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SAM DIEGO
V.
-
t
CRUSADERS
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
OF
EUROPEAN HISTORY.
BOSTON :
J. E. HICKMAN, 12 SCHOOL STREET.
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
OF
EUROPEAN HISTORY:
BT THE AUTHOR OF
PETER PARLEY'S TALES.
BOSTON:
J. E. HICKMAN.
12 School Street.
PREFACE.
The following pages will be found to contain, in the first
place, a rapid outline of the History of Europe, from its be-
ginning to the present time ; and then a series of sketches or
pictures of important and interesting events, belonging to the
history, and drawn out with some detail. It is supposed that
even the youthful reader may be able to assign these sketches
to their proper chronological places, and that they may, there-
fore, form a succession of prominent points, from which he
may be able to mark the outlines or boundaries of the entire
field of European history.
It is believed that there are difficulties in the study of histo-
ry, which are somewhat formidable to the youthful mind.
If the beginner takes an abridgement, which presents the
topics in distinct chronological succession, the book is dry,
conveys few ideas, and makes a feeble impression on the un-
derstanding and memory. If, on the contrary, he enters upon
voluminous details, the mind is apt to become confounded in
a wilderness of events, and therefore to obtain no clear com-
prehension of the whole subject.
IV PREFACE.
The present volume is only intended as a partial remedy
of the evils attending both these modes of teaching history.
By impressing the mind vividly with a few prominent sub-
jects, several important things may be accomplished ; the in-
terest of the reader may be enlisted ; a certain amount of use-
ful information may be stored in the memory ; and a number
of positions may bo established, which will operate like guide-
boards, ever after, to direct the inquirer through the laby-
rinths in which an extended narrative is sure to inclose him.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
General View 1
Ancient Greece 24
Passages in Grecian History 26
Grecian Mythology 47
Grecian Games 57
Rome 60
Sketches from the History of Great Britain . 79
Julius Csesar in England 79
Alfred and his Times . .... 90
Canute and his Times 102
The Norman Conquest 110
Magna Charta 121
The Gunpowder Plot 130
Oliver Cromwell and his Times . . . 137
The Plague in London 150
The Great Fire in London .... 158
The South Sea Bubble 162
Scotland. -*- Wallace and his Times . . . 169
Wales. — Llewelyn and the Bards . . . 179
Ireland 187
Early History of Ireland 187
VI CONTENTS.
France 199
Charlemagne and his Times 199
The Crusades 211
The Troubadours 221
The Jacquerie 229
The Huguenots 234
Louis the Fourteenth and his Times . . . 244
Spain 253
The Moon in Spain ...... 253
Russia ... 264
Peter the ( rre&t ... ... 264
Miscellaneous Sketches 275
Chivalry and Knight-errantry .... 275
The Middle Ages 287
Fall of the Greek Empire 302
LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
OF
EUROPEAN HISTOM.
GENERAL VIEW.
This portion of the Old World occupies the north-
western corner of the Eastern Continent, of which it
forms a little more than one eighth part. Its extent is
3,900,000 square miles, being about twice that of the
United States. Its present population is estimated at
230 millions, or about one fourth part of the popu-
lation of the globe. Its name is derived from Europa,
daughter of an ancient king of Tyre.
8 GENERAL VIEW.
Though the last portion of the Continent to be set-
tled, Europe is the first in respect to the intelligence,
skill, wealth, and power of its inhabitants. It has, in
fact, long been the seat and centre of civilization, from
which light and knowledge have radiated over the
world. At no period of human history, has any coun-
try displayed such progress in the arts, such advances
in science, such diffusion of knowledge, as are now wit-
nessed among the leading nations of Europe. Neither
Greece nor Rome, in their highest pitch of glory,
rivalled, in any considerable degree, the spectacle of
political, military, religious, and social exaltation pre-
sented by a single European power — that of Great
Britain — at the present day.
It is generally admitted, that Asia was the cradle of
the human family, and that Europe, as well as Africa,
received its first inhabitants from that quarter. But
the history of the first settlements in Europe must
ever remain shrouded in obscurity. About 2000 years
before Christ, certain bands of emigrants from the
Asiatic borders of the Mediterranean Sea began to
visit Greece, which they found already occupied by
various tribes of savages. These were called Pelasgi-
ans, and lived in caves, fed upon roots and wild fruit,
and clothed themselves in the skins of wild beasts.
About 752, B. C, we are told that Romulus founded
Rome, in the centre of Italy ; but already the country
around was occupied by various tribes, and one of
these, the Etruscans, who possessed the territory now
called Tuscany, had made considerable progress in
civilization. About five centuries previous to the
Christian era, the Carthaginians had colonies in Spain,
GENERAL VIEW. 9
and were accustomed to visit Britain and Ireland, all
of which countries were peopled at that early period.
In the days of Julius Csesar, fifty years before Christ,
not only the portions of Europe which lay along the
Mediterranean Sea, but the central and northern sec-
tions, were thickly inhabited. Gaul was in the pos-
session of a great and powerful nation, consisting of
Celts, who presented a most formidable opposition to
the great Roman leader. For nine campaigns they
resisted his legions, and it was not till more than a
million of men had fallen, that they yielded to the
conqueror. At this period, it appears that the whole
of Europe was peopled, and many portions of it seem
to have been swarming with population.
From this hasty view, we are able to trace the
general current of events, in relation to the first settle-
ment of Europe. It would appear, that, at least two
thousand years before Christ, portions of emigrants
began to set off from the thickly settled coasts of
Asia Minor and Africa,. to seek their fortunes in the
yet unexplored regions w T hich lay along the northern
border of the Mediterranean Sea. These parties went
by water, and, at first, in small boats or vessels, and
consisted, doubtless, of the restless, dissatisfied, and
daring portion of the community. In all its essential
features, it is probable that the emigration of this pe-
riod resembled that of our own time, — in which the
hardy and resolute adventurers plunge into the wilder-
ness to contend with difficulties and conquer a sub-
sistence from the savage inhabitants and equally in-
hospitable nature, in a new countiy. As these parties
started from different points, and consisted of different
10 GENERAL VIEW.
races, they laid the foundation of so many different
tribes, which, as they extended and began to approach
each other, fell into frequent acts of hostility ; for it
seems that man, in the early stages of society, is the
most pugnacious of animals.
Thus it would appear that the southern maritime
parts of Europe were settled by emigration from the
civilized portions of Asia and Africa, lying at the east-
ern extremity of the Mediterranean Sea ; that these
emigrants went chiefly by water, and carried with
them the arts known to the countries from which they
sprang ; and that this movement had begun at least
so early as 1850 years before Christ.
But, while this process was going on, another
stream of emigration was setting in from Asia upon
Europe, farther to the north. This consisted of va-
rious tribes, who either passed between the Caspian
and Black seas, and crossed the Don, or, taking a
more northerly route, crossed the Volga. The gen-
eral direction of this movement was to the northwest.
The countries from which these people came were
probably Tartary, Persia, and the regions around the
Caucasian mountains.
The southern nations of Europe, such as the Greeks
and Romans, settled down in cities and cultivated the
arts ; they had a knowledge of letters, and had thus the
means of recording events. Of these we have, there-
fore, some accounts, and are able to trace the main
current of history far back, till it blends in the distance
with the mists of fable. With the northern nations it
is otherwise. These were entirely in a savage or
barbarous state ; for centuries they had no permanent
GENERAL VIEW- 11
abodes. They flowed onward like an inundation
wave following wave, but leaving no record behind.
After the lapse of centuries, we find the whole country
occupied, even to the remotest limit of Britain ; we
see that the great valley of the North is insufficient for
the flood of population, and that it even bursts over
the Alps, and flows over, like lava, upon the plains of
northern Italy. From these facts we can deduce in-
ferences, and, in the absence of precise records, the
imagination can aid us to fill up the mighty picture.
We can see that for ages there was a constant out-
pouring of nations from Asia upon Europe ; we can
see that there were restless, roving tribes, half herds-
men and half robbers ; living partly by plunder and
partly by the pasturage of cattle, till at last, one by
one, they fixed upon some favored spot, and became
a settled people. So much we know ; and, though we
cannot give name and place to particular events, it
requires no stretch of fancy to conclude that this is
the history of the first settlement of middle and north-
ern Europe. When Csesar, about fifty years before
Christ, crossed the Alps, and began his campaigns in
Gaul, he kept a record of what he saw. From that
period, we have a continuous history of leading events;
but for the 2000 years preceding, during which these
portions of Europe were becoming settled, we have
hardly any other guide than inference or conjecture.
The emigration into middle and northern Europe
appears to have continued for a series of ages, and it
is probable that, in some instances, whole nations,
amounting to many thousands, broke from their foun-
dations, and moved in one overwhelming torrent
12 GENERAL VIEW.
to the north and west, in search of a new abode.
Among these emigrant people, the Celts appear to
have been one of the most ancient and numerous.
At the earliest periods of history, they already oc-
cupied a great part of central and western Europe.
Prior to the Christian era, these people, under the
name of Gauls, had possessed northern Italy, and in the
year 382, B. C, a host of them burst over the Alps,
and, directing their way to Rome, laid that city in ashes.
About 280, B. C, a vast multitude of these people in-
vaded Macedonia and Greece, where they obtained
immense booty.
It would appear that the power of the Gauls in Eu-
rope was on the decline, even before the time of Cae-
sar's conquest. They were pressed by enemies on all
sides, and, though still numerous and formidable, had
evidently lost that ascendency which they had main-
tained for many centuries before. At this period,
they occupied the northern part of Italy, Spain, France,
Britain, and Ireland ; and the present inhabitants of
these several countries have a large mixture of Celtic
blood in their veins. Their language is still preserved
with considerable purity among the Irish, who are, in
fact, a Celtic nation. Ireland had the singular fortune
never to be conquered by Rome, nor, indeed, by any
of the tribes that overran the northern portions of
Europe. The Irish, therefore, are the oldest nation in
Europe, and present to us not only the language of
iheir Celtic ancestors, but, perhaps, an example of
their physical and moral characteristics.
The Celts, or Gauls, as described by Caesar, were
men of large size, fair complexion, reddish hair, and
GENERAL VIEW.
13
fierce aspect. They could bear cold and rain, but
neither heat nor thirst ; they were vain and boastful,
clamorous, and impatient of control, and quarrelsome
among themselves. Their first onset was formidable,
but, if once repulsed, they easily gave way and dis-
persed. Their swords were long and unwieldy, and,
being made of copper, bent before the steel armor of
the Romans. They fought naked down to the loins ;
their shields were large and oblong, but slight, and ill-
contrived for protection.
^>.~-^,
Druids.
Their government was aristocratic. The nobles
formed the senate, or supreme council. The common
people appear to have had no political rights, and were
in a state of vassalage. The Druids were the priests,
and formed a powerful hierarchy. They were inter-
14 GENERAL VIEW.
preters of the law, and judges in civil and criminal
matters. Their sacerdotal character was hereditary,
though young men of noble families were occasionally
adopted into the order.
The religion of the Celts was a kind of Theism ;
they had no idols, and always showed great aversion
to them. They worshipped the Supreme Being in sa-
cred groves. The oak and the mistletoe were sacred.
They had bards, who were not only poets, but sooth-
sayers, and their songs were transmitted by tradition.
The Druids offered human sacrifices, and they drew
omens from certain appearances, and also from the
flight of birds.
The Germanic family, though divided into several
branches, formed one of the mighty waves of pop-
ulation which poured forth upon Europe from the
western portions of Asia. These spread themselves
to the north, and occupied Germany, Denmark, Swe-
den, Norway, and a part of Russia and Poland. In
the latter regions, they met with Tartars from Asiatic
Scythia, and the mixture of these races produced the
Sclavonic nations.
The decline of the Roman power, in the fourth and
fifth centuries, tempted these northern tribes from their
cold and less fertile regions, and they rushed down
like an avalanche, overspreading the countries which
lay before them. The Danes and Saxons seized upon
England, and various other tribes obtained a footing in
France, Spain, and Italy. The present language of
Germany, England, Holland, Denmark, and Sweden
has a basis derived from the great Germanic stock.
The language of France, Spain, and Italy has a ba-
sis derived from the Latin tongue.
GENERAL VIEW. 15
Robust forms, light hair, blue eyes, florid complex-
ions, and large, broad-fronted heads constitute the
chief physical characteristics of the pure Germanic
family ; while, morally and intellectually, they stand
preeminent above all the other tribes of mankind.
They are conspicuous, in particular, for what may be
called the industrial virtues, exhibiting a degiee of
indomitable perseverance in all improving pursuits,
which has rendered them the great inventors of the
human race. The mixture of German and Tar-
tar blood in the northeastern nations of Europe has
given to these darker hair and complexions than the
pure Germans, and has also lessened their propensity
to intellectual cultivation. The effects of the Tartar
conquest of Russia, in the twelfth century, by Genghis
Khan, whose successors held the country for 200 years,
will probably be observable in the career of this people
for ages to come, and, indeed, perhaps as long as the
race exists.
The history of Europe may be divided into three
periods, Ancient History, the Middle Ages, and Mod-
ern History. The first of these periods begins with the
settlement of Inachus in Greece, in the year 1856, B. C.,
and ends with the fall of Rome in the year 479, A. D.
During this period, none of the present kingdoms of
Europe were founded, and the whole space is occupied
with the history of Greece and Rome, embracing,
however, many countries which formed dependencies
of the latter.
The Middle or Dark Ages, extending from the fall
of Rome to the year 1400, comprise a long and re-
markable period in the history # of the human race, and
16 GENERAL VIEW.
exhibit many wonderful phenomena of human nature.
It was during this period that most of the present king-
doms of Europe had their foundation ; it was during this
period that the feudal system took its rise, that the cru-
sades had their wild career, that the Troubadours sang
their lays of love and war, and that the fantastic institu-
tion of chivalry, with most of the orders of knighthood,
had their beginning and end. It was during this period,
also, for the most part, that Christianity was dissemi-
nated throughout Europe, that the present langua-
ges of Europe were formed, and that a comming-
ling of races took place, which seemed indispensable
to a high and permanent civilization. We may refer
to this period, also, for the germs of many of the arts
and institutions which contribute to the present im-
proved condition of mankind.
One of the most remarkable circumstances in the
history of the Middle Ages is, that, during so dark a
period, Gothic architecture took its rise and reached its
highest perfection. It is said to affect an imitation of
the forest, whose branches unite and form an arch
above ; but where it originated, or from what source it
was derived, is unknown. The subject has afforded
much scope for antiquarian speculation, but it is proba-
ble that no satisfactory answer to the question will ever
be rendered. The knowledge of the art was never
permitted to go beyond a fraternity of free-masons,
and it is not to be supposed that the early archives of
that mysterious association have survived so many rev-
olutions.
The history of the Middle Ages is occupied chiefly
with the doings of kings, princes, and potentates. We
GENERAL VIEW. 17
hear little of the common people, but their slaughter in
war. They were, indeed, regarded but as ingenious
animals, made to serve the privileged classes, — to live,
suffer, or perish, as might serve the interest, pleasure.
or caprice of their masters. As they had no political
rights, so they had few domestic comforts. They had,
in their mud dwellings, no chairs, or chimneys. A heap
of straw served for a bed, and a billet of wood was the
only pillow. The houses of the rich, at this period,
afforded, indeed, a striking contrast to those of the
present day. Few of them contained more than two
beds. The walls, which were of stone, were generally
bare, without wainscot, or even plaster. In a few
instances they were decorated with hangings.
In the twelfth century, a large proportion of Eng-
land was stagnating with bog, or darkened by native
forests, where the wild ox, the roe, the stag, and the
wolf had hardly learned the supremacy of man. The
culture of land was so imperfect, that nine or ten bushels
of corn to the acre was an average crop. The average
annual rent of an acre of land was from sixpence to
a shilling. In the reign of Edward the First, 1272, a
quarter of wheat was sold for four shillings sterling.
The price of a sheep was a shilling, that of an ox, ten
shillings. It appears, that, in 1301, a set of carpenter's
tools was sold for one shilling.
At this period, the living of even the highest nobility
of England afforded a striking contrast to that of
their luxurious descendants. They drank little wine,
which was then sold only by the apothecaries. They
rarely kept male servants, except for husbandly, and
still more rarely travelled beyond their native country.
2
18 GENERAL VIEW.
An income of ten or twenty pounds was reckoned a
competent estate for a gentleman ; at least, the
lord of a single manor seldom enjoyed more. A
knight who possessed £ 150 a year passed for ex-
tremely rich. Sir John Fortescue speaks of five
pounds a year as " a fair living for a yeoman" ; and
we read that the same sum served for the annual ex-
penses of a scholar attending the university. Modern
lawyers must be surprised at the following, which Mr.
Hallam extracts from the church warden's accounts of
St. Margaret, Westminster, for 1476 ; " Also, paid to
Roger Fylpott, learned in the law, for his counsel giv-
ing 3s. 8d. , with four pence for his Mnner. n
In an inventory of the goods of " John Port, late the
king's servant," who died about 1524, we find that this
gentleman's house had consisted of a hall, parlour, but-
tery, and kitchen, with five bedsteads, two chambers,
three garrets, and some minor accommodations. From
this it may be inferred that Mr. Port was rather an
important man in his day, for very few individuals at
that time could boast of such accommodations. His
plate was valued at .£94, his jewels at £23. It ap-
pears that this individual was esteemed a man of great
wealth, for his time.
We may consider the Middle Ages as extending to
the beginning of the fifteenth century. From this pe-
riod we can trace a series of remarkable events, all
tending to aid in that sunrise of civilization which fol-
lowed the Dark Ages. The use of gunpowder in pro-
jecting heavy bodies is said to have been discovered by
Berthold Schwartz, a monk of Mayence, about the year
1300. It was not much used for military purposes till
GENERAL VIEW. 19
1350 : and, indeed, it was not generally adopted till
near a century after. Its ultimate effect has been to
modify the art of war ; to render it more dependent on
science and intellectual combinations, and less a con-
flict of animal strength and courage. It has sunk the
mere hero of muscle into insignificance, and given as-
cendency to the leader who combined intellect with
skill. It has, at the same time, served to render wars
less bloody, and has given opportunity to soften, with
certain amenities, even the field of battle.
The invention of printing, about the year 1444, by
Guttenberg, also of Mayence, was the crowning' art
of modern times. Prior to this, all books were written
with a pen. A copy of the Bible required four years
of labor even for an expert writer, and its value was
equal to that of a house and farm. Few, indeed, could
possess such a treasure. At the present time, a single
day's labor of a common workman will purchase two
copies of this sacred volume. In the production of
books, Guttenberg's invention has increased the power
of man, probably, five thousand fold. It now serves
not only to record every passing event, every useful
invention, every discovery in art and science, but it has
also written down, and multiplied in a thousand forms,
all that is left of the past history of mankind. Thus all
human knowledge is placed upon record, scattered
over the four quarters of the globe, and rendered in-
destructible by any event less extensive than the devas-
tation of the entire surface of the earth. Nor is even
this all ; knowledge with its illuminating power is dif-
fused among all classes of men ; it is everywhere
shedding light upon the darkened minds of the mass ;
20 GENERAL VIEW.
it is bursting open the doors of prisons, sundering the fet-
ters of tyranny, spreading aboul the equalizing power of
Christianity, and teaching even kings and princes to look
upon their subjects us th<ir fellow-men, with rights as
sacred as their own, in the eye of reason and of God.
The revival of letters had commenced in the thir-
teenth century. Dante was horn in 126^5, Petrarch
in L304, and Boccaccio in 1313. These whining Lights
were but forerunners of others that soon followed.
The discovery or revival of Justinian's Code of Roman
Law, in the twelfth century, served to modify the bar-
n of the Middle \_- s, and to make preparation
for the dawn of a brighter i ra. The invention of the
mariner's compass, though the date of it is lost in ob-
scurity, was applied to maritime purposes about the year
1403; and the enlargement of navigation, and the dis-
covery of America in 1 1!<-J, were the important conse-
quences.
During the Middle Ages, the Romish Church had
acquired and exercised a powerful ascendency over
the minds of all classes of men, simple and sage, the
plebeian and the prince. However our notions of re-
ligious liberty may be shocked at the dominion thus
exerted, we cannot deny that we owe much to the
monks of this period. Whatever of Christian piety
existed was excited and cherished by them ; copies of
the sacred Scriptures were chiefly preserved and multi-
plied in the monasteries ; and the remains of classical
literature have been handed down to us through
the same channel.
But the period at last arrived, when the temporal
power of the Pope was to receive a decisive check,
GENERAL VIEW. 21
and the Church over which he presided was to under-
go a fiery trial. Luther, a Saxon monk,' began his at-
tack in 1517, and thus commenced that mighty move-
ment which is known in history as the Reformation.
The result of this was, to strip the see of Rome of its
claims to dominion in secular matters, and to diffuse
among the people at large the consciousness of a right,
before denied, to exercise their private judgment in
religious concerns.
From this period we can see a rapid advance in the
march of civilization, and even amidst the violent agi-
tations of society. In 1648, Charles the First of Eng-
land was brought to the block for the exercise of
power which had been more harshly employed, without
opposition, by his predecessors. In 1789, the French
Revolution commenced, and a heavy reckoning was
rendered for bygone years of tyranny, profligacy, and
crime. Bonaparte rose like a being of enchantment
from the seething caldron of blood, and strode over the
earth as a personification of Destiny, conquering and
to conquer. Europe in arms hurled him from his
pinnacle of power, and the Bourbons sat once more
on the throne of France. But, while they had slept,
the world had gone on, and society had advanced be-
yond the possibility of enduring their selfish sway.
Another earthquake was necessary to shake down the last
lingering remains of an odious dynasty ; another revolu-
tion, therefore, broke out in 1830, which ended in sweep-
ing away the relics of the former system, and founding
a monarchy upon the basis of a written constitution.
The characteristic of modern times in Europe is
agitation, old dynasties have passed away and new
22 GENERAL VIEW.
ones have arisen ; old institutions have ceased, and
others have been formed in tlnir place. And even where
governments and institutions exist with the same external
form as in earlier days, there is generally a change in
their spirit and influence. Everywhere there is a
recognition of the power of the people, and more or
less respect to their rights. There can be no better
evidence of this, than the steps taken by Prussia,
France, Holland, Belgium, &c, to bestow education
upon the mass, by means of which they hope to mould
them to obedience. They dare no longer to count
upon the ignorance and blindness of the people ; they
therefore seek to throw over them the web of loyalty,
by means of discipline and association. Prisons are
not now the instruments by which kings expect to sus-
tain their thrones. Even the emperor of Austria, or
the czar of Russia, would lose rather than gain power
by building a Bastile. A system of general education
would better accord with the policy of the age.
While, therefore, the aspect of society appears to be
marked with fluctuation, like the surface of the sea,
we can perceive a general onward tide of improve-
ment. While the political and religious liberties of
the people are becoming better understood and more
generally acknowledged, the arts which contribute to
their happiness are being more extensively diffused.
The mass are better able to obtain a living than formerly,
and their standard of comfort is daily becoming higher.
