         slen = l // n
            rem = l - slen * n
            spans = []
            soff = start
            for i in range(n):
                eoff = soff + slen
                if i &lt; rem:
                    eoff += 1
                spans.append(Span(soff, eoff))
                soff = eoff
            return spans
        else:  # n &gt; l, more to embed than there are characters
            rem = n - l
            spans = [Span(start + i, start + i + 1) for i in range(l)]
            for i in 