The diamond, set in a gold ring of exquisite workmanship, Charlemagne presented to his wife, the beautiful Fastrada.  But besides being a thing of beauty and of great value, the diamond was also a charm, for whoever received it from another received with it a wealth of personal affection.  So was it with Charlemagne and Fastrada.  On presenting the ring to his wife the Emperor straightway conceived for her a passion far more intense than he had hitherto experienced.  From that time to the day of her death he was her devoted slave, blind and deaf to all her faults.  Nay, even when she died, he refused to quit the room in which she lay, or permit the interment of her body; refused to see the approach of corruption, which spares not youth or loveliness; seemed, in short, to have lost all count of the passage of time in his grief for the beloved Fastrada.  At length he was approached by Turpin, Archbishop of Rheims, who had learnt, by occult means, the reason for the Emperor’s strange infatuation.  Going up to the dead Empress, he withdrew from her mouth a large diamond.  At the same moment Charlemagne regained his senses, made arrangements for the burial of his wife, and left for the Castle of Frankenstein.

The possessor of the ring was now the worthy archbishop, and to him the magically inspired affections of Charlemagne were transferred, much to the good man’s annoyance.  To rid himself of the unwelcome attentions and fulsome flatteries of his sovereign, he cast the ring into the lake which surrounded the castle.  Once more the Emperor’s affections changed their object, and this time it was the town of Aix-la-Chapelle with which he fell in love, and for which he retained a firm attachment all through his life, finally directing that he should be buried there.  And so he was laid to rest in that wondrous old town in the church of St. Mary.  In the year 1000 his tomb was opened by the Emperor Otto III, but the account that Otto found the body seated upon a throne with crown on head and sceptre in hand is generally regarded as legendary.  The sarcophagus was once more opened by Frederick I in 1165, when the remains were transferred from the princely marble where they had hitherto rested and placed in a wooden coffin.  Fifty years later, however, Frederick II had them placed in a splendid shrine.  The original sarcophagus may still be seen at Aix, and the royal relics are exhibited every six years.

Louis, Charlemagne’s son, lived to see the division of his Empire, brought about through his own weakness.  His fair provinces were ravaged by the Danes and the Normans.  Teuton and Frank were now for ever separated.  Twice during Louis’ reign his own sons dethroned him, but on his death in 840 the Empire became more firmly established.

Lothair I (840-855) succeeded to the imperial title, while Germany fell to the lot of his brother Louis.  Charles the Bald ruled over France.  Lothair’s portion was limited to Lorraine, Burgundy, Switzerland, and Italy.  Civil strife broke out, but Louis retained the whole of Germany with the provinces on the left bank of the Rhine.  Louis II (856-875) ascended the throne as Roman Emperor, but died without any male issue, while Charles the Fat, who succeeded him, was removed from the throne by order of the Church on account of his insanity.