Another remarkable characteristic of modern times
is the application of science to the arts. Science is no
longer a being of the closet, — holding itself aloof in
mysterious abstraction from mankind ; but it conde-
GENERAL VIEW. 23
scends to mingle in the common affairs of life ; it is
found in the smithy and at the forge ; it is in the fac-
tory, the foundery, and the machine shop ; it is upon
the farm, and in the kitchen ; it is in the toiling steam-
er on the ocean, and the whizzing car upon the rail-
road track; it is in the city, lighting it with gas, — in
the mine a hundred fathoms deep, protecting its labor-
ers from the fatal fire-damp ; it is in the wick of the
Argand lamp, in the stearin candle, and the friction
match. Everywhere the discoveries of science are
made applicable to the arts of life, and in a thousand
forms they are contributing to make existence more
comfortable and more desirable to the mass of man-
kind.
m ■
■■'v\ mm
'. ■ ; ' \
View of Athens.
ANCIENT GREECE.
Greece is situated on the northern shore of the
Mediterranean, between the Ionian and the JEgean
seas. It is a beautiful country of hills and valleys,
like Wales, or the Highlands of Scotland. Some of the
hills are so high as to be constantly covered with snow.
The vales enjoy a mild climate, and are of extreme
ANCIENT GREECE. 25
fertility. Some of them, as Tempe and Arcadia, are
spoken of with rapture by the poets of ancient times.
As the country was much divided by hills and seas, it
was separated, from an early period, into several states,
which were under different governments, and often
made war upon each other. The southern peninsula,
anciently styled the Peloponnesus, and now the Mo-
rea, was divided into Laconia, — containing the cele-
brated city of Sparta, — Argolis, Arcadia, Elis, and JVles-
senia, each of which was only about the size of a
moderate English county. Middle Greece, now Li-
vadia, to the north of the Peloponnesus, and connect-
ed with it by the Isthmus of Corinth, on which lay the
city of that name, contained Attica, in which was the
city of Athens, Megaris, Bceotia, in which was the
city of Thebes, Phocis, Locris, Doris, ^Etolia, and
Acarnania. Northern Greece contained Thessaly,
now the district of Jannina ; Epirus, now Albania ;
and Macedonia, now Filiba Vilajeti ; the last of which
became distinctly incorporated with Greece, only in the
era of Philip and Alexander, between three and four
hundred years before Christ.
To the east of Greece Proper lay the numerous
islands of the JEgean Sea, with which may be included
certain islands lying in the Mediterranean Sea in the
same direction, the principal of which were Rhodes,
Cyprus, and the Cyclades. To the south lay Cythera,
now Cerigo, and Crete, now Candia. To the west, in
the Ionian Sea, lay Corcyra, now Corfu ; Cephalonia,
Ithaca, and others, now constituting the distinct con-
federacy of the Ionian Islands, under the protection of
Great Britain
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
Grecian history commences about eighteen hundred
years before Christ. The thousand years preceding
875, B. C, when Lycurgus gave laws to Sparta, are
considered as not strictly historical, inasmuch as the
events which distinguish them have been commemo-
rated chiefly by tradition and poetry. Yet, however
mingled with fable, the history of this long period is
not unworthy of notice, seeing that the Greeks them-
selves believed in it, and made its incidents and heroes
the theme of perpetual allusion in their poetry, and
even a part of their religion.
According to the Greek poets, the original inhabit-
ants of the country, denominated Pelagians, as we
have already stated, were a race of savages, who lived
in caves, and clothed themselves with the skins of
wild beasts. Uranus, an Egyptian prince, landed in
the country, and became the father of a family of
giants, named Titans, who rebelled against and de-
throned him. His son, Saturn, who reigned in his
stead, in order to prevent the like fortune from be-
falling himself, ordered all his own children to be put
to death as soon as they were born. But one, named
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY. 27
Jupiter, was concealed by the mother, and reared in
the island of Crete, from which, in time, he returned,
and deposed his father. The Titans, jealous of this
new prince, rebelled against him, but were vanquished
and expelled from Greece.
Jupiter divided his dominions with his brothers,
Neptune and Pluto. The countries which he reserved
to himself he governed with great wisdom, holding his
court on Mount Olympus, a hill in Thessaly, seven
thousand feet in height, and the loftiest in Greece.
Any truth which there might be in the story of the
Titans and their princes was completely disguised by
the poets and by the popular imagination. Saturn,
Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto were looked back to, not
as mortals, but as deities ; and the top of Mount
Olympus was supposed to be the heavenly residence
of the gods by whom the affairs of mortals were gov-
erned. For ages after the dawn of philosophy, these
deified sons of Saturn, and numberless others con-
nected with them, were the objects of the national
worship, not only among the Greeks, but also among
the Romans.
At an uncertain, but very early date, an Asiatic
people, named the Hellenes, migrated into Greece,
in some cases expelling the Pelasgi, and in others
intermingling with them, so that, in process of time, all
the inhabitants of Greece came to be called Hellenes.
They were, however, divided into several races, the
principal of which were named Dorians, iEolians, and
Ionians, and each of these spoke a dialect differing in
some respects from those made use of by the others.
These dialects were named the Doric, iEolic, and
28
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
Ionic, in reference to the tribes which used them ; and
a fourth, which was afterwards formed from the Ionic,
was named the Attic, from its being spoken by the
inhabitants of Attica.
Inachus laying the Foundation of Argos.
In the year 1856, B. C, Inachus, a Phoenician ad-
venturer, is said to have arrived in Greece, at the
head of a small band of his countrymen. Phoenicia, a
small state on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean,
was at this time one of the few countries, including
Egypt and Assyria, in which some degree of civiliza-
tion prevailed, while all the rest of the people of the
earth remained in their original barbarism, like the
Pelasgians before the supposed arrival of Uranus.
Navigation for the purposes of commerce, and the art
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY'. 29
of writing, are said to have originated with the Phoe-
nicians. On their arrival in Greece, Inachus and his
friends founded the city of Argos, at the head of what
is now called the Gulf of Napoli, in the Peloponnesus.
Three hundred years after this event, 1556, B. C,
a colony, led by an Egyptian, named Cecrops, arrived
in Attica, and founded the celebrated city of Athens,
fortifying a high rock which rose precipitously above
the site afterwards occupied by the town. Egypt is
situated in the northeastern part of Africa. It is
bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, and
is watered by the great river Nile, the periodical over-
flowings of which, by supplying the moisture necessary
for vegetation, render the soil very fertile. From
this country, which had, at a very early period, made
considerable advances in some of the arts and sci-
ences, Cecrops introduced much valuable knowledge to
the rude inhabitants of Attica, whom he had persuaded
or obliged to acknowledge him as their chief or king.
He placed his rocky fastness under the protection of
an Egyptian goddess, from whose Greek name, Athena,
afterwards changed by the Latins into Minerva, the
city which subsequently arose around the rock was
called Athens.
About the year 1493, B. C., Cadmus, a Phoenician,
founded the city of Thebes in Bceotia ; and, among
other useful things which he communicated to the
Greeks, he is said to have taught them alphabetical
writing, although it is certain that that art did not come
into common use in Greece until many centuries after
this period.
The city of Corinth, situated on the narrow isthmus
30 IAGBS IN GBKCIAH HISTor.Y.
which connects ih<' Peloponnesus with the main land
of Greece, was founded in the year 1520, I!. <'.. and
from its very advantageous position on the arm <>f the
> which it ancient!. it which is
now known under the appellation of the < ; m 1 1* of Le-
panto, it ver i became a place of considerable
commercial import I eemon, the
celebrated capital of Laconia in the Peloponnesus, is
said to have b< en founded, ab ! ■■ Lex,
an EgJ ptian.
In tl 185, B. ( ' ■ • uned Danaus,
ipanied by a party <>f his countrymen, arrived at
\ f which must have been, at
that period, in an exceedingly rui . Bince it is
said that hi much by teach-
ing them t'> dig wells, when 'Ik- streams from which
supplied with water were dried up with the
•. tliat they elected him as their king.
More than a century after this period, ahout 1350,
B. < '.. Pi lops, • F Phrygia, a country
in Asia Minor, settled in that part <>f Greece which
ifterwards called, from him, Peloponnesus, or the
island of Pelops, where he married the daughter of one
of the native princes, whom he afterwards succ
on the throne. In e of his long reign, he
found means to strengthen and gn nd his in-
fluence in G by forming matrimonial alliances
between various branches of his own house and the
other royal families of the Peloponnesus. Agamem-
non, kiner of Mycenae, in Argolis, who was, according
to the poet Homer, the commander-in-chief of the
s at the siege of Troy, and Menelaus, king of
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
31
Sparta, on account of whose wrongs that war was un-
dertaken, were descended from this Phrygian adven-
turer.
Hercules, a Theban prince, was another of the de-
scendants of Pelops. The numerous and extraordinary
feats of strength and valor of Hercules excited the
admiration of his contemporaries, and, being after-
wards exaggerated and embellished by the poets, caused
him at length to be regarded as a person endowed with
supernatural powers, and even to be worshipped as a
god.
Young Hercules.
According to the poets, Hercules was the son of the
god Jupiter, and of Alcmena, daughter of Electryon,
king of Mycense. Before his birth, his mother mar-
32 PASSAGES IN GBBC1AN IIISTOKY.
ried Amphitryon, king of Thebes, by whom the in-
fant Hercules Mas adopted as his son. While
chil<l in the cradle, he is fabled to have crushed to
death two snakes which the goddess Juno had senl to
destroy him. After he grew up, he perforin' id many
heroic and extraordinary actions, commonly called his
"labors. 11 Among these was the destroying a dread-
ful lion, by clasping his arms round its neck and thus
choking it to death.
Another of the fabled labors of Hercules was his
destroying the hydra of Lerna. This was a mon-
strous seven-beaded serpent, which haunted the small
lake of Lerna, now Molini, in Argolis, and filled with
the inhabitants of the whole of that pari of the
country. Hercules dauntlessly attacked it, and struck
off several of its heads with his club. But these won-
derful heads were no sooner beaten ofF than others
grew out, so that it seemed an impossibility to kill a mon-
ster whose injuries were so quickly repaired. At last,
one of the companions of Hercules having, at the
hero's request, scared with a hot iron the necks of the
hydra as fast as each decapitation was accomplished,
it was found that the heads did not afterwards grow
out again, and Hercules was thus enabled to complete
the destruction of the reptile.
Another achievement of Hercules, to which allusion
is often made by modern writers, was the cleaning of
the stables of Augeas, King of Elis, in which three
thousand cattle had been kept for thirty years, without
any attempt having been made, during all that time,
to remove the accumulating filth. This much requir-
ed purification the hero accomplished by turning into
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY. 33
the stables a river which flowed in the vicinity. Her-
cules also undertook an expedition for the purpose of
carrying ofF the cattle of Geryon, King of Gades, now
Cadiz, in Spain. Geryon is represented as having
been a monster with three heads, and a proportionate
supply of arms and legs, and to have ruled over the
greater part of Spain with the utmost cruelty. He was
killed by Hercules, who brought away his valuable
flocks in triumph. In this expedition he is said to have
formed the Strait of Gibraltar, in order to open a
communication between the Mediterranean and At-
lantic, by rending asunder Spain and Africa, which
had until then been connected together. Two moun-
tains, one on each side of the strait, raised by him in
the execution of his task, were called the Pillars of
Hercules, and the appellation is not unfrcquently made
use of even at the present day.
After many adventures in foreign countries, he re-
turned to the Peloponnesus, where he took to wife a
lady named Dejanira. For a while they lived happily
together, but, at last, believing that Hercules had be-
come less attached to her than formerly, his consort
presented him with a tunic steeped in a mixture which
she expected to operate as a charm in regaining for
her his affections, but which was in reality a deadly
poison, artfully placed in her hands by an enemy. As
soon as Hercules had put on this fatal garment, he
was attacked with the most excruciating pain, and being
anxious to put a period as speedily as possible to his
agonies, he stretched himself upon a funeral pile, and
caused a friend to set it on fire. His spirit is said to
have ascended to heaven in a chariot drawn by four
3
34 PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
horses, which Jupiter, the king of the gods, transmit-
ted to earth for the purpose, and Juno, the celestial
queen, gave him her daughter Hebe as his wife. De-
janira, on learning the unfortunate result of her at-
tempt to recover her husband's love, put an end to her
life in despair.
Such are the wild fictions which have been handed
down respecting Hercules, who was in reality nothing
more than a Greek prince of great valor and bodily
strength. Having been expelled from Mycenae by a
rival claimant of the throne of that state, he appears
to have spent the greater part of his life in wandering
about Greece at the head of a hand of military followers,
sometimes attacking and destroying the robber chiefs
and petty tyrants, who at a rude and unsettled period
abounded in all parts of the country, and on other oc-
casions engaging in predatory expeditions himself.
During the lifetime of Hercules, 1263, B. C, Ja-
son, a prince of Thessaly, made a voyage to Colchis,
a country on the eastern side of the Euxine or Black
Sea. His enterprise was afterwards greatly celebrated
under the name of the Argonautic Expedition, from
the Argo, the vessel in which he sailed. This ship is
generallv referred to by the ancients as the first that
ever ventured on a long voyage. It is uncertain
what was the real object of the Argonautic expe-
dition, although it seems probable that, as Colchis was
rich in mines of gold and silver, Jason and his com-
panions, among whom were Hercules and several
other persons of distinction, were actuated by a desire
to rob the country of some of its valuable metals.
The poets, however, tell us a different story. Phryxus
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
35
and Helle, the son and daughter of Athamas, king of
Thebes, being compelled, according to the poetical
account, to quit their native country to avoid the cru-
elty of their step-mother, mounted on the back of a
"winged ram with a fleece of gold, and were carried
by this wonderful animal through the air towards
Colchis, where an uncle of theirs, named yEetes, was
king. Unfortunately, as they were passing over the
strait now called the Dardanelles, which connected the
iEgean Sea with the Propontis, or Sea of Marmora,
Helle became giddy, and, falling into the water, was
drowned. From her, says the fable, the strait was in
future named the Hellespont, or Sea of Helle.
Phryxus sacrificing the ivinged Ram.
When Phryxus arrived in Colchis, he sacrificed his
winged ram to Jupiter, in acknowledgment of the divine
36
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
protection, and deposited its golden fleece in the same
deity's temple. He then married the daughter of
iEetes, but was afterwards murdered by that king, who
wished to obtain possession of the golden fleece. To
avenge Phryxus's death, Jason, who was his relation,
undertook the expedition to Colchis, where, after per-
forming several marvellous exploits, he not only ob-
tained the golden fleece, but persuaded Medea, an-
other daughter of King yEetes, to become his wife, and
to accompany him back to Greece.
Theseus carrying off Helen.
In the year 1234, B. C, Theseus came to the throne
of Athens. He was one of the most renowned charac-
ters in the heroic age of Greece, not only on account
of his warlike achievements, but from his political wis-
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY. 37
dom. In the latter part of his reign he is said to have
accompanied Hercules in one of his expeditions, and
carried off the beautiful Helen, daughter of Tynda-
rus, King of Lacedaemon. She was recovered, how-
ever, by her gallant brothers, Castor and Pollux, who
ravaged Attica in revenge for the insult offered to their
sister.
The Lacedaemonian princess who was stolen away
by Theseus afterwards became the occasion of a cel-
ebrated war. The fame of her great beauty having
spread far and wide, many of the princes of Greece
asked her from her father Tyndarus in marriage ; but
he, being fearful of incurring the enmity of the re-
jected suitors, declined showing a preference for any
of them. Assembling them all, he bound them by an
oath to acquiesce in the selection which Helen herself
should make, and to protect her against any attempts
which might afterwards be made to carry her off from
the husband of her choice. Helen gave the prefer-
ence to Menelaus, a grandson of Pelops, and this suc-
cessful suitor, on the death of Tyndarus, was raised to
the Spartan throne.
At this period, in the northwestern part of Asia
Minor, on the shores of the Hellespont and the JEgean
seas, there existed a kingdom, the capital of which
was a large, well fortified city, named Troy, or
Ilium. Priam, the king of Troy, had a son whose name
was Paris ; and this young chief, in the course of a
visit to Greece, resided for a time in Sparta at the
court of Menelaus, who gave the Asiatic stranger a
very friendly reception. Charmed with Helen's beauty,
Paris employed the opportunity afforded by a tern-
38 PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
porary absence of her husband, to gain her affections,
and persuaded her to elope with him to Troy. It was
not, according to the old poets, to his personal attrac-
tions, great as they were, that Paris owed his success
on this occasion, but to the aid of the goddess of love,
whose favor he had won by assigning to her the palm
of beauty, on an occasion when it was contested bc-
tween her and two other female deities.
When Menelaus returned home, he was naturally
wrotli at finding his hospitality so ill requited, and,
after having in vain endeavoured, both by remonstran-
ces and threats, to induce the Trojans to send him back
his queen, he applied to the princes who had formerly
been Helen's lovers, and called upon them to aid him,
according to their oaths, in recovering her from her
seducer. They obeyed the summons; and all Greece
being indignant at the insult offered to Menelaus, a
general muster of the forces of the various states took
place at Aulis, a sea-port town of Boeotia, preparatory
to their crossing the YEgean to the Trojan shore.
This is supposed to have happened in the year 1194,
B.C.
Of the chiefs assembled on this occasion, the most
celebrated were, Agamemnon, king of Mycenae ; Me-
nelaus, king of Sparta; Ulysses, king of Ithaca; Nes-
tor, king of Pylos ; Achilles, son of the king of Thes-
saly ; Ajax, of Salamis ; Diomedes, of vEtolia ; and
Idomeneus, of Crete. Agamemnon, the brother of
the injured Menelaus, was elected commander-in-chief
of the confederate Greeks. According to some an-
cient authors, this general was barbarous enough to
sacrifice his daughter, Iphigenia, to induce the gods to
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY. 39
send a favoring gale to the Grecian fleet when it was
detained by contrary winds in the port of Aulis ; but
as the earliest writers respecting the Trojan war make
no mention of this unnatural act, it is to be hoped that
it never was performed.
The Grecian armament consisted of almost twelve
hundred vessels, with from fifty to one hundred and
twenty men in each, and the army which warred
against Troy is supposed to have amounted altogether
to about one hundred thousand men. The Trojans,
although reinforced by auxiliary bands from Assyria,
Thrace, and Asia Minor, were unable to withstand the
Greeks in the open country, and they therefore soon
retired within the walls of their city.
In those early times men were unskilled in the art
of reducing fortified places, and the Greeks knew of
no speedier way of taking Troy than blockading it till
the inhabitants should be compelled by famine to sur-
render. But here a new difficulty arose. No arrange-
ments had been made for supplying the invaders with
provisions during a lengthened siege ; and after they
had plundered and laid waste the surrounding country,
they began to be in as great danger of starvation as
the besieged. The supplies which arrived from Greece
were scanty and irregular, and it became necessary to
detach a part of the forces to cultivate the plains of
the Chersonesus of Thrace, in order to raise crops for
the support of themselves and their brethren in arms.
The Grecian army being thus weakened, the Tro-
jans were encouraged to make frequent sallies, in
which they were led generally by the valiant Hector,
Priam's eldest and noblest son. Many skirmishes took
40
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
place, and innumerable deeds of individual heroism
were performed, none of which led to any important re-
sult, for the opposing armies were so equally matched,
that neither could obtain any decisive advantage over
the other. At length, after a siege of no less than ten
. in the course of which some of the most distin-
guished leaders on both sides were slain, Troy was
taken, its inhabitants slaughtered, and its edifices burnt
to the ground, 1184, lb C.
The Wooden Horse.
According to thfl poets, ii was by a stratagem that
this famous city was at last overcome. They tell us
that the Greeks constructed a wooden horse of pro-
digious size, in the body of which they concealed a
number of armed men, and then retired towards the
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY. 41
sea-shore to induce the enemy to believe that the be-
siegers had given up the enterprise, and were about to
return home. Deceived by this manoeuvre, the Tro-
jans brought the gigantic horse into the city, and the
men who had been concealed within it, stealing out in
the night time, unbarred the gates and admitted the
Grecian army within the walls. The siege of Troy
forms the subject of Homer's sublime poem, the Iliad,
in which the real events of the siege are intermingled
with many fictions and supernatural incidents.
The Greek princes discovered that their triumph
over Troy was dearly paid for by their subsequent suf-
ferings, and the disorganization of their kingdoms at
home. Ulysses, if we may believe the poets, spent
ten years in wandering over seas and lands before ar-
riving in the island of Ithaca. Others of the leaders
died, or were shipwrecked on their way home, and
several of those who succeeded in reaching their own
dominions found their thrones occupied by usurpers,
and were compelled to return to their vessels, and seek
in distant lands a place of rest and security for their
declining years. But the fate of Agamemnon, the re-
nowned general of the Greeks, was the most deplora-
ble of all. On his return to Argos, he was assassinat-
ed by his wife, Clytemnestra, who had formed an at-
tachment, during his absence, to another person. Aga-
memnon's son, Orestes, was driven into exile, but
afterwards returned to Argos, and, putting his mother
and her accomplices to death, established himself upon
the throne.
At Delphi, in Phocis, there was a temple of Apollo,
to the priest of which the Greeks were wont to apply
42
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
for information regarding future events, in the same
manner as the people of comparatively recent times
were accustomed to consult astrologers, soothsayers,
and other artful impostors, on similar questions. Now,
Codrus, king of Athens, had learned that the Peloponne-
sians had received at Delphi a prophetical response or
oracle, to the effect that they should be victorious in the
war, if they did not kill the Athenian king. Determined
to save his country at the expense of his own life, Codrus
disguised himself in a peasant's dress, entered the Pe-
loponnesian camp, and provoked a quarrel with a sol-
dier, by whom he was killed.
Codrus slain.
It is not our purpose to trace the events of Grecian
history in detail. We have space only to state that
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY. 43
• several of the states rose to a great pitch of power and
civilization, and continued for centuries to excel all
other nations in arts and arms. Athens took the lead
in refinement, and became renowned for her architects,
sculptors, painters, orators, poets, and philosophers.
The works of these, some of which are preserved,
still excite the admiration of mankind. The golden
age of Athenian history is that of Pericles, who flour-
ished 445 years B. C. The city of Athens at that
period was adorned with a multitude of the most splen-
did public edifices, and these were ornamented with
the finest statues the world has ever seen. The fine
arts had now reached their greatest degree of perfec-
tion, and Athenian civilization its highest point.
Sparta was famous for the martial character of its
people, and for a stern patriotism which sacrificed
every thing to the good of the state. Here the fine
arts were spurned, literature contemned, and the social
affections repressed ; affording a complete contrast to
the condition of* affairs in Athens.
There are two things in Grecian history which can-
not fail to excite our admiration ; the splendid achieve-
ments of the Greeks in war, and the host of great men
they produced. About the year 480, B. C, Xerxes,
an Asiatic king, assailed the country with an army of
several millions. He was met by the fearless Greeks
with indomitable valor ; his squadrons were cut to
pieces, and the baffled monarch was driven back in
disgrace to his own dominions. This was but one of
the mighty acts of this remarkable people.
Among the great names that glitter along the pages
of Grecian history, we may mention Homer, the most
44 PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
famous of ancient poets ; Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle,
the greatest of ancient philosophers ; Leonidas, Aris-
tides, Alcibiade?, Themistocles, and many other dis-
Xerxes surveying his Army.
tinguished generals ; Philip and Alexander, renowned
conquerors ; Praxiteles, the most celebrated of sculp-
tors ; Pericles and Demosthenes, illustrious orators.
The liberties of Greece received a fatal shock in
the assumption of supreme authority by Philip of
Macedon, after the bloody battle of Chau-onca, 338, B. C.
This passed to his son, Alexander, and, after his death,
to his successor. The declining sun of Grecian glory
gradually went down, and finally set in the year 146,
B. C., when Greece became a Roman province, under
the name of Achaia.
