

 375,000 of the Mohammedans had been crushed by 

 the hammer of Charles, while only 1500 Christians 

 were slain.* The victory of the Franks at Tours 

 was complete and final. Aquitaine was recovered 

 by the arms of Eudes. ' The Arabs never resumed 

 the conquest of Gaul ; and they were soon driven 

 entirely beyond the Pyrenees by Pepin, the son of 

 Charles, who in the year 759 dispossessed them of 

 Languedoc, Provence, and other parts in the south 

 of France. 



* Gibbon sarcastically records this erroneous computation ; 

 but had he chosen to examine or cite the original French au- 

 thorities, he might have discovered that the mistake of the 

 Itahan chroniclers, Paul Warnefrid and Anastasius, arose from 

 their substituting the entire number of the Saracen amiy for that 

 of the slain. The words of John de Montreuil are "385 millia 

 Macometicos in fugam consertit." The services of Charles Mar- 

 tel in rescuing Christendom were but indifferently rewarded at 

 last, if we may believe the legendary annals of the times, which 

 affirmed that his corpse was most miserably dragged out of the 

 grave by wicked spirits, while his immortal part was consigned 

 to damnation, because he had appropriated great part of the 

 tithe to pay his soldiers.— Tiaror,. Anna!. Eccles. A. D. 741 



\'oL. l".r~M m 



