But the preparations of the ceremony must have disclosed the secret; and the journey of Charlemagne reveals his knowledge and expectation: he had acknowledged that the Imperial title was the object of his ambition, and a Roman synod had pronounced, that it was the only adequate reward of his merit and services.

[94] [Footnote 89: His merits and hopes are summed up in an epitaph of thirty-eight-verses, of which Charlemagne declares himself the author, (Concil.tom.viii.p.

520.) Post patrem lacrymans Carolus haec carmina scripsi.

Tu mihi dulcis amor, te modo plango pater...

Nomina jungo simul titulis, clarissime, nostra Adrianus, Carolus, rex ego, tuque pater.