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY. 45
But, although Ancient Greece was thus blotted out as
an independent country, its glory can never pass away.
It has handed down to us many of the finest examples
of patriotism and friendship ; the noblest specimens
of architecture ; the most perfect models of sculpture ;
and specimens of poetiy and oratory which are still
regarded as master-pieces in these noble arts. The
works of the philosophers of Greece have been studied
for more than two thousand years as fountains of
knowledge ; and Plato and Aristotle are regarded, at the
present day, as among the master spirits who continue
to rule over the thinking world.
To the Greeks we are chiefly indebted for the in-
vention of that ancient mythology of which Jupiter
was the head. This had, no doubt, its foundation in
real history ; but upon a slight basis of reality a most
fanciful fabric was reared by the poets. The manner
in which poetry may pass into history is easily seen
by any one who has recently visited the Highlands of
Scotland. When the traveller is conducted over Loch
Katrine and its borders, the scene of " The Lady of the
Lake," he is told by his guide, " There is the place
where Fitz James's ' gallant gray ' fell, — yonder
gravelly spot is the ' silver strand,' where the chief-
tain first met Ellen, — there is 'Ellen's Isle,' and
that gnarled ash is the tree to which she tied her
boat. That rugged knoll was Roderick Dhu's castle,
and upon the top of it he and Fitz James slept to-
gether. There is Ben Venue, and far up, near its
top, is the ' Goblin's Cave.' Yonder is Ben Ain, and
there is Coilantogle ford, where the two champions
closed in deadly encounter."
46
PASSAGES IN GRECIAN HISTORY.
Such is the account given by the guide, pointing out
actual localities, and connecting them with events,
which, though the mere invention of the poet, are still
spoken of as no less real than the " rocks, mounds,
and knolls " which are before the eye. How soon
will these guides get to feel that the fictions they re-
peat are histories, and that Fitz James, Ellen, and
Roderick Dim, were as much realities, as the objects
with which the wizard " harp of the north " has as-
sociated them ! The children of these guides will
believe, as real, what their fathers told as fiction; and
if we suppose such a process as this to take place in
a dark age, when there arc no books, we can see how
easily the fictions of the poet pass into the received
chronicles of the historian.
Mount Olympus.
GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY.
The religious beliefs and observances of the Greeks,
constituting their mythology, are intimately connected
with the fabulous and poetical portion of their history.
It has already been stated, that Uranus, his son Saturn,
and his grandsons, Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, appear
to have been the chiefs of a colony of Egyptians who
settled in Greece at an exceedingly remote period, and
that after their death their ignorant posterity came in
course of time to regard them as gods, and to pay them
divine honors accordingly.
According to the poets, who were the principal
48 GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY.
framers and expounders of the Grecian mythology,
Jupiter, the chief of the gods, and the ruler of heaven
and earth, was the son of Saturn, — a god who had been
compelled by a powerful and tyrannical brother, named
Titan, to promise that he would destroy all his male
children. This promise Saturn for some time fulfilled,
by devouring his sons as soon as they were born ; but
at last, Rhea, his wife, contrived to conceal the birth
of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, who thus escaped the
fate of their brethren. On discovering that Saturn had
male offspring alive, in contravention of his engage-
ment, Titan deposed him from his authority, and cast
him into prison. But Jupiter, having grown up to
manhood, overcame Titan in turn, and restored Saturn
to his throne. These vicissitudes, it is to be observed,
and others that befell the early divinities, were the re-
sult of the decrees of Fate ; a power over which the
heathen gods are represented as having no control.
Notwithstanding this filial conduct of Jupiter, he
afterwards quarrelled with his father, whom he de-
throned and chased into Italy, where Saturn is said to
have passed his time in a quiet and useful manner,
occupied solely in teaching the rude inhabitants to cul-
tivate and improve the soil. He was afterwards known
— under the name of Chronos — as the god of Time,
and was usually represented under the figure of an old
man, holding in one hand a scythe, and in the other a
serpent with its tail in its mouth, in allusion to the de-
structive influence of time, and the endless succession
of the seasons. The rule of Saturn in Italy was pro-
ductive of so much happiness, that this period was
ever afterwards called the Golden Age.
GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 49
After Saturn had been driven into exile, his three
sons divided his dominions amongst them. Jupiter re-
served to himself the sovereignty of the heavens and
the earth, Neptune obtained the empire of the sea, and
Pluto received as his share the sceptre of the infernal
regions. Jupiter did not, however, enjoy unmolested
his supreme dignity ; for the offspring of Titan — a
race of terrible giants — set the new deity at defiance,
and, by piling the mountains named Pelion and Ossa
one upon the other, endeavoured to ascend into
heaven to pluck him from his throne. The gods, in
great alarm, fled from their divine abode on Mount
Olympus into Egypt, where they concealed their true
character by assuming the forms of various animals;
but Jupiter, assisted by Hercules, at last suceeded in
destroying the giants, and reasserting his sovereign
sway. Jupiter is always represented on a throne,
with thunderbolts in his right hand, and an eagle by
his side.
Jupiter took in marriage his sister Juno, who is de-
scribed as a beautiful, but ill-tempered goddess, and is
usually depicted as seated in a chariot drawn by two
peacocks. Neptune, the brother of Jupiter, and god
of the ocean, is painted as a half-naked man, of majes-
tic figure, with a crown on his head, and a trident or
three-pronged fork in his hand, drawn in a car over
the sea by water-horses. Pluto, the remaining brother
of Jupiter, and god of the infernal regions, was painted
by the Greeks as seated on a throne with his wife Pros-
erpina by his side, and the three-headed dog Cerberus
before him.
Nine of the most important of the deities were con-
4
50 GRECIAN MYTH0L0GT.
sidered as the children of Jupiter. Apollo was the
god of music, poetry, painting, and medicine ; he is
represented as a young man of great elegance of per-
son, with a bow in his hand, and a quiver of arrows
on his back. Mars, the god of war, is drawn as an
armed man, in a car, with an inferior female deity,
named Bellona, by his side. Bacchus was the god of
wine, and was usually represented as a young man,
with a cup in one hand, and a spear called a thyrsus
in the other. His name has given rise to many phrases
in our language, expressive of circumstances connect-
ed with drinking. Mercury was the messenger of
Jupiter, and the god of oratory, of merchandise, and
of thieving. He was represented as a youth flying
along the air, with wings at his cap and heels, and a
peculiar wand, called a caduceus, in his hand. Minerva,
the goddess of wisdom, was painted as a female of
severe aspect, with armor on the head and breast, and
bearing a spear and shield, while an owl sits by her
side. Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, was de-
picted as a handsome woman, in undress. Diana, the
goddess of hunting and of chastity, appeared as a
beautiful female, with bow and arrow in her hands,
buskins on her limbs, and a crescent on her forehead.
Hebe, the goddess of youth, took the form of a bloom-
ing young girl, and was said to bear the cup of Ju-
piter.
Another of the children of Jupiter was Vulcan, who,
being of ungainly form, and disagreeable in the eyes
of his father, was cruelly thrust by him out of heaven,
so that he fell on the Isle of Lemnos, and, breaking a
limb, was lame ever after. On earth, Vulcan em-
GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 51
ployed himself as an artificer in iron, and hence he
has been assumed as the patron of blacksmiths. Ju-
piter is said to have employed him in fabricating his
thunderbolts. The workshop of Vulcan was believed
to be underneath the burning mountain iEtna, in Sicily ;
and the term Volcano is derived from that circum-
stance. The gay goddess Venus is represented as
married to this homely deity, to whom she occasion-
ed much uneasiness by the levity of her conduct.
Besides the other attributes and avocations of Apollo,
he was the deity of the sun, having the task confided
to him of guiding that luminary in its diurnal course
through the heavens. His sister, Diana, had a similar
charge over the moon. Apollo, or Phoebus, as he was
also named, had a son called Phaeton, who, being, like
many other young people, self-confident and rash,
took advantage of the indulgent disposition of his
father to obtain from him the charge of the chariot of
the sun for one day. But Phaeton had not travelled
far on his journey up the heavens, when his fiery
steeds became unmanageable, and, running away with
the sun, descended so close to the earth, that it was
set on fire. Jupiter perceived what had happened,
and, fearing that the whole universe would be con-
sumed, struck Phaeton dead with a thunderbolt ; then,
after a great deal of trouble, he extinguished the dan-
gerous conflagration, and set the sun once more on
its usual course.
None of the heathen deities is more frequently re-
ferred to than Cupid, the god of love. He was the
son of Venus, and bore the aspect of a beautiful boy.
He had a pair of wings, and was furnished with a bow
52 GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY.
and a quiver of arrows, which he shot into the hearts
of those whom he wished to inflame with tender pas-
sions, over which he had control. So great was his
power, that he could tame the most ferocious animals,
and hreak in pieces the thunderbolts of Jupiter himself.
There was a number of divinities of minor import-
ance. Hymen was the god of marriage, and was
represented with a crown of flowers on his head, and
a lighted torch in his hand. iEolus was the god of
the winds, which he kept confined in caverns, except
at such times as he chose to let them loose upon the
world. Pan was the god of the country. lie was
flat-nosed and horned, and had legs, feet, and a tail
resembling those of a goat. His favorite haunt was
the vales of Arcadia, where he excited the admiration
of the shepherds around him by the sweet sounds of
his rustic pipe.
Astrrea was the goddess of justice, and during the
Golden Age, when men were virtuous and happy, she
dwelt, like many other deities, on earth ; but, after the
world became wicked, she bid it a sorrowful farewell,
and, ascending to heaven, was transformed into the
sign of the zodiac which is named Virgo, or the Vir-
gin. Themis was the goddess of law, and, after the
departure of Astroea, she had also to sustain, as well
as she was able, the character of the goddess of jus-
tice. We see in this, as in some other than mythologi-
cal fables, no small degree of meaning.
Inexorable destiny, which governs all things, was
personified by three sisters, called the Fates, who
represented the Past, the Present, and the Future.
They were poetically described as constantly employ-
GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 53
ed in spinning the thread of human life. One held
the distaff, another spun, and the third cut the thread
when it had reached its appointed length. To the de-
crees of these stern sisters even Jupiter himself was
obliged to bend, and his thunders, which affrighted all
the other divinities, were heard by them undisturbed.
The Furies were also three in number, and to them
belonged the task of punishing the guilty both on
earth and in hell. Instead of hair, their heads were
covered with serpents, and their looks were fierce and
terrible. Each of the sister-furies waved a torch in
the one hand, while the other wielded a scourge. The
latter instruments inflicted remorseless punishment on
those who had incurred the anger of the gods. War,
famine, and pestilence — the penalty of vice and
crime — proceeded from these dread sisters ; and Grief,
Terror, and Madness were painted as their inseparable
followers.
These avengers of guilt form a striking contrast to
another sisterly trio, to whom the ancients gave the
name of the Graces. These were named Aglaia,
Thalia, and Euphrosyne, and their aspect and attri-
butes corresponded with the common name they bore.
They were the daughters of Bacchus and Venus, and
were usually represented as unattired, and linked in
each other's arms.
The nine Muses were named Thalia, Melpomene,
Calliope, Clio, Erato, Euterpe, Polyhymnia, Terp-
sichore, and Urania. They were the patronesses of
literature and the fine arts, and resided on Parnassus,
a lofty mountain in the district of Phocis. Thalia pre-
sided over comedy ; Melpomene over tragedy ; Erato
54 GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY.
over amatory poetry ; Polyhymnia over eloquence
and imitation ; Calliope over heroic or epic poetry ;
Clio over history ; Euterpe over music ; Terpsichore
over dancing ; and Urania over the study of astron-
omy.
There was a class of demi-gods, who filled imagi-
nary places in every corner hoth of earth and sea.
The shady groves and flowery vales were peopled hy
Dryads or wood-nymphs, and Satyrs, a species of rural
deities, who, like Pan, had the horns, legs, and feet of
goats. Mountains and streams possessed their guar-
dian gods and goddesses, and every fountain had its
Naiad or water-nymph. The lively imagination of
the Greeks made them consider the thunder as the
voice of Jupiter ; the soft breezes of summer were to
them the movement of the wing of iEolus ; the echo
of the forest was the voice of a goddess ; and the gen-
tle murmur of the streamlet sounded as the tones of its
presiding deity. In short, whatever sound or sight in
nature charmed their fancy, the Greeks ascribed the
pleasure to the agency of unseen, but beautiful and
immortal, beings.
Physical beauty was, nevertheless, much more
prominent than moral, in the divinities shaped out by
the imagination of the Greeks. Their gods were
represented as mingling in the affairs of mortals, and
frequently lending their superior power and intel-
ligence to the promotion of schemes of vice and vil-
lany. They were animated by envy, malice, and all
the evil passions to which men are subject, and they
did not hesitate to adopt any measures, however base,
to gratify their nefarious purposes. Even Jupiter, the
GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY. 55
king of heaven, is described as acting a very profli-
gate part on earth.
Yet, strange as it may seem, most of the Greeks
appear to have been impressed with sincere religious
feelings. The stories of the gods had come down to
them with the authority of antiquity, and habit made
them bow to beings of whose characters their reason
could not approve. It seems, impossible, however, that
the sages, philosophers, and other persons of cultivated
intellect, who flourished in Greece, could have reposed
faith in the tissue of gross and extravagant fables of
which this mythology was composed ; and, in fact, it
is known that Socrates, and others of the wisest men
of antiquity, rejected the popular belief, and, observing
the unity of design which is apparent in all the works
of nature, rightly conjectured that the whole universe
must have been created by one omnipotent and om-
niscient God, the sovereign and ruler of all.
The Greeks believed in a future state of rewards
and punishments. They imagined, that, after death,
the souls of men descended to the shores of a dis-
mal and pestilential stream, called the Styx, where
Charon, a grim-looking personage, acted as ferryman,
and rowed the spirits of the dead across the melancholy
river, the boundary of the dominions of Pluto. To
obtain a passage in Charon's boat, it was necessary
that the deceased should have been buried. Those
who were drowned at sea, or who were in any other
manner deprived of the customary rites of sepulture,
were compelled to wander about on the banks of the
Styx for a hundred years, before being permitted to
cross it.
56 GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY.
After quitting the vessel of Charon, the trembling
shades advanced to the palace of Pluto, the gate of
which was guarded by a monstrous dog, named Cer-
berus, which had three heads, and a body covered with
snakes instead of hair. They then appeared before
Minos, Rhadamanthus, and ./Eacus, the three judges
of the infernal regions, by whom the wicked were
condemned to torments, and the good rewarded with
heavenly pleasures.
Tartarus, the place of punishment, was the abode
of darkness and horror. There Tantalus, for a vile
crime done in life, remained perpetually surrounded
with water, which fled from his lips whenever he
attempted to quench his burning thirst, while over his
head hung branches laden with delicious fruits, which
shrunk from his grasp as often as he stretched out his
hand to pluck them.
There, also, was Ixion, bound with serpents to the
rim of a wheel, which, constantly revolving, allowed no
cessation of his agonies. Another variety of punish-
ment was allotted to Sisyphus, who was condemned to
the endless task of rolling a huge stone up the side of
a steep mountain, which he had no sooner accomplish-
ed than it rolled down again to its former place. On
one side criminals were writhing under the merciless
lash of the avenging Furies, and on another were to
be seen wretches surrounded with unquenchable flames.
Elysium, the abode of the blessed, was a region of
surpassing loveliness and pleasure. Groves of the
richest verdure, and streams of silvery clearness, were
to be met with on every side. The air was pure,
serene, and temperate ; the birds continually warbled
GRECIAN GAMES. 57
in the woods ; and a brighter light than that of the sun
was diffused throughout that happy land. No cares
nor sorrow could disturb its inhabitants, who spent their
time in the enjoyment of those pleasures they had
loved on earth, or in admiring the wisdom and power
of the gods.
Victors at the Olympic Games.
GRECIAN GAMES.
Though we are accustomed to speak of Greece as
one country, we have already seen that it consisted
of several distinct nations. In the earlier periods of
their history, these were hostile to each other, and it
was long before they united in one great confederation.
The almost incessant wars that took place kept the
58 GRECIAN GAMES.
people from free communication with each other, and
thus hindered their advance in civilization. But,
fortunately, a king of Elis, named Iphitus, at length
devised an institution, by which the people of all the
Grecian states were enabled, notwithstanding their
quarrels and wars with one another, to meet periodi-
cally on friendly terms, and communicate to each other
such information as might be useful for the improve-
ment and welfare of the whole.
This institution was an Olympic festival. From a
very remote period, the Greeks had been accustomed
to engage in contests of strength and agility during
their times of festivity, and also at the funerals of
distinguished personages. Iphitus conceived the idea
of establishing a periodical festival in his own do-
minions, for the celebration of these ancient games,
and of religious rites in honor of JLupiter and Hercu-
les ; and, having obtained the authority of the Delphi-
an oracle for carrying his design into execution, he
instituted the festival, and appointed that it should be
repeated every fourth year, at Olympia, a town of
Elis.
To this festival he invited all the people of Greece ;
and, that none might be prevented from attending it
by the wars in which any of the states might be
engaged, the Delphic oracle commanded that a gen-
eral armistice should take place for some time before
and after each celebration. The date of the estab-
lishment of the Olympic games, 884, B. C, was af-
terwards assumed by the Greeks as the epoch from
which they reckoned the progress of time ; the four
years intervening between each occurrence of the
festival being styled an Olympiad.
GRECIAN GAMES.
59
Three other institutions of a similar nature were
afterwards established ; namely, the Isthmian games,
celebrated near Corinth ; the Pythian, at Delphi ; and
the Nemean, at Argolis. These took place on the vari-
ous years which intervened between the successive
festivals at Olympia ; but, although they acquired con-
siderable celebrity, none of them rose to the impor-
tance and splendor of that of Iphitus. The games
which were celebrated at the festivals consisted of foot
and chariot races, wrestling and boxing matches, and
other contests, requiring strength and agility, together
with competitions in music and poetry. The victors
in the Olympic games were crowned with an olive
wreath, an honor which it was esteemed by the Greeks
one of the highest objects of ambition to attain.
Romulus and Remus.
R O M E
About the time when Lycurgus was settling the
institutions of Sparta, Italy was possessed by a set of
tribes, some of which, from the traces of their lan-
guage and arts which have been preserved, appear to
have been of Eastern origin, being probably colonies
from Greece and Asia Minor. The Etrurians, who
occupied modern Tuscany, were the most refined of
these races. In the country of the Latins, more to the
south, in the middle of the eighth century before Christ,
a small settlement was formed on a hill near the Tiber,
under the conduct, it is said, of a youthful leader
named Romulus.
ROME. 61
The history of this individual is embellished by the
ancients with a variety of ingenious fables. He is
represented as the son of Mars and Ilia. When an in-
fant, he and his twin brother, Remus, were thrown into
the Tiber by a usurper of the crown, but they were
miraculously saved by a she-wolf, which came forth and
fed them with her milk. They were at length found
by one of the king's shepherds, who reared them as
his own children.
When the two brothers had reached manhood, they
undertook to build a city, and it was decided by an
omen that Romulus should be its ruler. A line drawn
by the plough, after the fashion of the Etrurians, be-
came the boundary of the town, which at first was
composed of only a few huts, occupied by shepherds,
freebooters, aud other rude people. From such a be-
ginning rose the mighty city, and finally the empire of
Rome, taking their name from Romulus, the founder.
This enterprising leader became king of the little
state, and, as such, established certain laws and regula-
tions for the general advantage. The lands, which ex-
tended several miles around the city, were divided into
three portions, one for the support of government,
another for the maintenance of religion, and a third for
the people themselves, each person having about two
acres. A senate was established, consisting of a hun-
dred (afterwards two hundred) members, who were stvl-
ed p aires (fathers), and whose descendants, under the
name of patricians, or the equestrian order, formed the
nobility of Rome. The senate prepared all measures ;
but these were ultimately deliberated on by the plebs,
or bulk of the people, and through the medium of repre-
62 ROME.
sentatives, as in modern states, by a general assembly
held in the open air. At first, to increase the numbers
of the people, all kinds of malefactors, who could get
no settled footing elsewhere, were invited to the new
city ; it was then found that the male sex preponderat-
ed, and the deficiency was supplied by a stratagem, of
a nature which marks a very rude state of society.
The Sabines, a neighbouring people, were invited to
witness the games at Home ; and, while these were
proceeding, the young men laid hands each on one of
the young Sabine women, whom they carried off, and
compelled to become their wives. The Sabines were
enraged at this act ; but the women themselves, when
reconciled to their new situation, interposed to prevent
bloodshed, and ultimately the transaction had the effect
of uniting the Sabines with the Romans, and thus in-
creasing the power of the infant state.
Such is the history usually given of the origin of
Rome. A late German writer, M. Niebuhr, has shown
reason for regarding it as in a great measure fabulous.
He considers Romulus as a being little better than im-
aginary, and the laws and regulations bearing his name
as having sprung up in the course of time, and all of
them after the period when Romulus is represented as
having lived.
The Roman people, from the earliest period of
their history, bore a marked resemblance, in religion,
manners, and general pursuits, to the Greeks, from
whom it is obvious that they drew their origin.
They believed in the same imaginary deities, such as
Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Mars, Venus, &c., besides a
great number, which, in the course of time, they add-
ROME. 63
ed to this monstrous system of mythology. Like the
Greeks, also, they dressed themselves in a simple
manner, with a loose mantle, or toga, over a kind of
kilt, which left the legs exposed. At the outset, their
dependence was almost entirely on agriculture ; but
for the cultivation of the peaceful arts generally they
seem to have possessed no taste. War and plunder
were their favorite pursuits, in which they far exceed-
ed the Greeks, and almost all other nations of ancient
or modern times. Their language, founded on the
Greek, was that since known as the Latin, a term
derived from Latium, the early name of the country
in which Rome was situated.
During the early period of its history, the Roman
government was monarchical, but restricted by a senate
and popular assembly, and therefore favorable to social
advancement. From Romulus is reckoned a series
of seven kings, the ablest of whom, Servius Tullius,
placed Rome at the head of the small states, forming
what has been called the Latin confederacy, and con-
siderably improved the municipal institutions of the
kingdom. The last of the seven kings of Rome was
Tarquinius, surnamed the Proud. His son Sextus
having committed an atrocious act of violence on
Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus, she, unable to survive
the dishonor, killed herself. By this transaction, the
disgust of the people with their royal family, and with
monarchy in general, was brought to a head ; and
under a noble Roman, named Brutus, they rose and
expelled Tarquinius, with all his family. Thus ended
the regal power in Rome, in the year 509, B. C.
The monarchy was succeeded by a republic, in
64 ROME.
which the chief legislative authority rested with the
senate, and the liberties of the people were very little
improved. The executive was committed to two
magistrates of equal authority, named consuls, who
were chosen annually. Brutus, who had distinguish-
ed himself in expelling the royal family, was chosen
one of the two first consuls. During the time he held
office, his two sons joined in a conspiracy to restore
Tarquin; and Brutus, with a disregard of his own
affections which was considered a great virtue in
Greece and Rome, when the public interest was con-
cerned, condemned them both to be beheaded in his
presence.
The early years of the republic were marked by
great struggles between the patrician, or noble order,
and the common people. The vigor and persever-
ance with which the latter sought to emancipate them-
selves from the authority of the former composed a
striking picture in ancient history, and conveyed the
impression that there wen 1 here elements of charac-
ter superior to what existed at the time in any other
nation, excepl the Greeks. It would be wearisome,
however, to detail these various contentions.
