OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 173 precious ornaments of the Byzantine court. The garrison of the castle had been defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the customaiy operation. But the sacrifice was dis- turbed by the intrusion of a frantic female, who, with bleeding cheeks, dishevelled hair, and importunate clamours, compelled the marquis to listen to her complaint. "It is 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 I have endured Avithout 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 triumph 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 presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful property." ^^
The establishment of the Normans in the kingdoms of onginofthe Naples and Sicily ^ is an event most romantic in its origin, itaiy *"i.D. and in its consequences most important both to Italy and
1' Liutprand, Hist. 1. iv. c. iv. in the Rerum Italic. Script, torn. 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 ma}' not transcribe with caution what a bishop could write without scruple ! What if I had translated, ut viris certetis testiculos ampu- tare, in quibus nostri corporis refocillatio. Sec. ? i^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 Apulus (p. 245-278), and the history of Galfridus {Jeffery) Malaterra (p. 537-607). Both were natives of France, but they wrote on the spot, in the age of the first con- querors (before a.d. iioo), and with the spirit of freemen. It is needless to re- capitulate the compilers and critics of Italian history, Sigonius, Baronius, Pagi, Giannone, Muratori, St. Marc, &c. whom I have always consulted and never copied. [See Appendix I.]
