Throughout the summer of 897 they continued their ravages along the banks of the Seine while Odo does not appear at all. Finally he was roused from his inaction, but only to negotiate, to "redeem his kingdom." He actually left the Northmen free to go and winter on the Loire! Thus gradually even Odo had shewn himself incapable of bridling them; at first he had successfully resisted them, then, though watching them narrowly, he had been unable to surprise them, and had suffered himself to be defeated by them; finally, he looked on indifferently at their plunderings, and confined himself to bribing them to depart, and diverting them to other parts of the kingdom.
Such was the situation when Odo died, and Charles the Simple was universally recognised as king. The Northmen pillaged Aquitaine and pillaged Neustria, but Charles remained unmoved. Another party went up the Somme, and this was a direct menace to the Carolingian's own possessions. He therefore gathered an army and repulsed the pirates, who fell back into Brittany (898). At the end of that year they invaded Burgundy, burning the monasteries and slaughtering the inhabitants. Charles made no sign, but left it to the Duke of Burgundy, Richard, to rid himself of them as best he might. Richard, indeed, put them to flight, but allowed them to carry their ravages elsewhere. In 903 other Northern bands, led by Eric and Baret, ascended the Loire as far as Tours and burnt the suburbs of the town; in 910 they pillaged Berry and killed the Archbishop of Bourges; in 911 they besieged Chartres, the king still paying no attention. These facts are significant; evidently the king gives up the idea of defending the kingdom as a whole, and leaves it to each individual to cope with his difficulties as he may. When the region where he exercises direct authority is endangered, he intervenes, but as soon as he has diverted the fury of the pirates upon another part of the kingdom, his conscience is satisfied, and his example is followed on all hands.
In 911 Charles entered into negotiations with Rollo, and, as we have seen, the result was that a great part of the Norman bands established themselves permanently in the districts of Rouen, Lisieux and Evreux, but the character which the negotiations assumed and the share that the king took in them are uncertain. In any case, the chief object of the convention of St-Clair-sur-Epte was to put a stop to the incursions by way of the Seine and the Oise; as to the other Norman bands, or the Northmen of the Loire, the king does not concern himself with them, and we shall find them in 924 vociferously demanding a settlement like that of Rollo.
For the rest, the so-called Treaty of St-Clair-sur-Epte however beneficial it may have been, was far from bringing about peace even in the northern part of the kingdom. Though for the most part converted to Christianity, the companions of Rollo were not tamed and civilised in a day. Increased in numbers by the fresh recruits who came in from
