Note 59 — THE BRITISH QUARTERLY JANUARY 1871 (continued 4)

Ann. Prud. Trec. 857: 'Dani Sequanæ insistentes cuncta libere vastant, Lutetiamque Parisiorum adgressi, basilicam beati Petri et sanctæ Genovefæ incendunt et ceteras omnes, præter domum sancti Stephani et ecclesiam sancti Vincentii atque Germani præterque ecclesiam sancti Dionysii, pro quibus tantummodo, ne incenderentur, multa solidorum summa soluta est.' Sir Francis Palgrave (i. 439,464) gives a vivid picture of this sack of Paris. Of Saint Denis he adds: 'Saint Denis made a bad bargain. The Northmen did not hold to their contract, or another company of pirates did not consider it as binding: the Monastery was burnt to a shell, and a most heavy ransom paid for the liberation of Abbot Lewis, Charlemagne's grandson, by his daughter Rothaida.' Sir Francis, as usual, gives no reference; but we may be sure that he could, if he had pleased, have given one for the burning of the Monastery as well as for the capture of the Abbot, which the Annals mention under the next year, though not in connection with the sack of Paris.