827, from whence he invaded the territory of Barcelona, reaching the city itself in the summer. He besieged it and ransacked its environs, but failed to take it. When the Emperor learned of these raids, he ordered his second son, Pepin, then King of Aquitaine, and the counts Hugh of Tours and Matfrid of Orléans to recruit an army against the Muslims, but recruitment was slow. By the time the army arrived, Abu Marwan had already returned to Muslim territory, taking Aisso and his followers with him (late 827). This reprieve, seen as a victory, greatly increased Bernard's prestige. Though the ravaged county of Ausona, a dependency of Barcelona, remained depopulated into the mid-ninth century, its ruin was attributed to the late arrival of Hugh and Matfrid. Both counts were dispossessed of their counties at the Assembly of Aachen in 828. At that assembly, Orléans was granted to Odo and Bernard's brother Gaucelm received the fiefs of Conflent and Razes. As Leibulf of Provence had died in the spring, his vast dominions—Narbonne, Béziers, Agde, Melgueil, Nîmes, and probably Uzès—were assigned to Bernard. From this wide collection of honores in Septimania, Bernard took the title "Duke of Septimania". In another assembly, at Ingelheim in June, a reprisal raid into Cordoban territory was considered, but although an army was gathered in Thionville, it did not enter the lands controlled by Bernard as the risk of Muslim raiding seemed to have declined. Court career In August 829 the Emperor sent his son Lothair to Pavia to wear the Iron Crown. Louis summoned Bernard to replace his son at court, with granting him the title of camerarius or Chamberlain and the custody of the young Charles, then just Duke of Alsace, Alemannia, and Rhaetia, but later destined to be king of West Francia. Bernard delegated the government of his counties to his brother Gaucelm, who thereupon took the title marchio or margrave. After only a few months at court, Bernard had made many enemies. Indeed, he was the prime catalyst for the revolt of Lothair the following year. Thegan of Trier, in his Gesta Hludowici, recorded that he was accused of having an illicit relationship with Empress, Judith of Bavaria, but considered these rumours to be lies. Nevertheless, these rumours provoked a riot in the army gathered at Rennes to fight the Bretons in April 830. His life under threat, as the three elder