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Here, too, they remained for another five centuries or more,
till about 770 A.D., when Charlemagne invaded Lombardy, where they were
then settled, whereon the head of the family seems to have attached
himself to the great Emperor, and to have returned with him across the
Alps, and finally to have settled in Brittany. Eight generations later
his lineal representative crossed to England in the reign of Edward
the Confessor, and in the time of William the Conqueror was advanced to
great honour and power. From that time to the present day I can trace
my descent without a break. Not that the Vinceys--for that was the final
corruption of the name after its bearers took root in English soil--have
been particularly distinguished--they never came much to the fore.
Sometimes they were soldiers, sometimes merchants, but on the whole they
have preserved a dead level of respectability, and a still deader level
of mediocrity. From the time of Charles II. till the beginning of the
present century they were merchants.


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