CHAPTER LII: More Conquests By The Arabs .-- Part II.
Constantinople and the Greek fire might exclude the Arabs from the eastern entrance of Europe; but in the West, on the side of the Pyrenees, the provinces of Gaul were threatened and invaded by the conquerors of Spain.

The decline of the French monarchy invited the attack of these insatiate fanatics.

The descendants of Clovis had lost the inheritance of his martial and ferocious spirit; and their misfortune or demerit has affixed the epithet of _lazy_ to the last kings of the Merovingian race.

They ascended the throne without power, and sunk into the grave without a name.

A country palace, in the neighborhood of Compiegne was allotted for their residence or prison: but each year, in the month of March or May, they were conducted in a wagon drawn by oxen to the assembly of the Franks, to give audience to foreign ambassadors, and to ratify the acts of the mayor of the palace.
That domestic officer was become the minister of the nation and the master of the prince.