From the beginning, the plebeians showed a ten-
dency to acquire the mastery. By the " Valerian law,"
they acquired the right of giving a final judgment on
any person condemned by a magistrate. Their im-
portance in composing armies also helped to give
them influence. By seizing an opportunity when the
patricians were in difficulties from for< ■ ssion,
492, B. C, they obtained the right of appointing tri-
bunes, — at first two in number, afterwards five, and
ROME. 65
finally ten, — who had the power of suspending the de-
crees of the senate and the sentences of the consul,
and had a general charge over the interests of the
common people. The power enjoyed by the plebe-
ians at this time is marked by their causing the cel-
ebrated Coriolanus to be sent into banishment, his
splendid military services being insufficient to atone
for his openly espousing the cause of the patricians,
and expressing contempt for the people. By a cer-
tain law, they finally obtained the right of assembling
in comitia, and of discussing public affairs, without the
decree of the senate, — a measure equivalent to the
assembling of the British parliament without the king's
writ, — and thus the government of Rome became
highly democratic, 471, B. C.
As yet the Romans had had no written law. The
kings, and after them the consuls, had administered
justice each according to his own sense. In the year
451, B. C, at the suggestion of a tribune named Ter-
entilius, ten men (decemviri) were appointed to frame
and digest a code of laws for the explanation and secu-
rity of the rights of all orders of the state. The result
was the formation of what have been called the Twelve
Tables of the Roman law, to learn which by heart was
a part of liberal education in Ancient Rome.
On the appointment of the Decemviri, the consuls
were discontinued. Each of the ten men acted as
supreme magistrate for a day, the nine others officiat-
ing as judges. They did not, however, remain long
in authority. One of the number, named Appius Clau-
dius, having formed a base design against a maiden
named Virginia, daughter of Virginius, a centurion,
5
Ob ROME.
and affianced to Icilius, caused her to be claimed as
his slave, and, as decemvir, gave judgment in his own
favor. When Virginius saw his daughter about to be
sacrificed to a profligate monster, he seized a knife
from a butcher's stall in the Forum, and stabbed her
to the heart. The people rose in fury against Appius,
who escaped for the time, but at length only avoided
punishment by committing suicide. This event caused
the abolition of the decemvirate, after it had lasted only
three years. The consuls and tribunes were then
restored.
The violent struggles of the patricians and plebeians
did not prevent Rome from gradually acquiring an
ascendency among the Italian States. The armies of
Rome, unlike all others in those early times, were
standing armies ; the soldiers had regular pay, and
made arms a profession. Their compact and well-
organized force, meeting in general only ill-disciplined
militia, carried every thing before it. Veii, a state
which had long defied and rivalled them, fell before
Camillus (396, B. C). In 385, B. C, they finally
reduced the Gauls, a powerful branch of the Celtic
race inhabiting the north of Italy. They then fought
and subdued the Samnites. Other states fell beneath
their powerful arms, and in the year 274, B. C, they
had acquired the complete mastery of all Italy.
The three wars with Carthage, called the Punic
Wars, all terminating in favor of Rome, were the
great events of the next hundred and twenty years.
It was during the first of them that Regulus, a noble
Roman general, was taken by the Carthaginians. He
was permitted to go to Rome to propose terms of peace,
upon the condition, however, that he should return, if
ROME. 6?
the offer he bore should not be accepted. Regtrffc*
went, but earnestly opposed the treaty, as being dishon-
orable to Rome. It was rejected, and he returned to
Carthage in obedience to his promise, and submitted
to the cruel death which he knew awaited him. The
first Punic War was closed in the year 241, B. C.
After twenty-three years of peace, Carthage had
recruited her wasted resources, and Hannibal then
commenced his splendid career against Rome. He
entered Italy at the north, traversed nearly its whole
length, and, having often defeated the Roman legions,
he maintained himself in Italy for sixteen years, draw-
ing his whole supplies from the country he had invad-
ed. But even Hannibal was finally defeated, and
Carthage was a second time obliged to submit to a
degrading peace, 202, B. C. The third Punic War
began in 149, B. C, and ended, three years after, in
the complete destruction of the city of Carthage.
These and other successes intoxicated the Roman
people. Gorged with the spoils of other countries, they
became at once luxurious, ambitious, and unscrupulous.
They made war for plunder, with as little hesitation as
does a professed robber upon the land, or a pirate upon
the high seas. As they sent forth large armies, and to
a considerable distance, for the purposes of conquest,
the leaders acquired great power. By flattering the
soldiery they learned to render them obedient to their
will, and Caesar at last led his forces against Rome
itself.
It was at this period, when the commonwealth was
about to pass into the hands of an absolute monarch,
that the Romans had attained the height of their power
Directing their main energies to military conquest,
they had enjoyed some centuries of glory, with every
kind of plunder which the conquered countries could
furnish. Every district in Europe, Asia, and Africa,
lying within reach of the Roman legions, had become
tributary to Rome. At this period, the nation reck-
oned about 7,000,000 of citizens, with twice as many
provincials, besides as many slaves. From being an
obscure town, Rome had become a wide-spread city,
and was adorned with majestic temples, public edifices,
and palaces. Other towns in Italy also rose into im-
portance, and became the residence of distinguished
Roman citizens.
Amphitheatre at Rome.
The public monuments of this remarkable people
were placed, not only in the capital, but all over the
provinces ; and some of them are to this day reck-
oned among the greatest wonders of art. But the stu-
ROME. 69
pendous character of their undertakings was chiefly
seen in their roads. All the cities of the empire were
connected with each other, and with the capital, by
public highways, which, issuing in various directions
from the Forum — or great central place of public
assembly — of Rome, traversed Italy, pervaded the
provinces, and were terminated only by the frontiers
of the empire. On the northwest, the boundary of this
extensive empire was the wall of Antoninus, built be-
twixt the Friths of Clyde and Forth, in Scotland, and
on the southeast it was the ancient city of Jerusalem.
If the distance between the two points be carefully
j-aced, it will be found that the great chain of commu-
nication was drawn out to the length of 3,740 English
miles.
The public roads were accurately divided by mile-
stones, and ran in a direct line from one city to an-
other, with very little respect for the obstacles either
of nature or private property. Mountains were per-
forated, and bold arches thrown over the broadest and
most rapid streams. The middle part of the road was
raised into a terrace, which commanded the adjacent
country, consisted of several strata of sand, gravel,
and cement, and was paved with large stones, or, in
some places near the capital, with granite. Such was
the solid construction of the Roman highways, whose
firmness has not entirely yielded to the effort of fifteen
centuries. They united the subjects of the most dis-
tant provinces by an easy and familiar intercourse ;
but their primary object had been to facilitate the
marches of the legions ; nor was any country consid-
ered as completely subdued, till it had been rendered,
70 ROME.
in all its parts, pervious to the arms of the conqueror.
The advantage of receiving the earliest intelligence,
and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced
the emperors to establish regular posts throughout their
extensive dominions. Post-houses were everywhere
erected at distances of only five or six miles ; each
of them was constantly provided with forty horses,
and, by the help of these relays, it was easy to travel
a hundred miles in a day along the Roman roads.
By these means the Romans maintained their ascen-
dency in every country, and diffused through the
whole empire the improvements of social life. There
was thus a nobleness and grandeur in various circum-
stances connected with the Roman sway, which, by a
moderate, firm, and enlightened system of govern-
ment, might have ultimately proved of the greatest im-
portance in the social advancement of mankind. It
was most unfortunate, however, both for this sacred
cause and for the welfare of the Roman people them-
selves, that the plan of enriching the commonwealth, at
the seat of power, consisted almost exclusively in rob-
bing foreign territories, — a plan which it is impossible
should ever permanently exist in any country, whatever
be its power. Besides, with all the encouragement
given to the fine arts, such as architecture, sculpture,
and the production of luxuries, there was no substan-
tial industry or commerce, and no means were taken
to enlighten and refine the community, by science,
literature, or morals. The whole fabric of Roman
greatness, in fact, rested on no sure foundation ; and its
gradual decline and fall, after the extinction of the
republic, cannot excite the smallest degree of surprise.
ROME. 71
The successes of Caesar placed him at the head of
the Roman world. His only remaining opponent was
Cato, who has been described as one of the most
faultless characters in Roman history. This eminent
patriot was, however, unable, by force of arms, to
restore the liberties of the people, or to arrest Caesar
in his victorious and ambitious career. Being at last
deserted by his friends, and dreading to fall into the
hands of his enemy, after pondering awhile on the
nature of the immortality of the soul, he stabbed him-
self with his own sword, — an act which Roman
morality held as perfectly justifiable, and which was
committed by many of the first characters in the state,
when they happened to be deserted by fortune. After
the death of Cato, Caesar was without a rival. Re-
turning to Rome in triumph, he established his author-
ity as dictator, and shortly afterwards received the title
of Imperator, or Emperor, with full powers of sove-
reignty.
This usurpation of power united the friends of the
republic, and sixty senators entered into a conspiracy
against him. Though aware of his danger, Caesar,
being of a bold nature, went to the senate house,
where he was assailed by the conspirators. He de-
fended himself with the utmost bravery, until he saw
Brutus, whom he esteemed as a friend, among his
assailants. The latter came up and struck him in the
thigh with a dagger. Caesar now exclaimed, in bitter-
ness of soul, " And you too, Brutus ! " and, no longer
attempting resistance, he folded his robe over his face,
and fell dead at the base of Pompey's statue.
Octavius Caesar, grand nephew and adopted son of
72 ROME.
Julius Caesar, after a bloody struggle obtained the
throne. He now assumed the title of Augustus, and,
instead of attempting to extend bis dominions, he sought
rather to consolidate his empire. I Ee flattered the Ro-
man people with a show of republican forms, while he
made them apparently happy in the tranquillity of a
concealed despotism. He encouraged literature, and
during his reign, which is called by way of distinction
the Augustan Age, some of the finesl productions of
Roman genius, such as the works of Virgil and Hor-
ace, were given to the world. It was also in the
twenty-fifth year of the reign of Augustus that Jesus
Christ was born in the Roman province of Judea.
Tiberius succeeded Augustus, and Caligula followed.
This profligate emperor carried luxury to its height.
He contrived baths in which the richest oils and most
precious perfumes were used with profusion ; he
sought out expensive and rare dishes, and had jewels
dissolved in his sauces. He built a stable of marble
for his horse, with a manger of ivory. This wretch
was succeeded by Claudius ; and Nero, the greatest
monster of antiquity, followed.
A long line of emperors are now presented in suc-
cession, most of whom must be ranked among the bas-
est of mankind. In the year 306, A. D., Constantine
came to the throne, and shed around it a transient ray
of glory. He adopted Christianity as the religion of
the state, and thus gave a final blow to the pagan my-
thology, which till now had prevailed throughout the
empire. He transferred the seat of government from
Rome to Byzantium, now Constantinople ; and in the
year 395, A. D., the empire was permanently divided
ROME.
73
into the Eastern and Western Roman Empire. Con-
stantinople was the capital of the former, and Rome
that of the latter.
A careful survey of the history of nations, as well
as of individuals, will justify the conclusion, that suc-
cess obtained by injustice and violence is usually
compensated by an equal degree of misery. There is
a pendulum in the moral as well as physical world,
ever tending to an equalization of justice. Rome had
flourished by despoiling the nations, and now she must
herself be despoiled. She had shed rivers of blood to
satiate her thirst for plunder and dominion, and, though
ages had passed, that blood still called from the ground
for retribution. It is impossible to read the history of
the fall of Rome, and not feel that there was then an
overruling tribunal, executing a heavy sentence of con-
demnation. The fearful agents in this work seemed
themselves to feel that they were but the executors of
a Divine judgment. There is something appalling in
the ideas that possessed the minds of those formida-
ble men, destined to perform the work of vengeance.
Alaric assumed the title of the " Scourge of God,"
and Genseric gave his sail to the breeze, saying to the
pilot, " God will direct our course ! "
For a considerable period, the Roman dominions
were pressed, on nearly all sides, by ferocious tribes
of barbarians. These were at first unknown to the
Romans ; but about the era of Constantine they had
become formidable, and arose in such numbers that
the earth seemed to have produced a new race of man-
kind to complete the empire's destruction. Against
such an enemy no courage could avail, no abilities be
74 ROME.
successful ; a victory only cut off nurriDcrs without a
habitation and a name, soon to be succeeded by others
equally desperate and obscure. The emperors who
had to contend with this people were most of them
possessed neither of courage nor abilities. Constan-
tius, Julian, Jovian, and Valentinian successively en-
deavoured to arrest the tide of barbarism which set in
upon their dominions ; but they wanted both the per-
sonal energy and the stern soldiery of the early com-
monwealth to accomplish this desirable object. In the
vain attempt to stop an immense inundation of Huns,
Alani, and Goths, from the extensive deserts of Tar-
tary and Russia, the Roman armies were greatly weak-
ened, so that the emperors, finding it difficult to
raise levies in the provinces, were obliged to hire one
body of barbarians to oppose another. This expedient
had its use, in circumstances of immediate danger ; but
when these were past, the Romans found it as difficult
to rid themselves of their new allies as of their former
enemies. Thus the empire was not ruined by any
particular invasion, but sunk gradually under the weight
of numerous attacks made upon it on every side. When
the barbarians had wasted one province, those who
succeeded the first spoilers proceeded on to another.
Their devastations were at first limited to Thrace,
Mysia, and Pannonia ; but, when these countries were
ruined, they destroyed Macedonia, Thessaly, and
Greece, and thence they proceeded to Noricum. The
empire was in this manner continually shrinking, and
northern Italy at last became the frontier of the Roman
dominion.
The valor and conduct of Theodosius in some meas-
ROME. 75
ure retarded the progress of destruction ; but, upon his
death, the enemy became irresistible. A large body of
Goths had been called in to assist the regular forces,
under Alaric, their king ; but what was brought in to
stop the universal decline proved the last mortal stab to
the empire. This Gothic prince, from an ally, became
a dangerous foe ; and finally, marching to Rome, made
himself master of the city, which he abandoned to be
pillaged by his soldiers, A. D. 410.
After this disastrous event, Rome was plundered
several times, and Italy was overrun by barbarous in-
vaders, under various denominations, from the remotest
skirts of Europe. The inhabitants of Rome, who had
sunk into the grossest vices, through the overpowering
influence of wealth and prosperity, were quite unable to
make any defence. So debased had they become, or
so ill regulated was the balance of wealth, that for
many years the whole of the lower classes had been
fed daily by the emperors from the public granaries.
The power of the state was now entirely broken ; the
provinces were voluntarily abandoned, or they rebelled,
or were seized by the nearest barbarous powers. At
length the title of Emperor of the West, which, on one
occasion, was put up at public auction by the licentious
soldiery, expired ; and, to finish the melancholy ac-
count, one of the princes of the barbarians assumed
the title of King of Italy. Such was the end of this
great empire, that had conquered mankind by its
arms, and instructed the world by its wisdom ; that
had risen by temperance, and that fell by luxury ; that
had been established by a spirit of patriotism, and that
sunk into ruin when the empire was become so exten-
76
ROME.
sive that the title of " Roman citizen " was but an
empty name. Its final dissolution took place in the
480th year of the Christian era, or 1232 years from
the date of the foundation of Rome.
Such was the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
For ages it continued in darkness ; but, in process of
time, a new power — that of the Pope — arose in the
ancient seat of the emperors, which at lust assumed a
dominion almost equal to that of the Caesars. This
was checked, as we have related : but the spiritual sway
of the Holy See is still exerted with powerful effect
over the larger portion of Christendom.
Battle of Navarino.
The Eastern or Greek Empire escaped the destruc-
tive rage of the northern barbarians, and during the
Gothic ages Constantinople was a great and beautiful
ROME,
77
city, and the only place m Europe where there were
any remains of the ancient elegance of arts or man-
ners. It was the rendezvous of the crusaders, in the
eleventh century, and thus became renowned for its
splendor. It gradually lost its ascendency, and in the
year 1453 the capital as well as the empire fell into
the hands of the Turks, who still retain it.
These grasping unbelievers seized upon Greece,
which they ruled with a rod of iron till the year 1821,
when the descendants of Leonidas and Lycurgus
drew the sword in the cause of liberty. After a
bloody struggle, which was terminated in 1827 by the
battle of Navarino, they achieved their independence.
Landing of Julius Qesar in England.
SKETCHES
FROM THE
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN
JULIUS CLESAR IN ENGLAND.
All histories of England commence with the inva-
sion of Julius Csesar, the earliest event in that quarter
of which we have any authentic account. The Island
of Britain was an unknown region to the Romans, and
nearly so to the rest of mankind, at the period when
Csesar's conquests had reduced the greater part of
Gaul to the Roman government. Britain, lying within
sight of the northern shores of Gaul, attracted his
notice, and he began to meditate schemes of conquest
in that island. He is said to have been prompted
to this design by a view of the British pearls, which
excited his admiration and cupidity by their great size
and beauty. Incited doubtless by the double stimulant
of ambition and avarice, he determined to invade this
unknown island. The Romans considered all strangers
as enemies ; no moral scruples or principles of inter-
national law interposed to hinder them from turning
their arms against any of their neighbours.
80 SKETCHES FROM THE
To acquire all possible preliminary knowledge of
the country he was about to invade, Caesar convened,
from different parts of Gaul, a great number of mer-
chants and adventurers who had visited Britain for trade
and other purposes. These he questioned as to the
extent of the island, its population and wealth, the
manners and customs of the inhabitants, their method
of fighting, the harbours of the island fit to receive large
ships, and other matters. These men, however, prob-
ably disliking the projected enterprise, did not furnish
him with satisfactory information. He therefore de-
spatched one of his officers in a galley to spy out the
condition of the coast, and in the mean time marched
with a strong army into the territory of the Morini,
about Calais and Boulogne, and collected a numerous
fleet in the harbours of that neighbourhood. The
news of the intended invasion soon spread through the
southern parts of Britain, and some of the states sent
over ambassadors to Caesar, offering to submit to the
government of Rome, and give hostages for their fideli-
ty. He gave them an amicable reception, and sent
them back with a prince of the Gauls, whom he in-
structed to obtain all possible information of the state
of the Britons, and to exhort them to enter into alliance
with the Romans, which was only a soft and inoffensive
term for submission.
Volusenus, the officer first despatched by Caesar,
having returned from examining the British coast, the
Roman army embarked at Calais and the neighbouring
ports in ninety-eight vessels, set sail, and at one o'clock
on the morning of the 26th of August, 55 years before
the Christian era, the principal part of the fleet arrived
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 81
at Dover Cliff. It was now discovered that the whole
country was hostile. The states which had offered
submission, finding that this had not averted the inva-
sion, determined to stand upon their defence. They
imprisoned Comius, the Gallic prince who had accom-
panied the ambassadors on their return, raised a nu-
merous army, and marched to that part of the coast
where they judged the invaders would attempt to land.
Caesar, on approaching the white shores, which gave
this island its ancient name of Albion, saw the lofty
cliffs covered with armed men. It was impossible to
land, in the face of an army, in this spot ; and, after
lying by till three in the afternoon, the fleet got under
sail again, and stood along the coast. Eight miles
further eastward, they reached a plain, open shore,
where Caesar determined to land, although the Britons
had followed him along the coast, and stood ready to
oppose the attempt.
When the Roman soldiers found themselves nearly
up to the neck in the water, encumbered by the weight
of their armor, and saw the beach covered with troops
of fierce barbarians, who rushed to assail them with
the greatest fury and resolution, they did not displav
that confidence and intrepidity which usually marked
their conduct on meeting with the enemy. For some
time the conflict was maintained with a dubious pros-
pect as to the result. Caesar, observing the critical
situation of his men, ordered several galleys, which
drew less water than the transport ships, to approach
the shore, and attack the enemy in flank with a gen-
eral discharge of their engines, slings, and arrows.
The Britons, struck with astonishment at the unusual
6
82 SKETCHES FROM THE
shape and motion of the galleys, and the playing of
the engines, first halted, and then began to give ground.
Still many of the Roman soldiers hesitated to leave
their ships and encounter at once the waves and the
enemy; at length the standard-bearer of the tenth
legion, having first invoked the gods, sprang into the
sea, and, advancing with the eagle towards the enemy,
cried aloud, "Follow me, fellow-soldiers, unless you
would betray the Roman eagle into the hands of the
enemy ; — for my part, I am determined to discharge
my duty to Ca:sar and the Commonwealth." All who
liked this bold action, and heard this animating speech,
were fired with courage and emulation, plunged into
the sea, and rushed toward the shore. The battle now
raged more fiercely than ever at the water's edge ; but
Caesar displayed so much activity and judgment in re-
inforcing his men at the points where they were most
hardly pressed, that at length the Roman discipline and
skill prevailed over the wild impetuosity of the bar-
barians, and the whole army, after repulsing their op-
ponents, effected a safe landing. The spot where this
engagement took place is supposed to be at the mod-
ern town of Deal.
The Britons, in discouragement, renewed their sub-
mission to Caesar, and apologized by their ambassa-
dors for the violence done to Comius, by laying the
blame entirely on the unruly multitude. Caesar again
accepted their offers, and took hostages for the fidelity
of the suppliants. Their submission, however, lasted
no longer than while the Romans were able to keep
them in terror by the presence of their army. The
first prospect of any threatened disaster to the invad-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. S3
ers was the signal for a new defection. On the very
day when a peace was agreed upon, eighteen trans-
ports of Roman cavalry set sail with a fair wind from
Gaul. As they approached the British shore, and
began to descry the Roman camp, a sudden storm
arose, dispersed the ships, and forced them back into
different ports on the continent. This disaster was
accompanied by another. On the night after the storm,
the moon was at the full, and the unexpected rise of
the tide surprised and embarrassed the Romans, fa-
miliar mostly with no other shores than those of the
Mediterranean, where the ebb and flow of the sea are
hardly perceptible. The galleys, which were drawn
up on the beach, were overflowed, and the ships at
anchor were either dashed to pieces, or greatly dam-
aged. By this sudden and unforeseen mishap, the Ro-
mans lost their provisions, and saw themselves without
transports to enable them to escape from the island, if
threatened with famine or a general rising of the
Britons. The whole army was at once thrown into
consternation.
A great number of the British chiefs were in the
camp, and saw, at once, the whole extent of these disas-
ters. The Romans were now without food, cavalry, or
ships, and might, apparently, be cut off at a single blow,
or starved into submission. The chiefs held secret
consultations, and determined upon a revolt. They
withdrew, one after another, under various pretences,
from the camp, repaired to their respective states, col-
lected their followers, and animated them to a renewal
of the war. A few days afterward, a great cloud of
dust was discovered from the Roman camp in the di-
84 SKETCHES FROM THE
rection in which the seventh legion had been sent out
to forage. Caesar, suspecting what had happened, im-
mediately placed himself at the head of the two cohorts,
which were upon guard, and flew toward the place,
leaving orders for other bodies of his troops to follow.
He found the foraging party engaged in a furious con-
flict with a numerous body of Britons, who, on horse-
back and in war-chariots, had suddenly rushed out of
the woods and attacked them. The timely arrival of
Caesar saved the party from the imminent danger
into which they were thrown by so violent and un-
expected an assault. The Britons were held in check,
and the Romans retreated slowly, but in safety, to their
camp.
