[53] The passes of the Alps, and the walls of Pavia, were the only defence of the Lombards; the former were surprised, the latter were invested, by the son of Pepin; and after a blockade of two years, [531] Desiderius, the last of their native princes, surrendered his sceptre and his capital.
Under the dominion of a foreign king, but in the possession of their national laws, the Lombards became the brethren, rather than the subjects, of the Franks; who derived their blood, and manners, and language, from the same Germanic origin.

[54] [Footnote 511: Gregory I.had been dead above a century; read Gregory III .-- M] [Footnote 52: See this most extraordinary letter in the Codex Carolinus, epist iii.p.92.The enemies of the popes have charged them with fraud and blasphemy; yet they surely meant to persuade rather than deceive.
This introduction of the dead, or of immortals, was familiar to the ancient orators, though it is executed on this occasion in the rude fashion of the age.] [Footnote 53: Except in the divorce of the daughter of Desiderius, whom Charlemagne repudiated sine aliquo crimine.

Pope Stephen IV.

had most furiously opposed the alliance of a noble Frank--cum perfida, horrida nec dicenda, foetentissima natione Longobardorum--to whom he imputes the first stain of leprosy, (Cod.Carolin.epist.45, p.

178, 179.) Another reason against the marriage was the existence of a first wife, (Muratori, Annali d'Italia, tom.vi.p.232, 233, 236, 237.) But Charlemagne indulged himself in the freedom of polygamy or concubinage.] [Footnote 531: Of fifteen months.