[Footnote 102: Eginhard (c. 25, p. 119) clearly affirms,
tentabat et scribere ... sed parum prospere successit labor
praeposterus et sero inchoatus. The moderns have perverted
and corrected this obvious meaning, and the title of M.
Gaillard's dissertation (tom. iii. p. 247 - 260) betrays his
partiality. Note: This point has been contested; but Mr.
Hallam and Monsieur Sismondl concur with Gibbon. See Middle
Ages, iii. 330 Histoire de Francais, tom. ii. p. 318. The
sensible observations of the latter are quoted in the
Quarterly Review, vol. xlviii. p. 451. Fleury, I may add,
quotes from Mabillon a remarkable evidence that Charlemagne
"had a mark to himself like an honest, plain-dealing man."
Ibid. - M.]