Violent storms of rain kept the two parties inactive
for several days, during which the force of the Briton9
was prodigiously strengthened by constant arrivals of
men from all parts of the neighbourhood. On the first
favorable opportunity, they approached the Roman
camp, and attempted to carry it by storm, but were
defeated with an immense loss. Once more the Brit-
ons offered to yield, and once more Caesar accepted
their submission. The number of hostages was dou-
bled, and this was all that was required of them.
Caesar repaired his shattered fleet, and, after having
been three weeks in Britain, abandoned the country,
with his army, and returned to Gaul.
Such is Julius Caesar's own account of his first in-
vasion of Britain, which has been transmitted to us in
the Commentaries written by him during his cam-
paigns. It is represented as a very glorious and suc-
cessful expedition. But we are reminded of the lines
of Pope :
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 85
" Ask why from Britain Caesar would retreat,
Caesar himself might whisper, he was beat."
Had the Britons told their own story, we might have
a much clearer notion of the necessities that caused
the precipitate retreat of the Romans, who, after spend-
ing three weeks in the island, with great expense and
loss, abandoned it without leaving a fortress or a man
of their own, as an evidence of its subjugation.
Notwithstanding this, Csesar gave so flattering an
account of his exploits in Britain to the senate at Rome,
that a solemn thanksgiving of twenty days was decreed
in honor of him. Yet he was not backward in perceiving
that his fame as the conqueror of the Britons could not
be long kept up without more substantial proofs. A new
invasion was resolved upon, and a fleet of ships con-
structed, broader, shallower, and better adapted to the
conveyance and landing of troops than those used in
the former expedition. In the following spring, when
Csesar returned from Italy to Gaul, he found six hundred
of these transports and twenty-eight galleys ready for
sea. Embarking in this fleet, he landed his army in
Britain, at the same spot as before. The natives, on
beholding the approach of so large a number of ships,
were struck with consternation, and, instead of opposing
the landing of the Romans, as they at first designed,
withdrew into the interior.
Csesar immediately marched in pursuit of them.
But at the river Stour, while engaged in a skirmish with
a body of the enemy, he received intelligence that
another storm had shattered his fleet. He returned in
haste, and found that forty of his vessels had foundered,
86 SKETCHES FROM THE
and that hardly any of the remainder were fit for service.
Orders were immediately despatched to Gaul for the
building of another fleet ; and Caesar, being now con-
vinced that there was no safety for his naval force on
the tempestuous coast of Britain, undertook the pro-
digious task of drawing all his ships ashore, and en-
closing them within the fortifications of his camp.
The vigorous and incessant toil of the whole army
accomplished this almost incredible labor in the short
space of ten days. Having thus secured the fleet,
Caesar again marched in pursuit of the enemy. They
had chosen for their general-in-chief, Cassibelan, prince
of the Cassi, a man of great courage and mili-
tary experience. Several actions were fought, in which
the Britons displayed uncommon resolution and skill,
and obliged the Romans to observe the most cautious
prudence in their marches. Csesar, on advancing to
the Thames, found the enemy drawn up in great force
behind a palisade of sharp stakes, on the opposite
bank. Not appalled by this formidable show of re-
sistance, he ordered his men immediately to advance
and ford the river. The soldiers plunged into the
stream, which was so deep that only their heads ap-
peared above water, and rushed upon their antagonists,
who, astonished at the boldness of the attack, made
only a feeble resistance, and then fled. The spot
where this occurred is now known by the name of
Coway Stakes.
The Britons now changed their mode of warfare,
and contented themselves with harassing the invaders
by issuing in small parties from the woods, and attack-
ing them when off then guard. The want of a cordial
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 87
and systematic union among the different tribes em-
barrassed all their efforts for the common defence, and
at length Caesar made himself master of the capital
of Cassibelan, a fortified town near the present site of
St. Albans. Further resistance was now useless, and
that prince made peace with the Romans, and con-
sented to pay a yearly tribute in token of submission.
After this general pacification, Caesar judged it useless
to maintain a military force any longer in the island.
The army was therefore withdrawn from Britain in
September, and the Romans claimed little more than
the honor of the conquest. They retained possession
of no part of the territory, and, as the nature and
amount of the tribute are not specified, we may judge
it to have been inconsiderable. For nearly a century
afterwards, hardly any thing is known of the affairs of
Britain.
At the time of Caesar's invasion, the whole island
of Great Britain probably contained no more inhabi-
tants than are to be found at this day in London. The
country was divided into a great number of indepen
dent principalities, all under monarchical governments.
The prevailing religion was that of the Druids. In
regard to arts, sciences, and manners, the Britons
were in a state of barbarism. The only art which
they possessed in any degree of advancement was that
of war. Some of the British tribes were naked, but
none of them were unarmed. Many of them were
ignorant of the arts of agriculture, spinning, and weav-
ing, but all of them could fight with much courage
and skill. This art they had acquired in the inces-
sant wars which kept the petty states of Britain involv-
88 SKETCHES FROM THE
ed in almost perpetual conflicts with one another ; and,
by their skill in arms, they were enabled to maintain a
long and glorious struggle for liberty against the Ro-
mans, who far excelled all the rest of mankind in the
dreadful art of subduing and destroying their fellow-
creatures.
The British infantry were swift of foot, and very
expert in swimming rivers and passing over fens and
marshes, which enabled them to make sudden and un-
expected attacks. They were not encumbered with
much clothing, many of them being almost naked,
having no defensive armor except light shields. They
carried long and broad swords without points, and
spears with round brass bells at the butt end to make a
loud noise when they engaged the enemy's horse.
The British cavalry were accustomed to dismount
occasionally and fight on foot ; and their horses were
so well trained that they stood firm in their places till
their riders returned. But the most remarkable of the
British combatants were those who fought in chariots.
This singular art of war was almost peculiar to the
ancient Britons, and they greatly excelled in it. The
British chariots merit, therefore, a particular description.
When we consider the imperfect state of some of
the most useful arts in Britain before the invasion of
the Romans, we could hardly expect to find here wheel-
carriages of any kind ; much less chariots for purposes
of state, pleasure, and war, of various forms, and
of curious and elegant workmanship. It appears, how-
ever, from the concurring testimony of many ancient
writers of unquestionable credit, that the Britons pos-
sessed such chariots in prodigious numbers, even in
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 89
the most remote and savage parts of the island. Six
different kinds are mentioned by name in the Greek
and Roman authors. Three of these, the covinus, the
essedum, and the rheda, were war-chariots. The co-
vinus was a terrible instrument of destruction ; it was
furnished with scythes and hooks, and was built light,
to drive with great force and rapidity through the ranks
of the enemy. The prodigious numbers of these
chariots, and the dexterity with which the barbarians
managed them, excite our wonder. Csesar informs us
that Cassibelan, after dismissing all his other forces,
retained about him no less than four thousand chariot-
warriors. The same careful observer thus describes
their method of fighting ; " First, they drive their char-
iots forward, and throw their darts ; by the fright they
occasion the horses, and the noise of the wheels, they
often break the ranks of the enemy. When they have
forced their way into the midst of the cavalry, they
leap from their chariots and fight on foot. The drivers
withdraw a short distance from the combat, and station
themselves in such a manner as to favor the retreat of
their countrymen, should they be overpowered by the
enemy. Thus in action they perform the part both
of nimble horsemen and of stable infantry ; and by
continual exercise they have acquired so wonderful a
degree of expertness, that, in the most steep and diffi-
cult places, they can stop their horses when at full
speed, turn them which way they please, run out upon
the shaft, rest on the harness, and throw themselves
back into their chariots with inconceivable dexterity."
The Britons painted themselves like the American
Indians, and practised the art of tattooing as it is now
90 HISTORY" OF GREAT BRITAIN.
in use among the South Sea islanders. They had
some rude notions of sculpture, and made images of
clay, which they hardened in the fire. They excelled
in wicker-work, and their baskets were sent to Rome,
where they were much admired. They seem to have
been the inventors of this domestic utensil, and the
name which they gave it, bascauda, is one of the
few words of their language which is recognized in
our modern English tongue.
ALFRED AND HIS TIMES.
The semi-barbarous era of the Anglo-Saxons is
illuminated by a ray of glory from the reign of Alfred,
a prince on whom an impartial posterity has conferred
the epithet of " the Great." The kings, his predeces-
sors, are chiefly known to us by their military achieve-
ments ; but it is the distinguishing praise of Alfred,
that he was not only a warrior, but also the patron of
the arts, and the legislator of his people. He was the
son of jEthelwolf, king of the West Saxons, and was
born in 849. He was the youngest of four sons, but
his beauty, vivacity, and playfulness endeared him in
a particular manner to his parents, who predicted that
he would one day prove the chief ornament of the
family. In his fifth year, his father sent him to Rome
to be crowned by the Pope.
Letters were in a declining state among the Anglo-
Saxons, and the nobility divided their time between
Savage Britons.
Saxons.
92 SKETCHES FROM THE
the occupations of war and the pleasures of the chase.
But the mother of Alfred had the merit of awakening
in his mind that passion for learning by which he be-
came so honorably distinguished among his contem-
poraries. She offered a Saxon poem, elegantly written
and illuminated, as a reward to the first of her chil-
dren who should learn to read it. The emulation of
Alfred was excited ; he applied himself to study with
diligence, performed it to the satisfaction of his mother,
and received the prize of his industry. — During the
reign of his brothers, he possessed the government of
a petty district, with the title of King.
In the twenty-second year of his age he succeeded
to the crown. England was then suffering from the
inroads of the Danes, who had invaded the country at
different periods for nearly a century preceding. Al-
fred's first campaign against them was unfortunate ; at
the battle of Wilton, the Saxon army was defeated, and
he found it necessary to negotiate. The Danes, prob-
ably induced by a valuable present, withdrew to Lon-
don. But this pacification was not of long continu-
ance. New bands of adventurers arrived from Den-
mark, and the invaders recommenced hostilities with
such success that in a short time the whole Anglo-
Saxon territory fell under their dominion, except the
districts south of the Thames and north of the Tyne.
The devastations of war now desolated the country in
almost every quarter. Towns, villages, and convents
were ravaged and burnt to the ground, and the route
of the conquerors might be traced by smoking ruins,
and the mangled remains of the victims of their bar-
barity. The Danish fleets in the mean time ravaged
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 93
the coast. Alfred, unable to oppose any efficient
force against so formidable an army, again had re-
course to negotiation. Guthrum, the Danish leader,
agreed for a considerable sum to retire out of Alfred's
kingdom of Wessex ; but, the perfidy of the Danes
being notorious, a number of hostages were demanded.
The hostages were given. Alfred next required their
oaths, and they swore by their bracelets. He was not
satisfied, and they swore by the relics of the Christian
Saints. Believing that he had bound them now by the
strongest ties, he peacefully awaited their departure ;
but in the dead of night a body of the Danes fell
upon the Saxon cavalry, put them to the sword, mount-
ed the horses of the slain, and by a rapid march sur-
prised and captured Exeter.
Alfred now saw the necessity of a naval force in
order to expel the invaders from his territories. He
accordingly equipped a few vessels, and, manning
them with foreign adventurers, sailed in quest of the
enemy. Fortune threw in his way a Danish fleet
of seven ships, one of which he captured, and the
others escaped. This trifling success raised his hopes.
He built more ships and galleys, and, by unceasing
efforts, he at last succeeded in creating a navy. He
was victorious at sea, and the Danes lost a hundred
and twenty ships, partly by capture and partly by
shipwreck. Guthrum was now compelled to treat in
earnest, and he evacuated Alfred's dominions.
The crafty Dane, however, did not abandon his
resolution of subjugating the Anglo-Saxons. He de-
termined on the extraordinary expedient of a winter
campaign, which had been hitherto unknown among
94 SKETCHES FROM THE
his countrymen. In the beginning of the year 878,
his followers received an unexpected summons to meet
him on horseback at an appointed place. By a sudden
attack they made themselves masters of Chippenham,
and Alfred narrowly escaped being taken prisoner.
The Saxons were surprised by the enemy before they
heard of the war, and the king saw himself surrounded
by the invaders without any force to resist them. Many
of the inhabitants fled the kingdom, others submitted
to the conquerors, and Alfred, almost entirely aban-
doned by his people, was compelled to betake himself
to flight, and wander, a solitary fugitive, on foot, among
the morasses of Somersetshire. This is the period of
the lowest depression of his fortunes, and the point of
most Romantic interest in his history. At length he
found a secure retreat in a small island situated in a
marshy spot at the confluence of the Thone and the
Parret, which afterwards obtained the name of ^Ethel-
ingay, or Prince's Island.
During his lone wanderings, as the Saxon histo-
ries inform us, he found a shelter at one time in the
house of a man who kept his cattle. On a certain day,
the good woman of the house made some cakes and
put them before the fire to bake, charging Alfred, who
sat by, trimming his bow and arrows, to take care that
they did not burn ; but the king, either absorbed in
thought or intent on his work, neglected the task, and
the careful housewife on her return found them spoiled
by the fire. She gave the monarch a severe scolding,
and reminded him, sarcastically, that he was always
ready enough to eat her cakes, though he was too lazy
to see to their baking. Few of Alfred's biographers
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 95
have been willing to omit this curious anecdote, which
stands upon as good evidence as the case will admit.
The reader will excuse us for adding another. After
Alfred had established himself in his retreat at iEthel-
ingay, he was joined by his queen. While they sat
alone one day, the king beguiling the tedium of the
hours by reading aloud to his wife, he was interrupted
by a poor beggar who entreated for something to eat.
Alfred bade the queen see what they had in the cup-
board ; she examined and answered, " One small loaf."
He directed her to divide it with the beggar, and trust
to Providence for a further supply for themselves.
We omit the marvellous and miraculous circum-
stances with which the monkish historians have em-
bellished the narrative of this simple deed of charity.
By degrees the retreat of Alfred became known to
his countrymen, and he was joined by many trusty
adherents. At their head he occasionally issued from
his concealment, intercepted straggling parties of the
Danes, and returned laden with the spoils of the en-
emy. As his associates multiplied, these excursions
were more frequent and successful ; a fort was built
on the island, and a bridge to connect it with the main
land. In the mean time another strong body of Danes
had landed in England, and laid siege to the castle of
Kynwith. It had no other fortification than a loose
wall, after the manner of the ancient Britons, but its
position, on the summit of a lofty rock, rendered it
almost impregnable. The Danish leader was too pru-
dent to hazard an assault, and pitched his camp at the
foot of the rock, in the confident expectation that the
want of water would compel the garrison to surrender.
96 SKETCHES FROM THE
But the Saxons, gathering courage from despair, left
their intrenchments at the dawn of morning, burst into
the enemy's quarters, slew their leader with twelve
hundred men, and drove the remainder to their fleet.
Among the trophies of this victory was the mysteri-
ous standard of the Raven, woven in one noon-tide
by the three daughters of Ragnar. Great importance
was attached by the superstitious Danes to this magi-
cal banner. As they marched to battle, they were
accustomed to observe the picture of the raven em-
broidered upon its folds. If it appeared to flap its
wings, it was a sure omen of victory ; but if it hung
motionless in the air, they anticipated a certain defeat.
Highly encouraged by this brilliant success, the
Saxons obeyed the summons of Alfred to meet him at
Sehvood forest, and nocked in great numbers to the
rendezvous. At the appearance of their sovereign,
the wood reechoed with their acclamations, and every
heart beat with the confidence of victory. The spot,
however, was too confined to receive the multitudes
that hastened to the royal standard, and the next morn-
ing the camp was removed to Icglea, a spacious plain
in the neighbourhood. The day was spent in making
preparations for the conflict. A strong army of Danes
was encamped not far off; and, if we may believe the
Saxon historians, Alfred engaged in a bold adventure
to inform himself of the strength and position of the
enemy. Disguising himself as a wandering harper, he
ventured into the Danish camp, which he traversed in
all parts, critically examining every object. He was
even admitted into the tents of the Danish leaders,
whom he entertained by an exhibition of his musical
skill. Having; thus obtained full information of the
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 97
state of the enemy's forces, he returned unsuspected,
and prepared for the attack.
The two armies met at Eddington. As they ap-
proached each other, they vociferated shouts of mutual
defiance ; and, after the discharge of their missiles,
rushed to close combat. The shock of the two nations,
the efforts of their leaders, the fluctuations of victory,
and the alternate hopes and fears of the contending
parties, we shall not attempt to describe. At length
the perseverance of the Saxons bore down all opposi-
tion, and the Danes, after an obstinate defence, fled in
crowds to their camp. The pursuit was not less san-
guinary than the engagement. The Saxons put to
death every fugitive who fell into their hands. The
Danes were besieged in their camp, and Guthrum on
the fourteenth day offered to capitulate. The terms
imposed by Alfred were, that the king and principal
chieftains should embrace Christianity, and that the
Danes should entirely evacuate the Saxon territory.
These terms were complied with, and the victory of
Eddington established the independence of Alfred's
kingdom.
From this period he suffered comparatively little an-
noyance from enemies for the space of fifteen years,
and found himself at leisure to attend to the improve-
ment and civilization of his people. The towns and
villages were put in a state of defence, and the naval
force was strengthened. Ships were built of larger
dimensions than those of the Danes ; they were double
the length, and constructed with higher decks, which
gave the Saxons great advantage in battle. Several of
these ships had above thirty oars on each side.
7
98 SKETCHES FROM THE
Alfred then turned his attention to the domestic con-
cerns of the country. During the ravages of the Danes,
the whole fabric of civil government had been nearly
dissolved. The courts had been closed, and all sorts of
crimes committed with impunity. The Saxons, during
this period of license and rapine, had caught from the
Danes a spirit of insubordination, a contempt for peace,
justice, and religion. Alfred undertook the arduous
task of remedying these evils, and, by the most untiring
assiduity and vigilance, he accomplished his great pur-
pose. The ignorant, capricious, and despotic judges
were displaced or reformed. The salutary institutions
of the ancient Saxon kings were restored, and a new
code of laws was digested, supplying existing defi-
ciencies, and adapted to the circumstances of the times.
Alfred heard appeals with the most patient attention.
In cases of importance, he revised the proceedings at
his leisure, and the inferior magistrates trembled at the
impartiality and severe justice of their sovereign.
Forty-four magistrates are said to have been put to
death by his order in one year, for illegal and iniqui-
tous proceedings. This severity caused a complete
revolution in an important branch of public manners.
The judges not only became upright, but the people
honest and orderly. Theft and murder were now as
remarkable for their rarity as in former times for their
frequency. To prove the reformation of his subjects,
Alfred, we are told, caused valuable jewels to be hung
up in sight along the highways, which no man ventured
to remove ; and it is further stated, that, if a traveller
lost his purse on the road, he would, at the end of a
month, find it lying, untouched, on the same spot As
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 99
literal facts, we may reasonably discredit these tales ;
but, even if pure inventions, they serve to show the
high estimation in which Alfred's administration of
justice was held by his posterity.
Learning had fallen into so deplorable a state during
the Danish invasions, that, on the accession of Alfred
to the throne, his whole dominions could hardly boast
of one scholar able to read Latin. The churches and
monasteries, the only seminaries of learning in that
age, had been destroyed. The king, who never lost
his youthful passion for knowledge, endeavoured to
promote literary studies among his people. He invited
to his court the most distinguished scholars from for-
eign countries, and, with their assistance, he began, in
his thirty-ninth year, to apply himself to the study of
Roman literature. He established schools in various
places, and made endeavours that the children of every
freeman, whose circumstances would allow it, should
learn reading and writing, and that all persons, designed
for civil or ecclesiastical employments, should be in-
structed in Latin.
Alfred's judicial reforms constituted the most lasting
memorial of his genius. He divided all England into
shires or counties, the counties into hundreds, and the
hundreds into tythings. In this manner, all the inhabi-
tants of the kingdom were obliged to belong to some
tything, and whoever did not was looked upon as a
vagabond, and denied the protection of the law. Every
householder was held to answer for his wife, his chil-
dren under fifteen years of age, and his domestics.
If any one, by his way of living, fell under suspicion
of irregularity, he was compelled to give security for
100 SKETCHES FROM THE
his good behaviour; and, in case he could procure none,
the tything threw him into prison, to prevent their
being liable to a penalty, should he commit any of-
fence. Thus the householders being responsible for
their families, the ty things for the householders, the
hundreds for the tythings, and the counties for the hun-
dreds, every one was watchful over his neighbour's
actions. If a stranger, guilty of any crime, made his es-
cape, information was taken of the house where he had
lodged, and, if he had been there three days, the mas-
ter was condemned to pay the fine. As Alfred had
the sagacity to perceive that the spirit of oppression
naturally grew upon men in authority, he studied to
prevent abuses in the decisions of the magistrates. For
this purpose, he provided, that, in all criminal cases,
twelve men, selected for the purpose, should determine
concerning the facts alleged, and the judge give sen-
tence according to their verdict. Such was the origin
of the English trial by jury, the distinguishing feature
of modern jurisprudence.
The progress which this great prince made in learn-
ing, while occupied in the busy scenes of war and
legislation, affords a remarkable instance of his econo-
my of time, industry, and assiduity in study. He was
the best Saxon poet of his age, an excellent gramma-
rian, orator, architect, geometrician, and historian. He
translated from the Latin into Saxon, " Boethius de
Consolatione," " Gregory's Pastoral," " Bede's Eccle-
siastical History," and the " Epitome of Orosius,"
besides composing several original works. While he
lay concealed at iEthelingay, he made a vow to dedi-
cate to the service of God a third part of his time,
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. ^ 101
as soon as he should be restored to a tranquil condi-
tion. He was punctual to this vow, and allotted eight
hours every day to acts of devotion, eight to public
affairs, and the remainder to sleep, study, and neces-
sary refreshment. As clocks and hour-glasses were
not yet known in England, he measured time with
wax candles marked with colored lines for the hours ;
and, to guard them from irregular consumption on ac-
count of the wind, he is said to have invented horn
lanterns. This is probably the most humble domestic
utensil that ever owed its origin to a king. Napoleon,
indeed, invented a pillow with a cavity to fit the ear, —
but this was a small compensation for having made
half the world lie uneasy in their beds.
After a glorious reign of more than twenty-five years,
Alfred died on the 26th of October, in the year 900. He
made liberal bequests in his will, and, in particular,
forbade his heirs to invade the liberty of those persons
whom he had set free. " For God's love," says he,
" and for the advantage of my soul, I will that they be
masters of their own freedom and of their own will.
And, in the name of the living God, I entreat that no
man disturb them by exaction of money, or in any
other manner, but that they be left at liberty to serve
any lord whom they may choose " : — a striking coin-
cidence between the last will and testament of two
great men, — Alfred and Washington.
102
SKETCHES FROM THE
CANUTE AND HIS TIMES.
Canute reproving his Flatterers.
Among the Danish kings of England, Canute stands
preeminent for his wisdom and military prowess. His
father, Sweyn, king of Denmark, after a most success-
ful campaign against the Saxons, entered London in
triumph, and England was completely conquered.
But before the crown could be placed upon his head,
he was snatched away by a sudden death, in February,
1014. The dejected spirits of the conquered nation
revived at this event, and they again rose in resistance
against the invaders. The Danes, taken unawares by
this sudden renewal of hostilities, were defeated with
great loss, and forced to take refuge on board their
ships. Canute, who succeeded his father, sailed to
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 103
Denmark to take possession of that kingdom. Hav-
ing settled the affairs of his hei'editary dominions, he
returned to assert his claim to the crown of England.
