Chapter 1 - Page 2

Spain had made incursions into France in 712 and 718, and had retired,
carrying with them a vast booty. In 725, Anbessa, who was then the
Saracen governor of Spain, crossed the Pyrenees 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 dominion, and, at the head of such an army as had hardly ever been
seen in France, crossed the Loire, probably at Orleans, and, being
joined by the remains of the army of Aquitaine, came in sight of the
Arabs in the month of October, 732. The Saracens seem to have been
aware of the terrible enemy they were now to encounter, and for the
first time these formidable conquerors hesitated. The two armies
remained in presence during seven days before either ventured to begin
the attack; but at length the signal for battle was given by
Abdalrahman, and the immense mass of the Saracen army rushed with fury
on the Franks. But the heavy line of the Northern warriors remained
like a rock, and the Saracens, during nearly the whole day, expended
their strength in vain attempts to make an impression upon them. At
length, about four o'clock in the afternoon, when Abdalrahman was
preparing for a new and desperate attempt to break the line of the
Franks, a terrible clamor was heard in the rear of the Saracens. It
was King Eude,