new long throud hanging down to his feet, all ready for the fire: Oh! be you there, faid Ridley? Yes, returns Latimer, have after you as fast as I can follow. After a fhort fermon was finished, by Dr. Smith, which they were not allowed to anfwer, they were commanded to make them ready. Ridley diftributed his apparel, and other things he had about him, to those who stood by. Latimer gave nothing, but fuffered his keeper to pull off all his dress but his fhroud, in which he, who before seemed a withered crooked old man, negligent of himself, now roused to play the man, food bolt upright, and appeared a venerable comely perfon. A large iron chain being brought round the middles of the two martyrs, "Good fellow," faid Ridley, shaking the chain, to the fmith who was driving the staple, "knock it in hard, for the flesh will have its courfe." After fome time they brought a faggot ready kindled, and laid it at Ridley's feet, to whom Latimer faid, "Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man. We fhall this day light fuch a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I truft fhall never be put out." When the fire began to flame, Latimer received it as it were embracing him; then cried out in earneft devotion; and after having ftroked his face with his hand, he

foon died, to all appearance with little or no pain. On the other fide, the fire had been so ill managed by piling too many faggots, that it burnt only beneath him; which, when Ridley felt, he defired them for Chrift's fake to let it come to him. His brother, not understanding the reafon of his requeft, with an ill-advifed kindnefs, heaped upon him more faggots, which made the fire, fmoothering below, fo intenfe, that it burned all the lower parts of his body before it touched the vital. This made him leap up and down under the faggots, and often to defire them to let the fire come to him, saying, "I cannot burn:" which indeed appeared too true; for after his legs were confumed, he fhewed his fide next to the fpectators, clear, shirt and all, untouched with flame. Thus he continued, till one of the ftandersby, with his bill, pulled off the faggots above; and where the tortured martyr faw the fire flame up, he wrefted himself to that fide. When the flame touched a bag of gunpowder that had been tied to his neck, he was feen to ftir no more; and, either from the chain loofing, or by the overpoife of his body, after his legs were confumed, fell over the chain' down at Latimer's feet."

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T the opening of the fucceeding year, the emperor fent to Pavia, and held there an affembly of the states of Lombardy, in which he received the homage and oaths of fidelity of all the prelates and great lords in that kingdom. There was, however, one thing that made him ftill uneafy; his nephew and predeceffor had left an only daughter in the care of the duke of Frioul, and he was very apprehenfive, that fome Greek prince, by efpoufing her, might fet up a title to the kingdom of Italy at leaft; and, to prevent this, he could think of no better expedient than to advife Bofon, whofe fifter he had married, to carry away this young princefs, and efpoufe her by force. This done, he affected to be exceedingly difpleafed with the ravifher, and to threaten him with the fevereft punishment; but, as foon as he perceived that the action was not fo ill taken as he expected, he fuffered himself to be appealed; and, that his brother-in-law might in fome meafure appear worthy of fo illuftrious a confort, he created him duke of Lombardy, and left him his viceroy in Italy. In the mean time, Lewis king of Germany, had invaded France in his abfence, penetrated as far as Champagne, and had committed divers devastations; but hearing that Charles was returning from Italy with a great army, and that the Pope was unalterably attached to his intereft, he retired into his own dominions; where he continued to make great military July, 1763.

preparations, tho' at the fame time he did not neglect to make overtures of accommodation. His new title had a great effect on the mind of Charles the Bald; he appeared almost always in the Greek habit, and with the enfigns of imperial dignity; treated his fubjects, ecclefiaftics as well as laics, with great haughtiness; and, in conjunction with the Pope, fought to leffen the authority of the prelates in his dominions, though he had more than once ftood indebted to them for the prefervation of his own. By the acceffion of Italy to the rest of his dominions he was certainly become more powerful than his brother Lewis, yet he was very apprehensive of being attacked by that prince; who was not only an able ftatef man and a great general, but had alfo a ftrong party amongst the French nobility. However, he was delivered from all thefe fears by the death of that monarch; who, of all the defcendants of Charlemagne, refembled him most. His dominions, in pursuance of a partition made four years before in a general dyet, were divided in the following manner; Carloman had Bavaria, Bohemia, Carinthia, Sclavonia, Auftria, and part of Hungary. Franconia, Saxony, Frifia, Thuringia, the Lower Lorrain, together with Cologne, and the cities on the Rhine, fell to Lewis. All the country between the Maine and the Alps was the lot of Charles. In modern hiftory, Carloman is generally ftiled king of Bavaria, Lewis

of Germany, and Charles the Grofs, or the Fat, of Almain. The emperor had no fooner intelligence of this, than, fuppofing that these brethren would fail out amongst themselves, he marched with a great army, in order to feize that part of Lorrain which he had yielded to his brother, and which he pretended ought to revert to him upon his decease. The scheme was well imagined, but the emperor found himfelf mistaken; the brothers lived in perfect unity, and though Lewis, king of Germany, fent ambafiadors to intreat his uncle not to attack his dominions, yet he paffed the Rhine at the fame time with an army to offer battle. Charles the Bald had fifty thousand men, his nephew was far inferior in number; but having caused the village that was before his camp to be occupied by a great body of infantry, who made an obftinate defence, and, when they were at laft forced, Charles thought the victory fecure; but as his forces advanced in much diforder, Lewis attacked them in flank with his ca

valry, and defeated them 876 totally with great carnage.

