Excerpt from A History of Charles the Great (Charlemagne) The material is very copious, and its collection and study have entailed much expenditure in time, labor, and money. It would have been easier to present the subject in three volumes than confine it to the limits of only one volume. But regard for the patience of the reader and prudential reasons dictated the necessity of adopting the shorter form. I have not followed the strictly chronological order of events, but grouped under appropriate heads the most im portant transactions of the long reign of Charles, trusting that by this plan prolixity has been avoided, and the inter est of the narrative kept up, so that, without sacrificing accu racy, a clearer and more philosophical view of the whole period, and its grand central figure, might be gained. The Chronological Annals, however, which precede the narrative, spread the precise sequence of events before the reader. By far the greater portion of the matter presented appears for the first time in English, and much of it I have not seen in any living tongue. The bulk of this volume is his tory, although legend, tradition, anecdote, and poetry have been introduced sparingly as serving to throw life, variety, and color into the picture. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.