Then Abderahman, the Saracen commander, dividing his forces into two columns, with one on the east passed the Rhone, and laid siege to Arles.

A Christian army, attempting the relief of the place, was defeated with heavy loss.
His western column, equally successful, passed the Dordogne, defeated another Christian army, inflicting on it such dreadful loss that, according to its own fugitives, "God alone could number the slain." All Central France was now overrun; the banks of the Loire were reached; the churches and monasteries were despoiled of their treasures; and the tutelar saints, who had worked so many miracles when there was no necessity, were found to want the requisite power when it was so greatly needed.
The progress of the invaders was at length stopped by Charles Martel (A.D.

732).

Between Tours and Poictiers, a great battle, which lasted seven days, was fought.

Abderahman was killed, the Saracens retreated, and soon afterward were compelled to recross the Pyrenees.
The banks of the Loire, therefore, mark the boundary of the Mohammedan advance in Western Europe.