proves a hasty peace with the Turks, which allowed her father to undertake in person the relief of Durazzo. On his accession, Alexius found the camp without soldiers, and the treasury without money; yet such were the vigor and activity of his measures, that in six months he assembled an army of seventy thousand men,69 and performed a march of five hundred miles. His troops were levied in Europe and Asia, from Peloponnesus to the Black Sea; his majesty was displayed in the silver arms and rich trappings of the com panies of Horse-guards; and the emperor was attended by a train of nobles and princes, some of whom, in rapid succession, had been clothed with the purple, and were indulged by the lenity of the times in a life of affluence and dignity. Their youthful ardor might animate the multitude; but their love of pleasure and contempt of subordination were preg nant with disorder and mischief; and their importunate clamors for speedy and decisive action disconcerted the prudence of Alexius who might have surrounded and starved the besieging army The enumeration of provinces recalls a sad comparison of the past and present limits of the Roman world: the raw levies were drawn together in haste and terror; and the garrisons of Anatolia, or Asia Minor, had been purchased by the evacuation of the cities which were immediately occupied by the Turks. The strength of the Greek army consisted in the Varangians, the Scandinavian guards, whose numbers were recently augmented by a colony of exiles and volunteers from the British Island of Thule. Under the yoke of the Norman conqueror, the Danes and English were op. pressed and united: a band of adventurous youths resolved to desert a land of slavery; the sea was open to their escape; and, in their long pilgrimage, they visited every coast that afforded any hope of liberty and revenge. They were entertained in the service of the Greek emperor; and their 69 Muratori (Annali d' Italia, tom. ix. p. 136, 137) observes, that some authors (Petrus Diacon. Chron. Casinen. 1. iii. c. 49) compose the Greek army of 170,000 men, but that the hundred may be struck off, and that Malaterra reckons only 70,000; a slight inattention. The passage to which he alludes is in the Chronicle of Lupus Protospata, (Script. Ital. tom. v. p. 45.) Malaterra (1. iv. c. 27) speaks in high, but indefinite terms of the emperor, cum copiis innumerabilibus: like the Apulian poet, (1. iv. p. 272 :) — More locustarum montes et plana teguntur. first station was in a new city on the Asiatic shore: but Alexius soon recalled them to the defence of his person and palace; and bequeathed to his successors the inheritance of their faith and valor.70 The name of a Norman invade revived the memory of their wrongs: they marched with alacrity against the national foe, and panted to regain in Epirus the glory which they had lost in the battle of Hastings. The Varangians were supported by some companies of Franks or Latins; and the rebels, who had fled to Constantinople from the tyranny of Guiscard, were eager to signalize their zeal and gratify their revenge. In this emergency, the emperor had not disdained the impure aid of the Pauli cians or Manichæans of Thrace and Bulgaria; and these her. etics united with the patience of martyrdom the spirit and discipline of active valor.71 The treaty with the sultan had procured a supply of some thousand Turks; and the arrows of the Scythian horse were opposed to the lances of the Norman cavalry. On the report and distant prospect of these formidable numbers, Robert assembled a council of his principal officers. "You behold," said he, "your danger: it is urgent and inevitable. The hills are covered with arms and standards; and the emperor of the Greeks is accustomed to wars and triumphs. Obedience and union are our only safety; and I am ready to yield the command to a more worthy leader." The vote and acclamation even of his secret enemies, assured him, in that perilous moment, of their esteem and confidence; and the duke thus continued: "Let us trust in the rewards of victory, and deprive cowardice of the means of escape. Let us burn our vessels and our bag. gage, and give battle on this spot, as if it were the place of our nativity and our burial." The resolution was unanimous ly approved; and, without confining himself to his lines. Guiscard awaited in battle-array the nearer approach of the enemy. His rear was covered by a small river; his right wing extended to the sea; his left to the hills: nor was he 70 See William of Malinsbury, de Gestis Anglorum, 1. ii. p. 92. Alexius fidem Anglorum suspiciens præcipuis familiaritatibus suis eos applicabat, amorem eorum filio transcribens. Ordericus Vitalis (Hist. Eccles. 1. iv. p. 508, l. vii. p. 641) relates their emigration from England, and their service in Greece. "See the Apulian, (1. i. p. 256.) The character and the story of these Manichæans has been the subject of the livth chapter. conscious, perhaps, that on the same ground Cæsar and Pompey had formerly disputed the empire of the world.72 Against the advice of his wisest captains, Alexius resolved to risk the event of a general action, and exhorted the garri son of Durazzo to assist their own deliverance by a well-timed sally from the town. He marched in two columns to surprise the Normans before daybreak on two different sides: his light cavalry was scattered over the plain; the archers formed the second line; and the Varangians claimed the honors of the vanguard. In the first onset, the battle-axes of the strangers made a deep and bloody impression on the army of Guiscard, which was now reduced to fifteen thousand men. The Lombards and Calabrians ignominiously turned their backs; they fled towards the river and the sea; but the bridge had been broken down to check the sally of the garrison, and the coast was lined with the Venetian galleys, who played their engines among the disorderly throng. On the verge of ruin, they were saved by the spirit and conduct of their chiefs. Gaita, the wife of Robert, is painted by the Greeks as a warlike Amazon, a second Pallas; less skilful in arts, but not less terrible in arms, than the Athenian goddess: 73 though wounded by an arrow, she stood her ground, and strove, by her exhortation and example, to rally the flying troops.74 Her female voice was seconded by the more powerful voice and arm of the Norman duke, as calm in action as he was magnanimous in council: "Whither," he cried aloud, "whither do ye fly? 72 See the simple and masterly narrative of Cæsar himself, (Comment. de Bell. Civil. iii. 41-75.) It is a pity that Quintus Ïcilius (M. Guichard) did not live to analyze these operations, as he has done the campaigns of Africa and Spain. 