What, then, went on in their midst?
What character and weight must be attached to their intervention in the government of the State?
It is important to sift this matter thoroughly.
There is extant, touching this subject, a very curious document.

A contemporary and counsellor of Charlemagne, his cousin-german Adalbert, abbot of Corbic, had written a treatise entitled _Of the Ordering of the Palace (De Ordine Palatii),_ and designed to give an insight into the government of Charlemagne, with especial reference to the national assemblies.

This treatise was lost; but towards the close of the ninth century, Hincmar, the celebrated archbishop of Rheims, reproduced it almost in its entirety, in the form of a letter or of instructions, written at the request of certain grandees of the kingdom who had asked counsel of him with respect to the government of Carloman, one of the sons of Charles the Stutterer.

We read therein, "It was the custom at this time to hold two assemblies every year.

.