It was natural that Frankland, with its numerous large rivers flowing into the ocean and leading through fertile valleys dotted with towns and rich abbeys, should early have attracted the marauders; and in fact they made their appearance there as early as the year 800. Before the end of Charlemagne's reign they had pillaged Frisia, and a monkish writer of the time tells us that upon one occasion the great Emperor burst into tears and declared that he was overwhelmed with sorrow as he looked forward and saw what evils they would bring upon his offspring and people. Whether or not this story is true, certain it is that before the ninth century was far advanced incursions of the barbarians--"the heathen," as the chroniclers generally call them--had come to be almost annual events. In 841 Rouen was plundered and burned; in 843 Nantes was besieged, the bishop killed, and many captives carried off; in 845 the invaders appeared at Paris and were prevented from attacking the place only by being bribed; and so the story goes, until by 846 we find the annalists beginning their melancholy record of the year's events with the matter-of-course statement that, "according to their custom," the Northmen plundered such and such a region [see p. 159]. Below are a few passages taken from the Annals of Saint-Bertin, the poem of Abbo on the siege of Paris, and the Chronicle of Saint-Denys, which show something of the character of the Northmen's part in early French history, first as mere invaders and afterwards as permanent settlers. The Annals of Saint-Bertin are so called because they have been copied from an old manuscript found in the monastery of that name. The period which they cover is 741-882. Several writers evidently had a hand in their compilation. The portion between the dates 836 and 861 is attributed to Prudence, bishop of Troyes, and that between 861 and 882 to Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims. Abbo, the author of the second selection given below, was a monk of St. Germain des Pres, at Paris. He wrote a poem in which he undertook to give an account of the siege of Paris by the Northmen in 885 and 886, and of the struggles of the Frankish people with the invaders to the year 896. As literature the poem has small value, but for the historian it possesses some importance. The account of Rollo's conversion comes from a history of the Normans written in the twelfth century by William of Jumieges. The work covers the period 851-1137, its earlier portions (to 996) being based on an older history written by Dudo, dean of St. Quentin, in the eleventh century. The Chronicle of St.-Denys was composed at a later time and served to preserve most of the history recorded by Dudo and William of Jumieges. Sources--(a) _Annales Bertiniani_ ["Annals of St. Bertin"]. Text in _Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores_ (Pertz ed.), Vol. I., pp. 439-454.