78 Παλλας ἄλλη κάν μὶ ̓Αθήνη, which is very properly translated by the President Cousin, (Hist. de Constantinople, tom. iv. p. 131, in 12mo.,) qui combattoit comme une Pallas, quoiqu'elle ne fût pas aussi savante que celle d'Athenes. The Grecian goddess was composed of two discordant characters, of Neith, the work woman of Sais in Egypt, and of a virgin Amazon of the Tritonian lake in Libya, (Banier, Mythologie, tom. iv. p. 1-31, in 12mo.) 74 Anna Comnena (1. iv. p. 116) admires, with some degree of terror, her masculine virtues. They were more familiar to the Latins; and though the Apulian (1. iv. p. 273) mentions her presence and her wound, he represents her as far less intrepid. Uxor in hoc bello Roberti forte sagitta Quâdam læsa fuit: quo vuluere territa nulian The last is an unlucky word for a female prisoner. Your enemy is implacable; and death is less grievous than servitude." The moment was decisive: as the Varangians advanced before the line they discovered the nakedness of their flanks: the main battle of the duke, of eight hundred knights, stood firm and entire; they couched their lances, and the Greeks deplore the furious and irresistible shock of the French cavalry.75 Alexius was not deficient in the duties of a soldier or a general; but he no sooner beheld the slaugh ter of the Varangians, and the flight of the Turks, than he despised his subjects, and despaired of his fortune. The princess Anne, who drops a tear on this melancholy event, is reduced to praise the strength and swiftness of her father's horse, and his vigorous struggle when he was almost overthrown by the stroke of a lance, which had shivered the Imperial helmet. His desperate valor broke through a squadron of Franks who opposed his flight; and after wandering two days and as many nights in the mountains, he found some repose, of body, though not of mind, in the walls of Lychnidus. The victorious Robert reproached the tardy and feeble pursuit which had suffered the escape of so illustrious a prize: but he consoled his disappointment by the trophies and stanJards of the field, the wealth and luxury of the Byzantine camp, and the glory of defeating an army five times more numerous than his own. A multitude of Italians had been the victims of their own fears; but only thirty of his knights were slain in this memorable day. In the Roman host, the loss of Greeks, Turks, and English, amounted to five or six thousand: 76 the plain of Durazzo was stained with noble and royal blood; and the end of the impostor Michael was more honorable than his life. It is more than probable that Guiscard was not afflicted by the loss of a costly pageant, which had merited only the con tempt and derision of the Greeks. After their defeat, they > 7ο Απὸ τῆς τοῦ ̔Ρομπερτοῦ προηγησαμένης μάχης, γινώσκων τὴν πρώτη κατὰ τῶν ἐναντίων ἱππασίαν τῶν Κελτῶν ἀνύποιστον, (Anna, l. v. p. 133 ;) and elsewhere, καὶ γὰρ Κελτὸς ἀνὴρ πᾶς ἐποχούμενος μὲν ἀνύποιστος την ὁρμὴν, καὶ τὴν θέαν ἐστίν, (p. 140.) The pedantry of the princess in the choice of classic appellations encouraged Ducange to apply to his countrymen the characters of the ancient Gauls. 76 Lupus Protospata (tom. iii. p. 45) says 6000; William the Apulian more than 5000, (1. iv. p. 273.) Their modesty is singular and landable they might with so little trouble have slain two or three myriads of schismatics and infidels! still persevered in the defence of Durazzo; and a Venetian commander supplied the place of George Palæologus, who had been imprudently called away from his station. The tents of the besiegers were converted into barracks, to sustain the inclemency of the winter; and in answer to the defiance of the garrison, Robert insinuated, that his patience was at least equal to their obstinacy.77 Perhaps he already trusted to his secret correspondence with a Venetian noble, who sold the city for a rich and honorable marriage. At the dead of night, several rope-ladders were dropped from the walls; the light Calabrians ascended in silence; and the Greeks were awakened by the name and trumpets of the conqueror. Yet they defended the streets three days against an enemy al ready master of the rampart; and near seven months elapsed between the first investment and the final surrender of the place. From Durazzo, the Norman duke advanced into the heart of Epirus or Albania; traversed the first mountains of Thessaly; surprised three hundred English in the city of Castoria; approached Thessalonica; and made Constantinople tremble. A more pressing duty suspended the prosecu tion of his ambitious designs. By shipwreck, pestilence, and the sword, his army was reduced to a third of the original numbers; and instead of being recruited from Italy, he was informed, by plaintive epistles, of the mischiefs and dangers which had been produced by his absence: the revolt of the cities and barons of Apulia; the distress of the pope; and the approach or invasion of Henry king of Germany. Highly presuming that his person was sufficient for the public safety, he repassed the sea in a single brigantine, and left the remains of the army under the command of his son and the Norman counts, exhorting Bohemond to respect the freedom of his peers, and the counts to obey the authority of their leader. The son of Guiscard trod in the footsteps of his father; and *he two destroyers are compared, by the Greeks, to the caterpillar and the locust, the last of whom devours whatever has escaped the teeth of the former.78 After winning two battles "The Romans had changed the inauspicious name of Epi-damnus to Dyrrachium, (Plin. iii. 26;) and the vulgar corruption of Duraeium (see Malaterra) bore some affinity to hardness. One of Robert's names was Durand, à durando: poor wit! (Alberic. Monach. in Chron. apud Muratori, Annali d' Italia, tom. ix. p. 137.) 78 Βρουχους καὶ ἀκρίδας εἶπεν ἄν τις αὐτοὺς πατέρα καὶ υἱον, (Anna, Li p. 35.) By these similes, so different from those of Homer, she |