This lofs, and the news that the Normans were come up the Seine with a numerous fleet, and a great body of troops on board, obliged Charles to turn his eyes on that fide, and to leave his nephews quiet. Thefe difappointments affected him fo much, that he fell dangerously ill, and was, with great difficulty, recovered.

The Pope being at this time befet with enemies, and depending folely on the emperor's protection, preffed him vehemently to enter Italy with an army, though he knew he was but just recovered from a

pleurify, which had brought him to the very brink of the grave. Charles, whofe interefts were closely connected. with those of the pontiff, yielded to his intreaties. But before he left France, he held, in the month of July, an affembly of the nobility and prelates, to concert the pro per measures for the defence of his dominions, and for the maintenance of their tranquillity in his abfence. He made choice of his only fon Lewis for regent, and fixed a proper council about him. He gave the command of his numerous army to duke Bofon, his emprefs's brother, abbot Hugo, Bernard count of Auvergne, and Bernard marquis of Languedoc; when he had done this, he fet out with the empress, who had a moft magnificent equipage, and, with a small corps of troops, which ought rather to be, efteemed an escorte than an army, paffed the Alps, and marched directly towards Rome. The Pope, to fhew his affection, came as far as Pavia to meet him; but they had fcarce conferred together before they had news, that Carloman, king of Bavaria, had entered Italy. with a very numerous army, claiming the imperial dignity and the kingdom of Italy, in virtue of the late emperor's will. Upon this the emperor Charles repaffed the Po, and returned to Tortona, where the Pope crowned the emprefs. The defign of Charles was to wait for his .army; but the four lords, who commanded it, entered into a confpiracy, and refufed to pafs the Alps; and on this news the empress retired to Morienne, and the Pope fled to Rome. In the prefent critical juncture of affairs, the emperor judged it moft expedient to return

into France; and, what is very extraordinary, his nephew Carloman, on a falfe rumour that all the French forces had paffed the mountains, retired precipitately into his own dominions. Charles, having joined the empress at Morienne, felt a return of his distemper, notwithstanding which he prosecuted his retreat; but a Jew phyfician, whofe name was Zedechias, having given him poison, he felt himself fo ill that he was obliged to stop at a village called Brios; where the emprefs found him in a miserable cottage, and where he breathed his laft, on the fixth of October, in the fecond year of his empire, the thirty-eighth of his reign, and the fifty-fourth of his age. His body was embalmed, with intent to carry it to the abby of St. Denis; but the poifon he had taken <corrupted it in fuch a manner, that they were forced to enter it by the way however, his bones was afterwards carried thither, or, at least, it is certain, that a tomb erected to his memory is extant in that 877 convent. He appointed, by an inftrument, his only fon his fucceffor, and fent him by the emprefs his crown, his word, and other enfigns, as well of the imperial as regal dignity, in token of his defire that he should poffefs both.

As foon as Lewis, the fon of the deceafed emperor, who, from an impediment in his speech, had the furname of Stammerer, received the news of his death, he left the frontiers, in order to meet the emprefs, and the great lords who came out of Italy, at St. Denis. As he was fenfible of the exorbitant power of the nobility and clergy, he thought to fecure the tranquillity of his reign, by attaching to his intereft

fuch as were about his perfon; and therefore he diftributed lands, honours, governments, abbies, and other preferments, with a profufion that evidently discovered his fear, much more than his affection for thofe on whom he bestowed them. But for certain caufes, with which he was acquainted on the road, he turned afide to Compiegne. The emprefs, on her return from Italy, joined with the malcontents, who affected to make it a crime in Lewis that he had given away fo many pofts before he was inaugurated; but the real offence was, that they were afraid of not having their fhare: however, after mature deliberation, they held it the best expedient to come in and take what was left. Accordingly the empress delivered up the inftrument and the enfigns of royalty, which had been committed to her care; and, in the beginning of December, the king was crowned by Hincmar, archbishop of Rheins. The Pope made as great a ftand as he was able in favour of the new king, in hopes of having him elected in the place of his father; but being oppofed by the duke of Spoleto, and the marquis of Tufcany, he abandoned Rome, and went by fea into France. He was received there with all poffible respect, and, on the thirteenth of Auguft, opened a council at Troies, where many canons were made in fupport of the epifcopal power; the first of them is too remarkable to be paffed over in filence: all fecular powers are commanded, under pain of excommunication, to pay bifhops proper refpects, and all perfons, of what dignity foever, are forbid to fit in their prefence without their permision. X x 2

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