He quickly subdued several districts, and obtained a
firm footing in the country. Ethelred, the Saxon king,
maintained himself at London, where he died. Ed-
mund, his son, was crowned king by the Archbishop
of Canterbury, assisted by a very few of the English
nobility and clergy ; but his affairs were in so unprom-
ising a state, that far the greater part of the nobility
attended Canute at Southampton, where they swore al-
legiance to him as their king, and abjured all the pos-
terity of Ethelred. After these ceremonies, both these
princes prepared to contend for the crown of England
with such spirit and valor as showed that neither of
them was unworthy of the prize. Edmund, who, from
his courage and resolution in war, had obtained the
surname of Ironside, hastened to Wessex, where his
party was in considerable strength. Canute, taking
advantage of his absence, laid siege to London, but
the bravery of the citizens baffled all his efforts. Ed-
mund forced him to raise the siege. Five bloody bat-
tles were fought, and London was besieged three times
during the year 1016. A treaty followed, by which
the kingdom was divided between the rival kings. Ed-
mund fell by assassination shortly after this, and Ca-
nute was acknowledged king of all England by a gen-
eral assembly of all the chief persons of the nobility
and clergy held at London in 1017.
Having secured himself in his new dominion, this
politic prince undertook the performance of several
meritorious acts of justice. In the course of the pre-
104 SKETCHES FROM THE
ceding wars, some of the English nobles had shame-
fully betrayed the cause of their king and country.
As long as Canute needed the treason, he cherished
the traitors ; but as soon as he found himself in peace-
able possession of the throne, he banished some of
them, and put others to death. Still further to gain the
affections of his English subjects, he married the wid-
ow of the late king Ethelred. By these and many
other prudent measures, he found himself so firmly
seated on the throne, that he ventured, in 1019, to make
a voyage to Denmark, which kingdom was then at war
with Sweden. He passed a year on this visit, and, on
his return to England, found every thing in the most
perfect tranquillity, which continued several years.
During this time, he occupied himself in making ju-
dicious laws, building churches and monasteries, and
in other popular and pious works.
In the year 1028, he undertook an expedition into
Norway, reviving some old pretensions which he had
to the crown of that kingdom. Olaus, the actual sov-
ereign, was a weak and unwarlike prince, and Canute
judged this a favorable opportunity to enforce his
claims. By intriguing with the Norwegian nobility, he
formed a strong party in that country favorable to his
interests. He then sailed with a powerful army for
Denmark, whence he suddenly crossed the sound and
landed in Norway. Olaus, totally ignorant of his de-
signs, was taken by surprise at this sudden invasion,
and was still more astonished to see the greater part
of his subjects join the enemy. Unable to resist the
invaders, he had no resource but to abandon the king-
dom, and save himself by flight. Olaus is said to have
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 105
lost the attachment of his people by his untimely zeal
and vain endeavours to restrain them from piracy, a
practice very common at that period among the nations
of Northern Europe. Canute was crowned king of
Norway ; and, two years after, the exiled prince, at-
tempting to recover his dominions, was slain by his
own people, which left Canute in peaceable possession
of the throne.
The conquest of Norway seems fully to have satis-
fied his ambition and satiated his passion for war.
From that time, laying aside all thoughts of augment-
ing his dominions, he gave himself up to acts of devo-
tion, building and enriching churches and monasteries.
Although a wise, and in many respects a great prince,
he was not superior to the degrading superstition which
prevailed in that age of intellectual darkness. Influ-
enced chiefly by this feeling, he made a pilgrimage to
Rome in 1031, attended by a numerous and splendid
train of nobility, and lavished greater sums of money
upon the churches and clergy of that city than any
foreign prince had ever done before. He obtained,
in requital, from the Pope, some additional privileges
for the English college at Rome, and the travellers
who visited the tombs of the apostles ; but what he
probably valued more than all the rest was a plenary
pardon of all his sins, and the special friendship of
St. Peter.
On his return to England, he commenced hostilities
against the Scots on the following account. During
the early invasions of the Danes, it became necessary
very frequently to bribe them with money to desist
from their depredations and leave the country. The
106 SKETCHES FROM THE
expense of this, and the maintenance of armies for
defence, much exceeded the ordinary revenues of the
crown. A land-tax was, therefore, imposed, called
Danegehl, or the Danes' pay. The Scottish kings held
the province of Cumherland by a feudal tenure from
the English crown ; but they had constantly refused
to pay this ignominious tax. Canute determined no
longer to allow this delinquency, and, raising an army,
he marched toward the North to enforce the payment
of the Danegeld or expel the Scots from England.
Malcolm, the Scottish king, knew himself to be unable
to resist so powerful a foe, and, before the two nations
came to battle, he thought fit to compromise the
quarrel without bloodshed. He saved his honor by
granting Cumberland to his grandson Duncan, who
agreed to pay the tribute.
The remainder of the reign of Canute offers little to
attract the notice of the historian. All his dominions
enjoyed a profound peace till his death, on the 12th of
November, 1035. The British annalists have not
scrupled to give this prince the name of Great, an
honor which he merits less perhaps by his conquests
than by the pacific portion of his life. His title to the
kingdoms which he subjugated was very questionable,
to say the least. He shed much blood, and he tram-
pled upon religion and justice, for his own aggrandize-
ment. But, if there be no exaggeration in what histo-
rians say of him, many years before his death he
became just, humble, modest, religious, and truly wise.
From the time that he saw himself firmly fixed on the
throne, he gave daily marks of piety, justice, and mod-
eration, which gained him the affection of his subjects
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 107
and the esteem of foreigners. A prince so prosperous
and powerful, the sovereign of three great kingdoms,
could not be destitute of flatterers. Some of his cour-
tiers, if we may believe recorded accounts, carried
their absurd adulation to so extravagant a length as to
declare, in his presence, that the very elements were
under his control, and nothing in nature dared disobey
his commands.
One day, while walking with his attendants by the
seaside at Southampton, he undertook to rebuke this
wretched sycophancy in a striking manner. He or-
dered his chair to be placed on the beach, while the
tide was beginning to rise ; and, taking his seat, he ex-
claimed to the waters, in a voice of authority, " O sea !
thou art under my control, and the land on which I sit
is mine : I charge thee to approach no further, nor dare
to wet the feet of tby sovereign ! " But the rising
billows, regardless of his command, dashed upon the
shore and forced him to retire. The king turned to
his flatterers, and said, " Learn from this example
the insignificance of all human power, and that God
alone is omnipotent ! " He then took the crown
from his head, and, we are told, never wore it after-
Avards, but ordered it to be placed on the crucifix at
Winchester.
Canute was the greatest and most powerful monarch
of his time. Though he had been baptized in his in-
fancy, he knew little of the doctrines of Christianity in
the early part of his career. But, after the conclusion
of the wars which seated him on the English throne,
the ferocity of his disposition was softened by the pre-
cepts of religion ; he entered deeply and with sincerity
108 SKETCHES FROM THE
into the devotion of the times, and the sanguinary sea-
king was gradually moulded into a just and beneficent
monarch. He often lamented the bloodshed and mis-
ery which his own rapacity and that of his father had
inflicted on the English people, and acknowledged it
his duty to make a compensation for their sufferings
by a peaceful and equitable reign. In a Wittenagemote
at Oxford, he persuaded the English and Danish thanes
to forgive each other any existing cause of offence,
and to promise a mutual friendship for the future.
As a legislator, Canute is entitled to high praise.
He compiled a code of laws from the enactments of
former kings, with such additions as were required by
the existing state of society. By the incorporation of
the Danes with the Saxons, the rites of paganism again
made their appearance in England. Canute forbade
the worship of the heathen gods, of the sun and moon,
of fire and water, of stones and fountains, of forests
and trees. He denounced punishments against those
who pretended to deal in witchcraft, and the " workers
of death," whether by lots, or flame, or any other
charms. He prohibited the custom of sending Chris-
tians for sale into foreign countries, not from any dis-
approbation of slavery itself, but because such Chris-
tians would be in danger of falling into the hands of
infidel masters, and of being seduced from their reli-
gion. He undertook to relieve his people from a
portion of the burdens arising from feudal services,
which in England, as well as in the other European
nations, had long been on the increase.
The sincerity and earnestness with which he studied
the welfare of his subjects may be seen from the fol-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 109
lowing extract from a letter which he addressed to them
while on his journey to Rome, and which may be con-
sidered as a sort of public proclamation : " Now,
therefore, be it known to you all, that I have dedicated
my life to the service of God, to govern my kingdom
with equity, and to observe justice in all things. If, by
the violence and negligence of youth, I have violated
justice heretofore, it is my intention, with the help of
God, to make full compensation. Therefore I beg and
command those to whom I have confided the govern-
ment, as they wish to preserve my friendship, or save
their own souls, to do no injustice, either to rich or
poor. Let all persons, whether noble or ignoble, ob-
tain their rights according to law ; from which no de-
viation shall be allowed, either from fear of me or
through favor to the powerful, or for the purpose of
supplying my treasury. I have no need of money
raised by injustice."
110
SKETCHES FROM THE
THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
Saxons.
In the eleventh century, the Anglo-Saxons, origin-
ally the fiercest nation of the North of Europe, had
become changed into a submissive and unwarlike peo-
ple by the combined influences of luxury, a great
landed aristocracy, and a richly endowed hierarchy.
Their sovereigns had become men of feeble minds;
their nobles were factious and effeminate ; the clergy
corrupt and ignorant, and the people servile and de-
pressed. All the venerated forms of the Saxon insti-
tutions existed, but their spirit had evaporated. Their
towns were increasing in population ; their freedmen
were multiplying ; and their lands were subject to the
ferd, or military expedition, an effective obligation for
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. Ill
the national defence. But, amid all these means of
prosperity, an intellectual torpidity had, since the days
of Athelstan, pervaded the country. Canute had, in-
deed, impressed a new feature of grandeur and energy
on the aspect of the court, but his example was solitary
and its effect transient. His children and successors
disgraced his name ; and after his death the Anglo-
Saxons sunk into a lethargic and sensual state. Ena;-
land was slumbering in this decline, when the Norman
Conquest, like a moral earthquake, suddenly shook it
to the centre, broke up and hurled into ruin all its an-
cient aristocracy, swept away the native proprietors
of the soil, overturned the corrupt habits of the popu-
lation, kindled a vigorous spirit of life and action in
all classes of society, and raised from the mighty
ruins with which it overspread the country an entirely
new character of government.
William, Duke of Normandy, was the leader of this
great enterprise. Personal resentment concurred with
ambition to stimulate him to the invasion of England.
He claimed the crown by legal right, on the death of
Edward the Confessor ; but Harold, Duke of North-
umberland, violating his oath, had possessed himself of
the throne. William determined to resort to arms to
enforce his claim. He applied to the Pope to sanction
his undertaking. The Pope sent him a consecrated
flag, and a bull authorizing the descent upon England,
in the year 1066.
William published his war-ban in the countries ad-
jacent. He offered a large sum of money and the
pillage of England, to every man of tall and robust
stature who would serve either with the lance, the
112 SKETCHES FROM THE
sword, or the crossbow ; and a multitude poured in from
all parts, from far and near, from north and from south,
from Maine and from Anjou, from Poitou and from
Brittany, from Flanders, from Aquitaine, and from
Burgundy, from Piedmont, and the borders of the
Rhine. All the adventurers by profession, all the
brave and vagabond spirits of Europe, came eagerly
at his call. Some were knights, and captains of war ;
others simple foot soldiers, and " servants at arms," —
such was the phrase of the time. Some demanded
money in hand, others were content with their passage,
and all the booty they could gain. Many wished for
an estate in England, a domain, a castle, a town ;
while others simply bargained for a Saxon wife. Wil-
liam refused no one ; and during the spring and the
summer, in all parts of Normandy, workmen of every
kind were employed in building and equipping vessels.
During these preparations, William presented him-
self at St. Germain, before Philip, king of France, and,
saluting him with a deference which his ancestors had
not always paid to their sovereigns, " You are my
seigneur, 11 said he ; " if it please you to aid me, and
that God give me grace to obtain my right in England,
I promise to do you homage for that realm, as if I held
it of you. 11 Philip assembled his council of barons
and freemen, without whom he could decideno im-
portant affair. The barons were of opinion that he
could in no wise aid William in his conquest. " You
know, 11 said they to their king, " how little the Nor-
mans obey you now, — they will obey you less, if they
possess England. Besides, it will be a great expense
to aid the Duke in his enterprise ; and, if it fail, we
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 113
shall have the English for our mortal enemies." Wil-
liam, thus repulsed, retired in discontent from Philip.
The rendezvous for the vessels and men-at-arms
was at the mouth of the Dive, a river which falls into
the sea between the Seine and the Orne. For a
month the winds were contrary, and the Norman fleet
was detained in the harbour. At length a southern
breeze carried it to St. Valery near Dieppe. Then the
bad weather recommenced, and it was necessary to
cast anchor, and wait several days. During this time
the tempest shattered several vessels, and many of
their crews perished. At this accident, murmurings
arose among the troops already fatigued with their long
delay. The soldiers, idle in their tents, passed the
day in conversing upon the clangers of the voyage, and
the difficulties of the enterprise they had undertaken.
" There has yet been no battle," said they, " and al-
ready several of our companions are no more ! " Then
they fell to examining and calculating the number of
dead bodies which the sea had thrown upon the shore.
These sights abated the ardor of the adventurers who
had enlisted with so much zeal, and some broke their
engagement and retired. " Very foolish," said the
soldiers, " very foolish is the man who pretends to
conquer another's land ; God is offended at such de-
signs, and now he shows his anger by refusing us a
favorable wind ! " At last, perhaps from real super-
stition, perhaps for the mere purpose of diverting
their followers from unwelcome thoughts, the Norman
chiefs conducted the relics of St. Valery in great pomp,
and with a long procession, through the camp. All the
8
114 SKETCHES FROM THE
army began to pray, and the following night the wind
sprang up just as they had been desiring.
Four hundred ships, and upwards of one thousand
transport boats, left the shore at the same signal. Wil-
liam's ship took the lead, and carried at its mast-head
the banner sent from the Pope. The sails were of di-
vers colors, and on many parts of them were painted
the three lions, the arms of the Normans. At the
prow was carved the figure of a child carrying a bend-
ed bow with an arrow ready to fly. This vessel, a
better sailer than the rest, headed the expedition during
the day, and at night was far in the advance. On the
following morning, the Duke bade a sailor climb to the
top of the mainmast and see if there were any other
vessels coming. " I only see," said the sailor, " the
sky and the ocean," — and thereupon the anchor was
cast. The Duke affected gayety, in order to put down
any appearance of care or fear among his friends ; he
ordered a sumptuous repast, and wines highly spiced.
Presently the sailor mounted again ; and this time he
said he saw four vessels ; and directly after he cried,
" I see a forest of masts and sails."
William landed his army at Pevensey in Sussex. —
The news of the descent of the Normans was quick-
ly brought to Harold, who was in the North of Eng-
land, engaged in repelling an incursion of the Norwe-
gians, and did not expect this invasion till the following
spring. He immediately abandoned his enterprise in
the North, and marched to give these new enemies
battle. He proceeded by hasty marches to London,
where the Duke sent ambassadors to him, requiring him
to resign the crown. He was so inflamed at the haugh-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 115
tiness of this proceeding, that he could hardly be re-
strained from ill treating the ambassadors. He replied
by a menacing and insulting message, and, having
drawn all his forces together, encamped about nine
miles from the Normans. Whilst the two armies lay
thus near one another, spies were continually sent out
on both sides, each leader being desirous of knowing
the strength and position of his enemy.
Whilst they were preparing for a conflict, which was
to decide the fate of both princes, Duke William seem-
ed to abate something of his haughtiness. The thoughts
of a battle in an enemy's country, where his loss would
be irretrievable, inspired him with some dread of the
event. On the other hand, he could not help reflecting
on the blood that was about to be shed in a quarrel, the
justice of which was not quite apparent. He sent
Harold, by the hands of a certain monk, these four
proposals, of which he might take his choice. The
first was, to resign the crown, as he was bound by oath.
By the second, he offered to return into Normandy,
provided Harold would do him homage for the kingdom
of England. By the third, he offered to refer the
quarrel to the Pope. Lastly, he proposed to decide
the dispute by single combat. It is no wonder that
Harold rejected these proposals, seeing they were
all advantageous to the Duke. His answer therefore
was, God should determine, on the morrow, the justice
of their respective claims.
The English spent the whole night in carousing and
singing, as if they were sure of the victory. The
Normans, on the contrary, were employed in prepar-
ing for the battle, and in offering up prayers for success.
116 SKETCHES FROM THE
At length, on the 14th of October, 1066, Harold's
birthday, the two armies engaged. In the front of
the English stood the Kentish men, a privilege which
they had enjoyed ever since the Heptarchy. Harold
placed himself in the centre, and fought on foot, that
his men might be the more encouraged by seeing their
king sharing the danger of the meanest soldier. The
Normans began the fight with a volley of arrows,
which, being shot upwards, flew like a thick cloud over
the heads of the foremost body of the English. As their
ranks were close, the arrows in falling did great exe-
cution. The English, not being used to this manner of
fighting, were at first thrown into disorder, but soon
rallied, and gave the Normans so warm a reception,
that they were obliged to draw back and take breath.
Quickly after, they renewed the attack, but met with
as brave a resistance as before. The presence of their
leaders animating the soldiers, they everywhere fought
with equal bravery, without the least signs of advan-
tage on either side. We may judge of the valor of
both armies by the length of the battle, which began
at seven in the morning, and lasted till night.
The event was yet very uncertain, when Duke
William bethought himself of a stratagem. Perceiv-
ing there was no breaking the ranks of the English,
he ordered his troops to retreat as they fought, as if
they were discouraged, but to be very careful to keep
their ranks. This order being executed, the English
thought their enemies defeated. They set up a great
shout, and pressed eagerly onward. In the hurry of
the pursuit, they broke their ranks, when the Normans
instantly turned upon them, and put them to the rout.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 117
Harold, seeing the victory on the point of being
snatched from his hands, rallied the fugitives, and suc-
ceeded in collecting a considerable body, with which
he made an obstinate stand upon a rising ground in the
neighbourhood. The Normans made another des-
perate attack, and Harold was shot through the brain
with an arrow. This loss completed the rout of the
Saxons, who gave way, and fled in every direction.
The victory of William was complete ; fifteen thousand
of his men had fallen, but the vanquished lost a still
greater number, as no quarter was given either during
the battle, or in the pursuit of the fugitives. Such
was the issue of the celebrated battle of Hastings, the
most important in its consequences that was ever
fought in England. The whole realm immediately
submitted to the conqueror.
William reigned over England more than twenty
years. Under his administration, the government of the
kingdom, the laws, the language, and the national char-
acter underwent an important change. By this con-
quest, and the rebellions which followed, almost all the
Anglo-Saxon nobility were driven into exile, or dis-
possessed of their territories, and the greater part of
all the landed property of England fell into the hands
of the king, who rewarded his followers for their ser-
vices, by granting them the domains which he had
seized or confiscated. He made military service the
indispensable condition of these donations, and thus the
feudal system became established to the full extent in
England. It was his early and constant policy to
secure the submission of the country by building cas-
tles in every part, and committing them, with grants of
118 SKETCHES FROM THE
land, to warlike chieftains, on whose fidelity and activity
he could rely. This system, while it completed the
conquest of the island, also filled it with a new military
aristocracy, vigorous from its youth, formidable in its
means of defence to effect the purpose of its establish-
ment, and independent, in its own domains, of the
crown, by the ancient laws and customs of the country.
It was an important peculiarity of the Norman con-
quest, that, tbough it changed the individual persons of
the proprietary body of England, it left many of its
civil institutions undestroyed, or changed only in name.
The Wittenagemote still survived under the appellation
of parliament. The Norman conquest was no abridg-
ment of the liberties of England ; on the contrary, it
established a powerful and active aristocracy, which
was strong enough, at times, to give the law to the
sovereign. It promoted the emancipation of the ser-
vile, and protected the privileges of the free.
The great benefit derived by England from the
Norman conquest was the new vigor and spirit which
it gave to the national mind. The torpor, debility,
and degradation of sensuality and sloth, — without litera-
ture, arts, or laudable pursuits ; and the factions and
vices of a corrupted aristocracy and debased clergy,
had enervated the Anglo-Saxon intellect. By the con-
quest, a new race of men was spread over the whole
kingdom, with a peculiar principle inspiring the emu-
lation of every one. This was that love of glory,
which made every Norman restless till he had acquired
personal improvement and distinction. The wealth
and situation of England opened new avenues to fame,
and drew from all parts of Europe the most aspiring,
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 119
and the most able men to enter the lists for honor and
profit. A new creative vigor appeared afterward in
every field of human merit. Activity and enterprise
became the characteristic qualities of the nation ; and
the different classes, attaching themselves to various
pursuits, infused the spirit, and enlarged the boundaries,
of improvement in all. In war, in religion, literature,
trade, and amusements, the Anglo-Normans became
equally active and indefatigable.
The intermixture of the Norman-French with the
Anglo-Saxon tongue formed the modern English lan-
guage, superior to either of its parents in copiousness,
energy, and expression. William is generally sup-
posed to have established the coever-fu, or curfew, by
which, on the ringing of a bell at eight o'clock in the
evening, all fires were commanded to be put out. Its
original design is said to have been to prevent nightly
meetings for conspiracies. A more important under-
taking, by which the Conqueror has left a memorial of
his reign to the present generation, was the compi-
lation of the Domesday Book. This was the greatest
financial operation of his life. It was a general in-
quest and survey, taken throughout the country, of the
quantity of lands chargeable with military service ; with
a record of the great proprietors, the servile population,
and established payments. It was designed to ascertain
the legal rights of the crown, and to afford a knowledge
of the state of the property of the country. The facts
required were, for the most part, verified by the oaths
of a competent number of persons in each district.
The original of the record thus formed is still pre-
served in the Exchequer at London.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 121
MAGNA CHARTA.
The despotism of William the Conqueror, and the
feudal customs established by him in England, resulted
at times in the grossest abuses in government, by which
both the barons and the people found themselves op-
pressed to an intolerable degree. The line had not
yet been drawn between the prerogatives of the crown
and the rights of the people ; both remained in the
undefined state of prescription and tradition. In all
the Northern nations, great councils had been attached
to their monarchies from the early period when they
emerged from the forests of Germany ; and the ruling
chief, combined with his council, offers us an image
of government in one of its rudest forms. The de-
struction of the Anglo-Saxon nobility, in their revolts
against William, had deprived the country of the
actual members of the ancient Wittenagemotes, but did
not put an end to the institution itself. The Norman
barons held themselves to be as independent as the
Saxon chiefs, and they surrounded their sovereign in
the national council, after the Conquest, in the same
manner as before.
Notwithstanding this, the royal privileges, being still
undefined, were often stretched into unlimited use,
varying in their extent according to the ambition and
arbitrary spirit of the reigning prince. A wise mon-
arch will never push his prerogative to extremes that
may provoke his people to question its justice.
Weaker princes, on the contrary, from a childish love
of all the external marks of power, are fond of ob-
122 SKETCHES FROM THE
truding their authority on every occasion, and thus
perpetually hazard their prerogatives by abusing them.
Kirfg John, the successor of Richard the Lion-hearted,
was a sovereign of this character, and, by a series of
obstinate attempts to rule by his arbitrary will, instead of
by law and justice, he brought the power of the crown
into direct collision with the nobility, which then con-
stituted the most efficient part of the nation. To this
collision is to be traced the origin of the celebrated
Magna Charta, or the Great Charter, famous in modern
history, as the basis on which are founded the liberties
of the English nation.
