It is a marked sign of the times, that the Jews ventured to appeal to the king against this exercise of the bishop’s authority. Louis sent three commissioners to Lyons to inquire into the matter, who decided against the bishop. Mortified and astonished, he preferred fresh charges against the Jews, and when these also failed of their effect, himself repaired to Paris, and demanded a personal interview with the emperor; it was all in vain. He was refused an audience, informed that the emperor had dismissed his appeal, and was ordered to return to his diocese! We can hardly believe that this took place in a country which, two centuries before, had seen Jews forcibly dragged to the font for baptism, and, three centuries afterwards, witnessed their forcible expulsion from the country, for no other offence than that of their national existence. Under Louis’s successor, Charles the Bald, the Jews still continued to enjoy immunity from the persecution; but signs were not wanting that this state of things was not long to endure. Remegius, Bishop of Lyons, following up with more success the efforts of Agobard, caused—we are not told by what means—so many Jewish boys and girls to be brought to baptism, that the parents were fain to send their children to be educated in Arles and other cities. Following up his advantage, Remegius petitioned the emperor that the Bishop of Arles might be admonished to pursue the same course as himself. It would appear that Charles granted this request, for we are informed that great numbers of Jewish children were now baptized. Not long afterwards he is said to have been poisoned by his Jewish physician, Zedekias, who was believed to have been incited to the murder by his countrymen. Whether this is true or not must be regarded as a doubtful matter. It was certainly a most fatal as well as a most wicked policy, if it was really adopted. The effect of the death of Charles was to break up the existing authority in France. The strong hand which upheld the law was withdrawn. Disorder and anarchy ensued, from which none suffered so much as the Jews. Popular rumours accused them of secretly abetting the inroads of the Normans, from which the country now began seriously to suffer. It was urged that when the invaders overran districts and sacked cities, the Jews alone escaped injury. This was possibly due to the same causes which had exempted them from suffering during the incursions of the Goths and Huns and other Northern nations, and which have been adverted to in a previous chapter. But, however that may be, it was believed that they were secretly in league with the Northmen, and they became in consequence everywhere the objects of popular execration and attack. At Beziers, in Languedoc, it became the practice every year to drive them about with volleys of stone, from Palm Sunday to Tuesday in Easter Week. During the feeble reigns of Louis II., III., and IV., Lothair,