66 peror with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious ornaments of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had been defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the customary operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding cheeks disheveiled hair, and importunate clamors, compelled the marquis to listen to her complaint. "Is it thus," she cried, "ye magnanimous heroes, that ye wage war against women, against women who have never injured ye, and whose only arms are the distaff and the loom?" Theobald denied the charge, and protested, that, since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war. "And how," she furiously exclaimed can you attack us more directly, how can you wound us in a more vital part, than by robbing our husbands of what we most dearly cherish, the source of our joys, and the hope of our posterity? The plunder of our flocks and herds 1 have endured without a murmur, but this fatal injury, this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls aloud on the justice of heaven and earth." A general laugh applauded her eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by her ridiculous, yet rational despair; and with the deliverance of the captives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As she returned in triumpl: to the castle, she was overtaken by a messenger, to inquire, in the name of Theobald, what punishment should be inflicted on her husband, were he again taken in arms. “Should such,” she answered without hesitation," be his guilt and misfortune, he has eyes, and a nose, and hands, and feet. These are his own, and these he may deserve to forfeit by his personal offences. But let my lord be pleased to spare what his little handmaid pre sumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful property." 14 The establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily 15 is an event most romantic in its origin, 14 Liutprand, Hist. 1. iv. c. iv. in the Rerum Italic. Script. tom. i. pars i. p. 453, 454. Should the licentiousness of the tale be questioned, I may exclaim, with poor Sterne, that it is hard if I may not transcribe with caution what a bishop could write without scruple. What if I had translated, ut viris certetis testiculos amputare, in quibus nostri corporis refocillatio, &c. ? 16 The original monuments of the Normans in Italy are collected in the vth volume of Muratori; and among these we may distinguish the poem of William Appulus (p. 245-278) and the history of Gal fridus (Jeffrey) Malaterra, (p. 537-607.) Both were natives of Franca, but they wrote on the spot, in the age of the first conqueror and in its consequences most important both to Italy and the Eastern empire. The broken provinces of the Greeks Lombards, and Saracens, were exposed to every invader, and every sea and land were invaded by the adventurous spirit of the Scandinavian pirates. After a long indulgence of rapine and slaughter, a fair and ample territory was accepted, occupied, and named, by the Normans of France: they renounced their gods for the God of the Christians; 16 and the dukes of Normandy acknowledged themselves the vassals of the suc cessors of Charlemagne and Capet. The savage fierceness which they had brought from the snowy mountains of Norway was refined, without being corrupted, in a warmer climate; the companions of Rollo insensibly mingled with the natives; they imbibed the manners, language,17 and gallantry, of the French nation; and in a martial age, the Normans might claim the palm of valor and glorious achievements. Of the fashionable superstitions, they embraced with ardor the pilgrimages of Rome, Italy, and the Holy Land.t In before A. D. 1100,) and with the spirit of freemen. It is needless to recapitulate the compilers and critics of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, Giannone, Muratori, St. Marc, &c., whom I have always consulted, and never copied.* 1 Some of the first converts were baptized ten or twelve times, for the sake of the white garment usually given at this ceremony. At the funeral of Rollo, the gifts to monasteries for the repose of his soul were accompanied by a sacrifice of one hundred captives. But in a generation or two, the national change was pure and general. 17 The Danish language was still spoken by the Normans of Bayeux on the sea-coast, at a time (A. D. 940) when it was already forgotten at Rouen, in the court and capital. Quem (Richard I.) confestim pater Baiocas mittens Botoni militiæ suæ principi nutriendum tradidit, ut, ibi linguâ eruditus Danica, suis exterisque hominibus sciret aperte dare responsa, (Wilhelm. Gemeticensis de Ducibus Normannis, l. iii. c. 8, p. 623, edit. Camden.) Of the vernacular and favorite idiom of William the Conqueror, (A. D. 1035,) Selden (Opera, tom. ii. p. 1640-1656) has given a specimen, ubselete and obscure even to antiquarians and lawyers. • M. Goutier d'Arc has discovered a translation of the Chronicle of Aimé, monk of Mont Cassino, a contemporary of the first Norman in vaders of Italy. He has made use of it in his Histoire des Conquêtes des Normands, and added a summary of its contents. This work was quoted by later writers, but was supposed to have been entirely lost. - M. A band of Normans returning from the Holy Land had rescued the eity of Salerno from the attack of a numerous fleet of Saracens. Gaimar, the Lombard prince of Salerno, wished to retain them in his service, and take them into his pay. They answered, "We fight for our religion, and this active devotion, their minds and bodies were invigorated by exercise: danger was the incentive, novelty the recompense; and the prospect of the world was decorated by won. der, credulity, and ambitious hope. They confederated for their mutual defence; and the robbers of the Alps, who had been allured by the garb of a pilgrim, were often chastised by the arm of a warrior. In one of these pious visits to the cavern of Mount Garganus in Apulia, which had been sanctified by the apparition of the archangel Michael,18 they were accosted by a stranger in the Greek habit, but who soon revealed himself as a rebel, a fugitive, and a mortal foe of the Greek empire. His name was Melo; a noble citizen of Bari, who, after an unsuccessful revolt, was compelled to seek new allies and avengers of his country. The bold appearance of the Normans revived his hopes and solicited his confidence: they listened to the complaints, and still more to the promises, of the patriot. The assurance of wealth demonstrated the justice of his cause; and they viewed, as the inheritance of the brave, the fruitful land which was oppressed by effeminate tyrants. On their return to Normandy, they kindled a spark of enterprise, and a small but intrepid band was freely Associated for the deliverance of Apulia. They passed the Alps by separate roads, and in the disguise of pilgrims; but n the neighborhood of Rome they were saluted by the chief :f Bari, who supplied the more indigent with arms and horses, and instantly led them to the field of action. In the årst conflict, their valor prevailed; but in the second engagement they were overwhelmed by the numbers and military engines of the Greeks, and indignantly retreated with their faces to the enemy.