The reign of John had already been marked by a
succession of misfortunes and disgraces, originating
in the vices and imbecility of the sovereign. His
conduct toward his brother Richard was ungrateful
and perfidious, and he displayed all the treachery of
a tortuous ambition, without .any of the talents which
have sometimes attended it. By the murder of Prince
Arthur he lost Normandy ; and as messenger after
messenger announced to him the capture of his castles
and towns by Philip of France, he only exclaimed, with
a coarse laugh, " Let him take them, I will get them
back some time or other." By the loss of his French
territories he obtained the opprobrious nickname of
" Lackland." He next involved himself in a quarrel
with the Pope, and, to escape from his difficulties, made
a formal cession of his crown to that prelate, and con-
sented to receive it back as a gift. This transaction
caused such disgust to the nation, that it proved, in the
end, one of the main causes of the overthrow of the
papal power in England. The vices and defects of
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 123
John's character seemed destined to be the instruments
of much ultimate good to his subjects.
The king, who could learn no wisdom from experi-
ence, became more violent in his measures to enforce
obedience to his arbitrary will, in proportion as he
found the temper of the people exasperated by his mis-
conduct. At length he spurned all laws, in the pursuit
of his revenge, and forced the barons upon extraordi-
nary measures for their own protection and defence.
On the 20th of November, 1214, they assembled at the
abbey of St. Edmunds, under pretence of celebrating
the festival of the patron saint, but with the real object
of maturing a plan of future operations without awak-
ening suspicion. Many secret conferences were held ;
the various liberties for which they were to contend
were agreed upon and defined, and they determined to
go in a body and demand them when the king should
hold his court on the next Christmas. Before they
separated, they advanced singly to the high altar, and
swore an oath to withdraw their allegiance from the
king in case he should resist their claims, and to levy
war against him till he should grant them. On Christ-
mas the barons had no opportunity to put their scheme
in execution. John, who was holding his court at
Worcester, having perhaps received intelligence of the
design, suddenly left the place, rode to London, and
shut himself up in the Temple. The confederates
followed him in great numbers, and on the feast of
Epiphany presented their demands. The king at
first assumed an air of superiority, and insisted not
only that they should recede from their claims, but
that they should assure him, under hand and seal, that
124 SKETCHES FROM THE
they would never present them again. Two or three
were intimidated and gave their consent, but all the
rest obstinately refused.
John now attempted a temporizing policy, and put off
the barons with a promise to satisfy them at the ap-
proaching Easter. In the interval he attempted to
strengthen his hands by securing the clergy. He
granted them various privileges, assumed the cross,
and made a vow to go upon a crusade. Meantime the
Pope, being solicited to interfere by both parties, took
sides in favor of the king, annulled the confederacy
of the barons, and pronounced an excommunication
against all who should engage in any similar combina-
tion for the future. In Easter week, the barons assem-
bled at Stamford, and with two thousand knights, their
esquires and followers, marched to Brackley. The
king was at Oxford, and commissioned the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and the Earls of Pembroke and Warenne
to go and ascertain their demands. They brought him
back a paper containing the same articles as before.
As soon as it was read, he exclaimed, " They might as
well demand my crown ! Do they think I will grant
them liberties which will make me a slave ? "
Hostilities soon followed. The barons proclaimed
themselves " the army of God and his Holy Church,"
and elected Robert Fitz- Walter for their commander.
They immediately invested Northampton, a strong
place garrisoned by a body of foreigners. After a fort-
night's siege, they were obliged to abandon the enter-
prise for want of military engines. At Bedford they were
more fortunate ; the governor opened the gates, and, at
the moment of taking possession of the town, an invi-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 125
tation to proceed thither was received from some of the
principal citizens of London. They marched imme-
diately to the capital, without halting, and reached the
city early on the morning of the 24th of May. The
day being Sunday, the inhabitants were in the churches,
and the gates stood open. No resistance was offered,
and the army of the confederates took possession of
London. Elated with this important success, they sent
letters to the barons and knights who had not yet de-
clared themselves, stating their objects and resources,
and their determination to treat as enemies all who did
not join the army of God and of the Holy Church.
This produced the most decisive effect.
Disheartened by these occurrences, John found him-
self compelled to submit. He assumed an air of
cheerfulness, and declared his willingness to settle with
the barons on amicable terms. He desired them to
name a day and a place for a conference, where the
terms of a treaty might be discussed. They fixed upon
a spot called Runnimede, or Running-Mead, a meadow
between Staines and Windsor. At this place, ever
memorable in the history of English liberties, both
parties met on the 15th of June, 1215. The barons
assembled in such numbers that they seemed to com-
prise the whole nobility of England. The parties took
their separate stations. On the one side sat the king,
accompanied by eight bishops, the Pope's envoy, Pan-
dulf, and fifteen gentlemen who attended as his confi-
dential advisers, although the disaffection of some of
them was notorious. On the other side stood the great
body of the barons, drawn up in imposing array, with
Fitz- Walter at their head. After a long discussion, the
126 SKETCHES FROM THE
demands of the barons were formally written down,
and Magna Charta was signed.
A condensed view of this important instrument will
show the state of the government under the previous
reigns. The royal sway must have been arbitrary in
the extreme, when the subjects were driven to extort
by force of arms political rights of the following char-
acter.
" No taxation shall be imposed but by parliament,
except in three specified cases, and in these the amount
shall be reasonable.
" No freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or dispos-
sessed of his land, or outlawed, or banished, or in any
way destroyed or oppressed by the crown, except by
the legal judgment of his peers, or the law of the land.
" The king shall not sell justice, nor deny nor
delay right or justice to any one.
" No bailiff shall arrest or imprison any man upon a
mere complaint, without faithful witnesses to substan-
tiate it.
" The city of London, and all other cities, burghs, and
towns, shall have all their ancient liberties and free
customs.
" No man shall be compelled to do more military
service than he owes.
" No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long
as she wishes to live without a husband ; provided
she gives surety that she will not marry without the
king's consent, if she holds her lands of him, or the
consent of the lord, if she holds lands of any.
" No goods shall be distrained while the debtor is
able to pay.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 127
" Lands shall not be seized for debt, if there are
goods sufficient.
" There shall be one measure and one weight
throughout the kingdom.
" Merchants may safely visit England, travel through
the country to buy and sell, according to the ancient
customs, and return home.
" Any Englishman may leave the realm and return,
preserving his allegiance.
" Every widow shall have her jointure and dower.
" The courts of common pleas shall not follow the
king, but shall be held in some certain place. Courts
of assize shall be held four times a year."
A general joy spread through the kingdom on the
publication of the Great Charter. " England," says
Matthew Paris, " seemed delivered from an Egyptian
yoke, and the people believed that the king's stony
heart was softened." But the Charter, although equit-
able, conducive to the welfare of the nation, and
perfectly compatible with every dignified and useful
prerogative of the sovereign, was unpalatable to John,
because it restricted his capricious humors and arbi-
trary will. Resentment and mortification soon exas-
perated him into extravagances of behaviour which
bordered upon insanity. He began to execrate his
mother and the day of his birth. He would gnash his
teeth, stare wildly about him, seize clubs and sticks
of wood, gnaw them, break them in pieces, and prac-
tise other unaccountable freaks. On the night which
followed the signature of the Charter, he sent private
letters to all the governors of his castles, who were
foreigners, ordering them to provision their fortresses,
128 SKETCHES FROM THE
make arrows, and prepare their military engines ; but
privately and cautiously, that the barons might not dis-
cover it.
The report of these proceedings reached the barons,
and they inquired of the king what he meant. He
made oath that he designed no hostility ; and the rude
horse-laughs, with which he accompanied his assevera-
tions, seemed more like folly than malice. Half ap-
peased, and half mistrusting, they withdrew ; and the
king, suddenly, on the following day, at dawn, set
off for the Isle of Wight, where he hid himself, brood-
ing over plans of revenge. Here he passed three
months among the fishermen and sailors, amusing him-
self with piratical attacks upon the vessels which ap-
proached the coast. His subjects, in the mean time,
were wholly ignorant what had become of him, and
debated whether he had turned fisherman or freebooter.
One part of his employment, in this concealment, was
to invite needy adventurers from the continent to come
over to him. He also sent ambassadors to Rome to
solicit the papal condemnation of the Charter. The
Pope annulled the Charter, suspended the Archbishop
of Canterbury, and excommuniated the barons.
John at length emerged from his concealment, and
proceeded to Dover to meet his auxiliaries, who, en-
ticed by the hope of large donations and confiscations,
had come over in great numbers from France and the
Netherlands, many of them bringing their families, as
if sure of settling in England. At the head of this
army of mercenaries, John advanced to Nottingham,
plundering, on his march, the baronial possessions, and
detaching parties in all directions to ravage the country.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 129
The barons were now in a most critical situation, under
the ban of the Pope, and with an army of desperadoes
arrayed against them. But, with invincible courage,
they determined to defend to the last extremity a cause
which concerned not only the liberties of England,
but their own lives and fortunes. They agreed to
choose Louis, the son of the king of France, for their
king, and, with his assistance, to maintain the contest
against John. The papal legate forbade Louis to enter
England ; but the offer of a crown was too tempting,
and he sailed from Calais with six hundred and eighty
ships well furnished with troops. He landed at the
Isle of Thanet, took Rochester, and marched to Lon-
don, where the barons received him with acclamations.
Nearly all the southern counties of England were soon
reduced, and John's forces maintained themselves in
the North, where they were distressed by an invasion
of the Scots. The country now suffered all the deso-
lations of a civil war, when it was happily released
from its calamities by the death of the king. Having
made an intemperate meal of peaches and new ale, he
fell into a dysentery, of which he died at Newark, on
the 19th of October, 1216.
His successor, Henry the Third, confirmed the Great
Charter, and it has remained, ever since, the foundation-
stone of the English Constitution.
130
SKETCHES FROM THE
THE GUNPOWDER PLOT.
Guy Faivkes and his Associates.
One of the most extraordinary events in the history
of England is that commonly known by the name of
the Gunpowder Treason and Plot ; in which case the king
and parliament of England had a narrow escape, by a
singular accident, from a most diabolical scheme of
destruction. This plot was the work of a small num-
ber of fanatical Roman Catholics, who undertook to
wreak their revenge on James the First and his gov-
ernment for not showing indulgence to their religion.
The records of history afford few instances of more
daring and wanton depravity.
The Catholics had expected great favor and indul-
gence on the accession of James the First, he being the
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 131
son of Mary, queen of Scots, who was a rigid Roman-
ist, and having himself shown some partiality to that
religion in his youth. But they soon discovered their
mistake, and were at once surprised and enraged to find
James on all occasions expressing his resolution of strict-
ly executing the laws enacted against them, and of per-
severing in the policy of his predecessor. These decla-
rations determined them upon desperate measures, and
they at length formed a plan to destroy the king and
both houses of parliament at a blow. The scheme was
first broached by Robert Catesby, a gentleman of an an-
cient family in England, who conceived that a train of
gunpowder might be so placed under the parliament-
house as to blow up the king and all the members at
once. He suggested the subject to Thomas Percy,
a descendant of the illustrious house of Northum-
berland, who approved the project, and readily joined
in it. Thomas Winter was next intrusted with the
dreadful secret ; and he went over to Flanders in quest
of Guy Fawkes, an officer in the Spanish service, with
whose zeal and courage the conspirators were thorough-
ly acquainted. When they enlisted any new zealot
into their plot, the more firmly to bind him to secrecy,
they always put him upon oath, employing the Eucha-
rist, the most sacred rite of religion, to enforce it.
Every tender feeling, and all emotions of pity, were
banished from their breasts ; and Desmond and Garnet,
two Jesuits, superiors of the order, absolved their con-
sciences from every scruple.
How horrid soever the contrivance might appear, yet
every member of the league seemed faithful and secret ;
and about two months before the sitting of parliament,
132 SKETCHES FROM THE
in 1605, they hired a house in Percy's name, adjoin-
ing that in which the parliament were to assemble.
Their first intention was to cut a passage under the
parliament-house, from that which they occupied, and
they set themselves laboriously to the task ; but when
they had pierced the wall, which was three yards in
thickness, they were surprised to find that the parlia-
ment-house was vaulted underneath, and that a maga-
zine of coals was usually kept there. From their
disappointment on this account they were soon re-
lieved by information, that the coals were then selling
ofF, and that, after their removal, the vault would be
let to the highest bidder. They therefore seized the
opportunity of hiring the place, and bought the re-
maining quantity of coals then stored in it. The next
thing was to carry thither thirty-six barrels of gun-
powder, which had been purchased in Holland ; and
the whole^vas covered with the coals, and with fagots
brought for that purpose. Then the doors of the
cellar were boldly flung open, and everybody was ad-
mitted, as if it contained nothing dangerous.
Confident of success, they now began to settle the
remaining part of their project. The king, the queen,
and Prince Henry, the king's eldest son, were all ex-
pected to be present at the opening of the parliament.
The king's second son, by reason of his tender age,
would be absent, and it was resolved that Percy should
seize or assassinate him. The Princess Elizabeth, like-
wise a child, was kept at Lord Harrington's house in
Warwickshire, and Sir Everard Digby was to seize
her, and immediately proclaim her queen.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 133
The 5th of November, the day for the sitting of
parliament, now approached. Never was treason
more secret, or ruin, apparently, more inevitable ; the
hour was expected with impatience, and the conspira-
tors gloried in their anticipated triumph. The dreadful
secret, though communicated to above twenty persons,
had been religiously kept during the space of nearly a
year and a half; but, when all the motives of piety
and justice were too weak, a feeling of private friend-
ship saved the kingdom. Sir Henry Percy, one of the
conspirators, conceived the design of saving the life
of Lord Monteagle, his intimate friend and companion,
who was also of the same religion with himself.
About ten days before the meeting of parliament, this
nobleman, upon his return to town, received a letter
from a person unknown, and delivered by one who
fled as soon as he had done his message. The letter
was to this effect : " My Lord, stay away from this
parliament ; for God and man have concurred to punish
the wickedness of the times. And think not slightly
of this advertisement, but retire yourself into your
country, where you may expect the event in safety.
For, though there be no appearance of any stir, yet I
say they will receive a terrible blow this parliament,
and yet they shall not see who hurts them. This
counsel is not to be contemned, because it may do you
good, and can do you no harm ; for the danger is
past as soon as you have burned the letter."
The contents of this mysterious letter surprised the
nobleman to whom it was addressed ; and though in-
clined to think it a foolish attempt to frighten and ridi-
cule him, yet he judged it safest to carry it to Lord
134 SKETCHES FROM THE
Salisbury, secretary of state. Lord Salisbury, too, was
inclined to give little attention to it, yet he thought
proper to lay it before the king in council. None of
the latter were able to make any thing of it, although
it appeared serious and alarming. In the universal
agitation between doubt and apprehension, the king
was the first who penetrated the meaning of this dark
epistle. He concluded that some sudden danger was
preparing by gunpowder ; and it was thought advisa-
ble to inspect all the vaults below the houses of parlia-
ment. This care belonged to the Earl of Suffolk,
lord chamberlain, who purposely delayed the search
till the day before the meeting of parliament. He re-
marked those great piles of fagots which lay in the
vault under the House of Peers ; and he cast his eye
upon Fawkes, who stood in a dark corner, and who
passed himself off as Percy's servant. That daring,
determined courage, for which he had long been noted,
was fully painted in his countenance, and struck the
lord chamberlain with strong suspicion. The great
quantity of fuel, also, kept there for the use of a person
who seldom visited London, did not pass unnoticed ;
and he resolved to make a more exact scrutiny. About
midnight, therefore, Sir Thomas Knevet, a justice of the
peace, was sent with proper attendants, and, just at the
entrance of the vault, he seized a man preparing for
the terrible enterprise, dressed in a cloak and boots,
and with a dark lantern in his hand. This was no
other than Guy Fawkes, who had just disposed every
part of the train for setting it on fire the next morning,
the matches and other combustibles being found in his
pockets. The whole of the design was now discover-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 135
ed ; but the atrociousness of his guilt, and despair
of pardon, inspiring him with resolution, he told the
officers of justice, with an undaunted air, that, had he
blown them and himself up together, he had been
happy. Before the council, he displayed the same
intrepid firmness, mixed even with scorn and disdain ;
refusing to discover his associates, and showing no con-
cern but for the failure of his enterprise. But his bold
spirit was at length subdued ; having been confined to
the Tower for two or three days, and the rack just
shown him, his courage, fatigued with so long an effort,
at last failed him, and he made a full discovery of all
his accomplices.
Catesby, Percy, and the conspirators who were in
London, hearing that Fawkes was arrested, fled with
all speed to Warwickshire, where Sir Everard Digby,
relying on the success of the plot, was already in arms
in order to seize the Princess Elizabeth. But the
country soon took the alarm, and wherever the insur-
gents turned they found a force ready to oppose them.
In this exigency, beset on all sides, they resolved, to the
number of about eighty persons, to fly no farther, but
to make a stand at a house in Warwickshire ; to de-
fend it to the last, and sell their lives as dearly as pos-
sible. But even this miserable consolation was denied
them ; a spark of fire happening to fall among some
gunpowder that was laid to dry, it exploded, and so
maimed the principal conspirators that the survivors
resolved to open the gate and sally out against the
multitude that surrounded the house. Some were in-
stantly cut to pieces ; Catesby, Percy, and Winter,
standing back to back, fought long and desperately,
136 SKETCHES FROM THE
fill in the end the two first fell covered with wounds,
and Winter was taken alive. Those that survived the
slaughter were tried and convicted ; several perished
by the hands of the executioner ; while others experi-
enced the king's mercy. The Jesuits Garnet and Old-
corn, who were privy to the plot, suffered with the
rest ; and, notwithstanding the enormity of their crime,
Garnet was considered by his party as a martyr, and
miracles were said to have been wrought by his blood.
Such was the end of a conspiracy that brought ruin
on its contrivers, and only disgraced the religion it
was intended to establish. Yet it is remarkable, that,
before this audacious attempt, the conspirators had
always borne a fair reputation. Calesby was noted
for his amiable disposition, and Digby was as highly
esteemed for honor and integrity as any man in Eng-
land. Such are the lamentable effects of superstition
and religious bigotry in extinguishing all human sym-
pathies, and perverting every gentle and honorable
feeling that can ennoble mankind.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.
137
OLIVER CROMWELL AND HIS TIMES.
Escape of Charles the Second, after the battle of Worcester.
Oliver Cromwell is the most remarkable person
in English history. From an obscure origin he rais-
ed himself to sovereign power ; and, although he re-
fused the title of King, he reigned over Great Britain
with absolute sway, and became the most powerful
sovereign that ever guided the destinies of that nation.
No characters fill so brilliant a page in history, as those
who have founded monarchies on the ruins of repub-
lican institutions. Mankind, indeed, profess more es-
teem for patriots, who, like Washington, after leading
their countrymen to victory, voluntarily abdicate that
authority which might have been exerted for tneir own
personal aggrandizement ; yet the glory of these great
men, although purer, is not of so seductive and daz-
138 SKETCHES FROM THE
zling a kind as that of the successful conqueror who
places a crown upon his head.
Cromwell was the son of a private gentleman of
Huntingdon, and was born at that place on the 25th
of April, 1599. He received an ordinary education,
and in the early part of his life gave no indication
whatever of the possession of any great or shining
qualities. His manners were rude and boisterous, his
acquirements small, and his morals licentious ; unless,
indeed, the royalists, in their enmity, have blackened
his character by falsehoods. Suddenly he reformed,
married, settled in his native town, and led a sober
and religious life. His enemies have called this hy-
pocrisy, but it does not appear that any thing was to be
gained by such an assumed character. Cromwell was
doubtless a sincere enthusiast. He removed to the
Isle of Ely, abandoned the Church of England, attach-
ed himself to the Puritans, and manifested increased
zeal for religion. As a proof of the sincerity of his
conversion, he made restitution to persons of whom he
had won money by gaming. He was a member of
the parliaments of 1625 and 1628 ; but his worldly
affairs beginning to decline, he took a farm near St.
Ives, which he occupied five years. His affairs growing
still worse, he formed a resolution, in 1637, of emigrat-
ing to New England in company with John Hampden ;
which would have been carried into effect, had not the
ship in which he was about to embark for Boston been
detained. Charles the First issued a proclamation for-
bidding new settlers to sail for America; little did
he imagine that he was compelling a man to remain
in the kingdom, who was destined to wrest the sceptre
from his hand and bring him to the scaffold.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 139
The tyranny of Charles had alienated the feelings
of his subjects. Believing in the divine right of kings,
and the almost unlimited extent of the royal authority,
he set no bounds to his arbitrary measures. Dissenters
from the established church were persecuted. To
enjoy liberty of conscience, the Puritans had fled across
the Atlantic and sought an asylum on the wild New
England shores. Freedom of speech against the
tyrannical misdoings of Charles and his minions was
punished by fines, the pillory, cropping the ears, &c.
The high spirit of the English nation could not endure
this long. Murmurs of discontent soon grew into
clamorous indignation, and at length a manly resist-
ance was opposed to the arbitrary usurpations of the
crown. John Hampden refused to pay the illegal
assessment of ship-money, and was prosecuted in the
Court of Exchequer. The judges pronounced against
him, but all England was aroused by the proceeding,
and the result was a popular victory. The people saw
that their liberties were menaced.
Parliament took strong ground in favor of popular
rights. The king, finding them intractable, attempted
to rule without them, but this only hastened the crisis.
Cromwell was returned a member of the parliament
which met in 1640, and which, from the length of time
it continued, obtained the name of the Long Parliament.
Here opportunities presented themselves of displaying
his abilities. He studied the characters of parties
and individuals, and obtained that perfect knowledge
of the state and the prospect of affairs which gave him
shortly afterward so remarkable an ascendency. The
king and parliament could no longer keep terms with
each other. Charles set up his standard at Oxford, and
140 SKETCHES FROM THE
the civil war began. The two parties nicknamed each
other " Cavaliers " and " Round-heads," the latter
phrase being applied to the Puritans from their custom
of cropping their hair.
Cromwell entered with great zeal into the rebellion.
When the parliament first decided to levy forces
against the king, he raised by his own exertions a
troop of horse, and took the command by a commis-
sion from the Earl of Essex, general-in-chief of the
parliamentary armies. The military talents, which he
had never dreamed of possessing, quickly began to
appear. He undertook many spirited and successful
enterprises on his own responsibility. He was made a
colonel, and his regiment soon became the best in the
service. His method of discipline may be understood
from one particular. To try the courage and presence
of mind of his recruits, he placed a dozen troopers in
ambuscade, who suddenly rushed upon them. About
twenty of the recruits galloped off the field at full
speed. These he cashiered, and enlisted bolder men
in their place. By such means his ranks were purged
of all cowards.
