THE STORY OF EVROPE. 81 and forced them to acknowledge Rome .as the “Mistress of the World.” And they in turn dizzy with success fell an easy prey to their own excesses and the savage Huns and Goths who swept down from the North with relentless fury. Here too was waged the battle between the Moor and Christian, the Crescent and the Cross, which ended only when the battle of Tours had left the Moslem hordes crushed and almost annihilated. Here too Charle- magne was crowned on the eventful Christ- mas, 898, and gave the first strong impulse to modern Europe; here William the Con- queror won the battle of Hastings and changed the destiny of nations; Here the barons forced wicked King John to sign Magna Charta and laid the foundations of liberty and law in America. Here Luther defied the honor of Popes, and here Napoleon sought to found one universal Empire with headquarters in France. ACROPOLIS— ATHENS.