The career of this latter prince has generally been regarded as merely a
romantic episode in European history. Scott has painted it in vivid
colors in two of his most brilliant fictions,--"Quentin Durward," and
"Anne of Geierstein." But, perhaps from this very notion in regard to
its lack of historical importance, the reality has never been depicted
in fulness or with detail, except in M. de Barante's elegant
_rifacimento_ of the French chroniclers of the fifteenth century. That
the subject was, however, one of a very different character has been
apparent to the scholars in France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland,
who during the last twenty years have made it a special object of their
researches. A stronger light has been thrown upon every part of it, and
an entirely new light upon many portions. Charles has assumed his
rightful position, as the "Napoleon of the Middle Ages," whose ambition
and whose fall exercised, a powerful influence on the destinies of the
principal European states.
But the labors through which this has been accomplished are as yet
unknown to the general mass of readers. The results lie scattered in
quarters difficult of access, and in forms that repel rather than
attract the glance.
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