LOUIS THE PIOUS 29

February 819 Louis married the daughter of a man of noble

descent, Count Welf, owner of wide lands in Alemannia and
Bavaria. Her name was Judith. She was not only of a rare loveliness, but she delighted all at Court by her charm, her quick mind,
her friendly welcome. Her fervor for religion was only second
to that of Louis himself. Above all, as wife and Empress she
seemed entirely ready to follow the political and religious ideals
of her husband. To Louis she seemed perfect; his constant joy
from this time onward was to do her pleasure.
As years went on, he needed comfort. In 821 death took
from him his beloved counselor and guide, Benedict of Aniane.
To this loss was added worry. His conscience for long had been
pricking him hard as he thought of that torture which he had
ordered for his nephew Bernard, of the banishment which he
had brought about for his cousins Adalard and Wala, men who
had been so strong to support his father's hands and who were so
devoted to their country. Remorse led to action. In this same
year, 821, in the midst of the applause which rang through his
Palace at Thionville, some twenty miles from Metz, when his son
and co-Emperor, Lothar, took as bride the daughter of Hugh,
Count of Tours, Louis declared a pardon for those concerned in
the rebellion of Bernard of Italy; a recall of Adalard from
Noirmoutier to the abbey of Corbie; and an invitation to Wala.
Would Wala, Louis now sent word, would Wala attend henceforward once again the Frankish Court as he had done in the days
of the Emperor Charles the Great?
Even this penitence was not enough. His bishops, Louis
knew, were insisting that in those acts against his nephew and
the nobles of his Court he had done dishonor to his sacred dedication as king and Emperor. The imperialist leaders, those who
longed for the hand of a man like his father at the helm of state,
were also full of wrath at his treatment of Wala. Wala himself and
his brother Adalard were waiting for a more open sign of apology
for the affront shown to them, kinsmen of the Emperor.
To all this feeling Louis fell an easy victim. Soon a growing
consciousness of guilt, fostered by his spiritual counselors, compelled him to yield. In 822, at Attigny on the Aisne, where the
conquered Saxon chieftain Widukind had bowed his head for