* The unfortunate Melo ended his life a suppliant at the court of Germany: his Norman followers, excluded from their native and their promised land, wandered 1 See Leandro Alberti (Descrizione d'Italia, p. 250) and Baronius, (A. D. 493, No. 43.) If the archangel inherited the temple and oracle, perhaps the cavern, of old Calchas the soothsayer, (Strab. Geograph. I. vi. p. 435, 436,) the Catholics (on this occasion) have surpassed the Greeks in the elegance of their superstition. not for money." Gaimar entreated them to send some Norman knights to his court. This seems to have been the origin of the connection of the Normans with Italy. See Histoire des Conquêtes des Normands par Goutier d'Arc, l. i. c. i., Paris, 1830.-M. Nine out of ten perished in the field. quoted by M. Goutier d'Arc, p. 42. — M. Chronique d'Aim2, tom. i. p. 21. among the hills and valleys of Italy, and earned their daily subsistence by the sword. To that formidable sword the princes of Capua, Beneventum, Salerno, and Naples, alternately appealed in their domestic quarrels; the superior spirit and discipline of the Normans gave, victory to the side which they espoused; and their cautious policy observed the balance of power, lest the preponderance of any rival state should render their aid less important and their service less profitable. Their first asylum was a strong camp in the depth of the marshes of Campania: but they were soon endowed by the liberality of the duke of Naples with a more plentiful and permanent seat. Eight miles from his residence, as a bulwark against Capua, the town of Aversa was built and fortified for their use; and they enjoyed as their own the corn and fruits, the meadows and groves, of that fertile district. The report of their success attracted every year new swarms of pilgrims and soldiers: the poor were urged by necessity; the rich were excited by hope; and the brave and active spirits of Normandy were impatient of ease and ambitious of renown. The independent standard of Aversa afforded shelter and encouragement to the outlaws of the province, to every fugitive who had escaped from the injustice or justice of his superiors; and these foreign associates were quickly assimilated in manners and language to the Gallic colony. The first leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf; and, in the origin of society, preeminence of rank is the reward and the proof of superior merit.19 * 19 See the first book of William Appulus. His words are applicable to every swarm of Barbarians and freebooters: Si vicinorum quis pernitiosus ad illos And elsewhere, of the native adventurers of Normandy : Pars parat, exiguæ vel opes aderant quia nullæ : This account is not accurate. After the retreat of the emperor Henry II., the Normans, united under the command of Rainulf, had taken possession of Aversa, then a small castle in the duchy of Naples. They had been masters of it a few years when Pandulf IV., prince of Capua, found means to take Naples by surprise. Sergius, master of the soldiers, and head of the republic, with the principal citizens, abandoned a city in which he could not behold, without horror, the establishment of a foreign domin. on: he retired to Aversa; and when, with the assistance of the Greeks, Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian em perors had been anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, however strenuous, had been opposed by the aistance and the sea. Their costly armaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages of calamity and disgrace to the Byzantine annals: twenty thousand of their best troops were lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the policy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not cnly with the custody of their women, but with the command of their men.20 After a reign of two hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions.21 The emir disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people rose against the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two rival brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. In every service of danger the Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred knights, or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces, governor of Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled the union of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the island was guarded to the water's edge. The Normans led the van and the Arabs of Messina felt the valor of an untried foe. in a second action the emir of Syracuse was unhorsed and transpierced by the iron arm of William of Hauteville. In a third engagement, his intrepid companions discomfited the host of sixty thousand Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the labor of the pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the historian may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It is, however, true, that they essentially promoted the success of Maniaces, who reduced thirteen ; 20 Liutprand in Legatione, p. 485. Pagi has illustrated this evert from the MS. history of the deacon Leo, (tom. iv. A. D. 965, No. 17 -19.) 21 See the Arabian Chronicle of Sicily, apud Muratori, Script. Rerum Ital. tom. i. p. 253. and that of the citizens faithful to their country, he had collected money enough to satisfy the rapacity of the Norman adventurers, he advanced at their head to attack the garrison of the prince of Capua, defeated it, and reentered Niples. It was then that he confirmed the Normans in the possession of Aversa and its territory which he raised into a count s fief, and granted the investiture to Rainulf Hist. des Rep. Ital. tom. i. p. 267 .G. |