With such a people on his borders, and every day becoming more formidable, what was Charlemagne’s policy?  What was he to do?  The only thing to the eye of that enlightened statesman was to conquer them, if possible, and add their territories to the Frankish Empire.  If left to themselves, they might have conquered the Franks.  It was either anvil or hammer.  There could be no lasting peace in Europe while these barbarians were left to pursue their depredations.  A vigorous warfare was imperative, for, unless subdued, a disadvantageous war would be carried on near the frontiers, until some warrior would arise among them, unite the various chieftains, and lead his followers to successful invasion.  Charlemagne knew that the difficult and unpleasant work of subjugation must be done by somebody, and he was unwilling to leave the work to enervated successors.  The work was not child’s play.  It took him the best part of his life to accomplish it, and amid great discouragements.  Of his fifty-three expeditions, eighteen were against the Saxons.  As soon as he had cut off one head of the monster, another head appeared.  How allegorical of human labor is that old fable of the Hydra!  Where do man’s labors cease?  Charlemagne fought not only amid great difficulties, but perpetual irritations.  The Saxons cheated him; they broke their promises and their oaths.  When beaten, they sued for peace; but the moment his back was turned, they broke out in new insurrections.  The fame of Caesar chiefly rests on his eight campaigns in Gaul.  But Caesar had the disciplined Legions of Rome to fight with.  Charlemagne had no such disciplined troops.  Yet he had as many difficulties to surmount as Caesar,—­rugged forests to penetrate, rapid rivers to cross, morasses to avoid, and mountains to climb.  It is a very difficult thing to subdue even savages who are desperate, determined, and united.

Charlemagne fought the Saxons for thirty-three years.  Though he never lost a battle, they still held out.  At first he was generous and forgiving, for he was more magnanimous than Caesar; but they could not be won by kindness.  He was obliged to change his course, and at last was as summary as Oliver Cromwell in Ireland.  He is even accused of cruelties.  But war in the hands of masters has no quarter to give, and no tears to shed.  It was necessary to conquer the Saxons, and Charlemagne used the requisite means.  Sometimes the harshest measures will most speedily effect the end.  Did our fathers ever dream of compromise with treacherous and hostile Indians?  War has a horrid maxim,—­that “nothing is so successful as success.”  Charlemagne, at last, was successful.  The Saxons were so completely subdued at the end of thirty-three years, that they never molested civilized Europe again.  They became civilized, like the once invading Celts and Goths; and they even embraced the religion of the conquerors.  They became ultimately the best