By his important services, Cromwell soon attracted
general notice and acquired the confidence of par-
liament. He was appointed lieutenant-general of cav-
alry, and at the battle of Marston Moor, in 1644, turned
the fortune of the day, and caused the first great defeat
of the royalists. He again distinguished himself at the
battle of Newbury ; and, the eyes of the whole nation
being now turned upon him, he was called by his
party the Saviour of the Nation. The opponents of
the king were divided into several parties. Cromwell
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 141
was a member of the sect denominated " Indepen-
dents." By the management of this party, an act called
" the Self-denying Ordinance " was sanctioned by the
parliament, which provided that no member of that
body should hold any military command. By this crafty
manoeuvre, many officers who stood in the way of
Cromwell's elevation were excluded ; while Cromwell
himself, from his extraordinary influence over the par-
liament, the people, and the soldiery, was specially ex-
empted from the operation of the act. The army
was under the command of Fairfax, a brave and hon-
est man, but no match for the superior ability, craft,
and ambition of Cromwell, who was now promoted to
the rank of lieutenant-general in the army. By his
skill and bravery, the decisive battle of Naseby was
gained in June, 1645. For his services in this exploit,
and others which immediately followed, parliament
voted him £ 2500 a year. Through his exertions, the
royalists were defeated in every quarter, and the king
fled to Scotland.
Cromwell's great fame and overgrown influence now
began to excite the jealousy of the parliament, although
he continued to profess the most profound submission
to their authority. They proposed to reduce the army,
designing to disband his corps ; but he had the ad-
dress to counteract this scheme, and turned the plot
to his own advantage, by preserving himself in the
command and getting rid of many rivals and enemies.
By his management, the king was made prisoner and
carried to the head-quarters of the army ; and from this
time till the trial and execution of Charles, Cromwell
practised a most extraordinary and successful scheme
142 SKETCHES FROM THE
of policy, deceiving and overreaching the king, the
parliament, and the army.
The second civil war, in which the Scots joined the
royalists, called Cromwell again into the field. We
have no room to specify his various successes. Charles
the First, after escaping, was again captured, put on
trial before the parliament, and condemned to die.
Cromwell, with forty members of the Lower House,
signed the death-warrant, and the king was beheaded
in front of his own palace of Whitehall, on the 30th of
January, 1649.
Cromwell, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, invaded
that country in 1649. He conquered the island, and
returned the next year. The Scots now threatened
an invasion of England in favor of Charles the Second.
Cromwell marched into that country with twenty
thousand troops, gave the Scots a signal overthrow at
the decisive battle of Dunbar, captured Edinburgh,
and obliged the young king to make a desperate at-
tempt to retrieve his 'affairs in England. Cromwell
marched in pursuit of the royal army, and at the battle
of Worcester, on the 3d of September, 1651, obtained
a victory which he called his crotoning mercy. The
royalists were defeated and utterly dispersed, and
Cromwell made his triumphal entry into London, with
all the pomp of a conqueror and deliverer. The meas-
ure of his glory was now full and his influence su-
preme ; without an equal or a competitor, the path
opened to his ambition was boundless.
The parliament had now become unpopular, yet
they found pretexts for delaying their dissolution.
Cromwell resolved upon the bold expedient of dis-
&:
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 143
solving them by force ; and this, the most extraordi-
nary act of his life, was immediately accomplished.
With a guard of three hundred men, he proceeded
to the parliament-house, where, leaving his soldiers at
the door, he entered and took his seat. After listen-
ing to the debates a short time, he started up, bade the
speaker leave the chair, and told the members they
had sat long enough unless they did more good.
*' Come, come ! " said he, " I will put an end to your
prating. You are no parliament : I say you are no
parliament." Then, stamping with his foot, he ordered
them for shame to " Be gone and give place to honest
men." The soldiers, at this signal, entered the house.
Cromwell pointed at the mace, the symbol of authority,
which always lay on the table in front of the speaker,
and exclaimed, " Take away that bawble ! " At the same
time an officer took the speaker by the arm and led
him down from his seat. Cromwell, again addressing
the members, said, " It is you that forced me to this ;
for I have besought the Lord, night and day, that he
would rather slay me than put me upon the doing of
this work." He then seized the papers, turned the
members out of the house, and locked the doors. Such
was the end of the Long Parliament, on the 19th of
April, 1653.
Cromwell was now supreme ruler of England, and
on the 16th of December, 1653, formally assumed the
title of Protector of the Commonwealth of England,
Scotland, and Ireland. But to keep up the external
form of a popular government, he convened a parlia-
ment, which, from the name of one of its members, be-
came known as " Barebone's Parliament." This body,
144 SKETCHES FROM THE
however, was soon thrown aside, and the Protector
reigned alone. His administration placed England in
the first rank of Christian powers. He taught every
nation to value her friendship and to dread her enmity.
He rebuked the haughty pride of the French monarch,
and foiled the veteran craft of Mazarin. He humbled
Spain on the land, and Holland on the sea , arrested
the victorious arms of Sweden, and the persecuting fires
of Rome. His administration was glorious ; but with
no vulgar glory. It was not one of those periods of
overstrained and convulsive exertion, such as we have
witnessed in our own day, necessarily producing de-
bility and languor ; its energy was natural, healthful,
and temperate. No sovereign ever carried to the
throne so large a portion of the best popular feeling,
so strong a sympathy with the interests of the people.
Cromwell, even by the confession of his enemies, ex-
hibited in his demeanour the simple and natural noble-
ness of a man neither ashamed of his origin nor vain
of his elevation. He behaved like one who had found
his proper place in society, and felt secure that he
was competent to fill it.
Threats of assassination by the royalists compelled
him to take strict precautions for his safety. He wore
armor under his clothes, and carried loaded pistols.
Many conspiracies against him were detected by that
good fortune which always marked his career, and he
died peaceably in his bed, on the 3d of September,
1658, the anniversary of his two great victories of
Dunbar and Worcester. In the language of Byron,
" His day of double victory and death
Beheld him win two realms, and, happier, yield his breath."
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 145
Cromwell, in military genius, must be allowed to be
the greatest man that the British empire has ever pro-
duced. Marlborough and Wellington defeated more
enemies, and conducted campaigns on a larger scale ;
but they were trained in the best military schools, and
commanded armies ready disciplined to their hands.
Cromwell passed his youth and the prime of his man-
hood in peaceful occupations and studies. He never
looked on war till he was more than forty years old.
He was compelled first to teach himself the art of
war, and then to teach it to his troops. Out of raw
levies he created an army, the bravest and the best
disciplined, the most orderly in peace and the most
terrible in war, that Europe had seen ; an army,
which, in all the furious animosity of civil strife, knew
nothing akin to the horrors of Magdeburg and St. Se-
bastian. He called this body into existence, and led it
to conquest. He never fought a battle without gaining
a victory, and never gained a victory without utterly
ruining his opponent. Yet his triumphs were not the
highest glory of his military system. The respect
which his troops paid to property, their attachment to
the laws and religion of their country, their submission
to the civil power, their temperance, their intelligence,
and their industry are without a parallel.
The charges of hypocrisy and fanaticism have been
made against Cromwell. As to the former, it is in-
cumbent upon us to inquire how far a man has deceiv-
ed himself, before we accuse him of deceiving others.
And as to his fanaticism, it never urged him upon
impracticable undertakings, nor confused his percep-
tions of the public good. He did not, like Napole-
^10
146 SKETCHES FROM THE
on, under the influence of a presumptuous fatalism,
risk his fame and his power in a frantic contest
against the principles of human nature, and the laws
of the physical world, against the rage of winter,
and the liberty of the seas. Cromwell could com-
mand his passions, and pursue, as a first object, the
happiness of the people under his care ; a praise which
will never be bestowed on the Conqueror of Europe.
Never was any ruler so manifestly born for sovereign-
ty. The cup of prosperity, which has intoxicated
almost all others, sobered him. Rapidly as his for-
tunes grew, his mind expanded more rapidly still. In-
significant as a private citizen, he was a great general,
and a still greater sovereign. Easy in manners, even
to familiarity, where his own dignity was concerned,
he was punctilious only for his country. His own
character he left to take care of itself, and to be de-
fended by his victories in war, and his reforms in
peace. He rendered the administration of justice
uniform throughout the realm, reformed the repre-
sentative system in a most judicious manner, and
went down to the grave in the fulness of his power
and fame.
Cromwell left two sons, the elder of whom, Richard,
succeeded him in the Protectorate. Had he possessed
but a moderate degree of capacity and firmness, the
Commonwealth of England would have continued to
this day ; and the whole history of Europe, and of
North America, perhaps, would have been materially
different. But the imbecile Richard Cromwell, daunted
by the first shadow of a difficulty, dropped from his
feeble hands the reins of government, and, in the per-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 147
plexities which followed, monarchy was restored in the
person of Charles the Second.
That prince escaped from the battle of Worcester
as soon as he saw that the day was lost. With a small
company of attendants, he eluded the pursuit of the
enemy's cavalry by the fleetness of his horse, and struck
off from the high road without well knowing which
way to go. The country was hostile, and it was evi-
dent that the most diligent search would be made for
him. He therefore disguised himself in the dress of
a countryman, cropped his hair close, in the manner of
the Puritans, and set out on foot, with a single compan-
ion, designing to proceed to London. They soon es-
pied a troop of three thousand of Cromwell's cavalry
galloping toward them, on which they fled into an
adjoining wood, where they remained the whole day
without food or drink, and drenched with a heavy rain.
Here Charles altered his design, and resolved to cross
the Severn into Wales, from which quarter he hoped
to make his escape into France. Passing by a mill in
the night, they heard a great noise of people talking,
and were hailed by the miller. They answered,
" Neighbours going home." " If you are neigh-
bours, well," answered the miller ; " but if not, I will
knock you down." Upon this they ran down a narrow,
dirty lane, and the miller with others at their heels,
crying, " Rogues ! rogues ! " By running fast, and
skulking behind hedges, they got away from their pur-
suers, and reached the house of a royalist named
Wolfe, who had hiding-holes for priests on his prem-
ises. This man did not dare lodge the prince in one
of these recesses, but secreted him in his barn under
148 SKETCHES FROM THE
the com and hay. Charles now thought it best to re-
trace his steps, and accordingly returned as far as the
house of a man named Penderell. Here it was judged
unsafe for him either to remain in the house or take
refuge in the woods, as the republican troops were
scouring the country in every quarter. There was a
large oak tree standing in an open situation in the
neighbourhood, which had been lopped a few years
previous, and was covered with thick foliage which
could not be seen through. This seemed to offer the
only safe asylum, and Charles, with one companion,
ascended the tree in the night, with some bread, cheese,
and small beer, and stayed there all the following day,
during which time they saw great numbers of soldiers
going up and down, and searching the woods for fugi-
tives. This tree afterwards became famous as the
" Royal Oak," which, the old Primer informs us, in
language that has puzzled many a juvenile American
scantily acquainted with the details of English history,
" was the tree
That saved his Royal Majesty."
Issuing from the Royal Oak the following night,
Charles pursued his course. The reader may be cu-
rious to know how the king of England was dressed.
With all the gravity of history, we are told, he was in
" a very greasy old hat with the brim turned up, no
lining, nor hat-band. A green cloth jump-coat, thread-
bare, the threads being white ; breeches of the same,
with long knees down to the garters. An old greasy
leather doublet, a pair of white flannel stockings, their
tops cut off to prevent discovery, and over them a pair
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 149
of old green yarn stockings, all worn and darned at the
knees, and their feet cut off. An old coarse shirt, torn
and patched at the neck and wrists, and his shoes all
cut and slashed." In this disguise he was enabled to
skulk from place to place, till he procured a horse, and
once more shifted his attire. Near Bentley, the horse
cast a shoe, and Charles took him to a blacksmith.
As he was holding up the horse's foot, he asked the
smith, " What news ? " He replied, that the Scots
were beaten, but " the rogue Charles Stuart was not
taken." The prince rejoined, that, " if that rogue were
taken, he deserved to be hanged more than all the rest,
for bringing in the Scots." The smith told him he
"spake like an honest man," and with this comfort
Charles took leave of the blacksmith.
At Stratford-upon-Avon, he fell in with a troop of
horse of the enemy, but escaped recognition. At a
house in Cirencester, while eating his breakfast, he
found himself in company with a man who had known
him perfectly well. Charles questioned him very close-
ly, and the man gave an accurate description of him,
with the exception of one particular. " He is," said he,
" full three fingers taller than you." Encountering
adventures of this kind, and hair-breadth escapes almost
without number, he at length reached the sea-coast at
Shoreham in Sussex, where some persons in his confi-
dence provided a small vessel, in which he made his
escape across the Channel to France. The last of
these adventures is amusing. While sitting upon the
beach, in company with a fisherman who was in the
secret, another fisherman came strolling toward them,
smoking his pipe. On approaching close to Charles,
150 SKETCHES FROM THE
he peered in his face with a stare of rude curiosity.
The prince's confidant trembled in fear of a discovery.
" Come away," he exclaimed, " do n't trouble the gen-
tleman with your tobacco-smoke." " Pugh ! " replied
the other, " ' A cat may look upon a king,'' "
THE PLAGUE IN LONDON.
England has experienced several visitations of this
terrible disease. About the middle of the fourteenth cen-
tury, that country suffered in common with all Europe ;
the disorder being then called the Black Death. Two
centuries afterward, the same general calamity occur-
red. In the seventeenth century, the plague again made
great ravages there, appearing at four different times.
The last of these visits was the most terrible, and is
known by the name of the Great Plague. It appears
to have been introduced from Holland, where it had
swept off great multitudes in the years 1663 and 1664.
The first cases that attracted notice occurred in the
outskirts of London, in December, 1664. These excited
alarm, and directed the attention of the public to the
weekly variation in the bills of mortality. On the one
hand, the cool temperature of the air and the frequent
changes in the weather were hailed as favorable cir-
cumstances ; on the other, it could not be concealed,
that the number of deaths, from whatever cause it
arose, was continually on the advance. In this state
of suspense, alternately agitated by their hopes and
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 151
fears, men looked to the result with the most intense
anxiety ; and at length, about the end of May, under
the influence of a warmer sun, and with the aid of a
close and stagnant atmosphere, the evil burst forth in
all its terrors. From the centre of St. Giles's, the in-
fection spread with rapidity over the adjacent parishes,
threatened the court at Whitehall, and, in defiance of
every precaution, stole its way into the heart of the city.
A general panic ensued ; the nobility and gentry were
the first to flee ; the royal family followed ; and then
all who valued their personal safety more than the
considerations of home and interest, prepared to imi-
tate their example. For some weeks, the tide of emi-
gration flowed from every outlet towards the country ;
it was checked at first by the refusal of the Lord
Mayor to grant certificates of health, and by the oppo-
sition of the neighbouring townships, which rose in
their own defence and formed a barrier round the de-
voted city.
The absence of the fugitives, and the consequent ces-
sation of trade, and the breaking up of establishments,
served to aggravate the calamity. It was calculated
that forty thousand servants had been left without a
home ; and the number of artisans and laborers thrown
out of employment was still more considerable. It is
true that the charity of the opulent seemed to keep
pace with the progress of distress. The king sub-
scribed the weekly sum of a thousand pounds ; the
city, six hundred. The queen dowager, the Archbishop
of Canterbury, the Earl of Craven, and the Lord May-
or, distinguished themselves by the amount of their
benefactions ; and the magistrates were careful to in-
152 SKETCHES FROM THE
sure a constant supply of provisions in the markets.
Yet the families that depended on casual relief for the
means of subsistence were necessarily subjected to
privations, which rendered them more liable to re-
ceive, and less able to subdue, the contagion. The
mortality was at first confined to the lower classes,
carrying off the children in a larger proportion than the
adults, and the females, than the men. But, by the end
of June, so rapid was the diffusion, so destructive were
the ravages of the disease, that the civil authorities
deemed it time to exercise the power with which they
had been invested by an act of James the First, " for
the charitable relief and ordering of persons infected
with the plague." They divided the parishes into dis-
tricts, and allotted to each district a competent number
of officers, under the denominations of examiners,
searchers, nurses, and watchmen. They ordered that
the existence of the disease, wherever it might pene-
trate, should be made known to the public by a red
cross, one foot in length, painted on the door, with the
words, " Lord have mercy on us ! " placed above it.
From that moment the house was closed ; all egress,
for the space of one month, was inexorably refused ;
and the wretched inmates were doomed to remain
under the same roof, communicating death to one
another. Of these, many sunk under the horrors of
their situation ; many were rendered desperate. They
eluded the vigilance, or corrupted the fidelity of the
watchmen ; and by their escape, instead of avoiding,
served only to disseminate the contagion. Provision
was also made for the speedy interment of the dead.
In the daytime, officers were always on the watch to
HISTOEY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 153
withdraw from public view the bodies of those who
expired in the streets. During the night, the tink-
ling of a bell, accompanied by the glare of links, an-
nounced the approach of the pest-cart, making its
round to receive the victims of the last twenty-four
hours. No coffins were prepared, no funeral service
was read, no mourners were permitted to follow the
remains of their relations or friends. The cart pro-
ceeded to the nearest cemetery, and shot its burden
into the common grave, a deep and spacious pit, capa-
ble of holding some scores of bodies, and dug in the
churchyard, or, when this was full, in the outskirts of
the parish.
The disease generally manifested itself by the usual
febrile symptoms of shivering, nausea, headache, and
delirium. In some, these affections were so mild as
to be taken for a slight and transient indisposition.
The victim saw not, or would not see, the insidious
approach of his foe ; he applied to his usual avocations,
till a sudden faintness came on ; the macula, the fatal
tokens, appeared on his breast, and within an hour life
was extinct. But in most cases the pain and delirium
left no room for doubt. On the third or fourth day,
buboes or carbuncles arose ; if these could be made to
suppurate, recovery might be anticipated ; if they re-
sisted the efforts of nature and the skill of the physi-
cian, death was inevitable. The sufferings of the
patients often threw them into paroxysms of frenzy.
They burst the bands by which they were confined to
their beds, they precipitated themselves from the win-
dows, they ran naked into the streets and plunged into
the river.
154 SKETCHES FROM THE
Men of the strongest minds were lost in amaze-
ment, when they contemplated this scene of woe and
desolation ; the weak and the credulous became the
dupes of their own fears and imaginations. Tales
the most improbable, and predictions the most terrific,
were circulated. Numbers assembled at different cem-
eteries to behold the ghosts of the dead walk round
the pit in which their bodies had been deposited ; and
crowds believed that they saw in the heavens a sword
of flame, stretching from Westminster to the Tower.
To add to their terrors, came the fanatics, who felt
themselves inspired to act the part of prophets. One
of these walked through the city, in a state of nudity,
having on his head a pan of burning coals, and de-
nouncing the judgment of God on the sinful inhabitants.
Another, assuming the character of Jonah, proclaimed
aloud, as he passed, " Yet forty days, and London
shall be destroyed ! " And a third might be met, some-
times by day, sometimes by night, advancing with a
hurried step, and exclaiming with a deep and sepul-
chral voice, " Oh ! the great and dreadful God ! "
" One time," says Defoe, in his narrative of this
terrible calamity, " seeing a crowd of people in the
street, I joined with them to satisfy my curiosity, and
found them all staring up into the air to see what a
woman told them appeared plain to her, which was an
angel clothed in white, with a fiery sword in his hand,
waving or brandishing; it over his head. She described
every part of the figure to the life, showed them the
motion and the form, and the poor people came into it
so eagerly, and with so much readiness ! ' Yes, I see
it all plainly,' says one ; ' there 's the sword as plain as
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 155
can be ! ' Another saw the angel. One saw his very
face, and cried out, ' What a glorious creature he was ! '
One saw one thing, and one another. I looked as
earnestly as the rest, but, perhaps, not with so much
willingness to be imposed upon ; and I said, indeed,
that I could see but a white cloud, bright on one side by
the shining of the sun on the other part. The woman
endeavoured to show it me, but could not make me
confess. She turned to me, called me a profane fel-
low and a scoffer ; told me that it was a time of God's
anger, and dreadful judgments were approaching, and
that despisers, such as I, should wonder and perish.
The people about her seemed disgusted as well as she,
and I found there was no persuading them that I did
not laugh at them, and that I should be rather mobbed
by them than be able to undeceive them. So I left
them, and this appearance passed for as real as the
blazing star itself." *
During the months of July and August, the weather
was sultry, the heat more and more oppressive. The
eastern parishes, which at first had been spared, be-
came the chief seat of the pestilence ; and the more
substantial citizens, who had hitherto escaped, suffered
in common with their less opulent neighbours. In
* It is proper to inform the reader, that Defoe was a small
child at the time of this event, and that his own share in the
adventures which make his narrative of the plague so interest-
ing is only invention. Yet lie is allowed by every one to have
described all the scenes exhibited by this terrible visitation
with wonderful accuracy. — The " blazing star " was a comet
which appeared about this time and increased the terror of the
people.
156 SKETCHES FROM THE
many places the regulations of the magistrates could
no longer be enforced. The nights did not suffice for
the burial of the dead, who were now borne in coffins to
their graves at all hours of the day ; and it was deemed
inhuman to shut up the dwellings of the infected poor,
whose families must have perished through want, had
they not been permitted to go and seek relief. Lon-
don presented a wide and heart-rending scene of mis-
ery and desolation. Rows of houses stood tenantless
and open to the winds ; others, in almost equal num-
bers, exhibited the red cross flaming on the doors.
The chief thoroughfares, so lately trodden by the feet
of thousands, were overgrown with grass. The few
individuals who ventured abroad walked in the middle
of the street, and, when they met, turned to opposite
sides, to avoid contact with each other. But, if the soli-
tude and stillness of the streets impressed the mind with
awe, there was something yet more appalling in the
sounds which occasionally burst on the ear. At one
moment were heard the ravings of delirium, or the
wail of woe, from the infected dwellings ; at another,
the merry song, or the loud and careless laugh, issu-
ing from the wassailers at the tavern, or the inmates
of the brothel. Men became so familiarized with the
form, that they steeled their feelings against the terrors,
of death. They waited each for his turn with the
resignation of the Christian or the indifference of the
Stoic. Some devoted themselves to exercises of piety,
others sought relief in the riot of dissipation and the
recklessness of despair.
September came ; the heat of the atmosphere began
to abate, but, contrary to expectation, the mortality
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 157
increased. Formerly a hope of recovery might be
indulged ; now infection was the certain harbinger of
death, which followed generally in the course of three
days, often within the space of twenty-four hours.
The privy council ordered an experiment to be tried,
which was grounded on the practice of former times.
To dissipate the pestilential miasm, fires of sea-coal,
in the proportion of one fire to every twelve houses,
were kindled in every street, court, and alley of Lon-
don and Westminster. They were kept burning three
days and nights, and were at last extinguished by a
heavy and continuous fall of rain. The next bill ex-
hibited a considerable reduction in the amount of
deaths ; and the survivors congratulated each other
on the cheering prospect. But the cup was soon
dashed from their lips, and in the following week,
more than ten thousand victims, a number hitherto un-
known, sunk under the augmented violence of the
disease. Yet even now, when hope had yielded to
despair, their deliverance was at hand. The high
winds, which usually accompany the autumnal equi-
nox, cooled and purified the air ; the fever, though
equally contagious, assumed a less malignant form ;
and its ravages were necessarily more confined, from
the diminution of the population on which it had hith-
erto fed. The weekly burials successively decreased
from thousands to hundreds ; and in the beginning of
December, seventy-three parishes were pronounced
clear of the disease. The intelligence was hailed with
joy by the emigrants, who returned in crowds to take
possession of their homes, and resume their usual oc-
cupations. In February, the court was once more fix-
158 SKETCHES FROM THE
ed at Whitehall, and the nobility and gentry followed
the footsteps of the sovereign. Though more than one
hundred thousand individuals are said to have perished,
yet in a short time the chasm in the population was no
longer discernible.
THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON.
The year which followed the calamity described
in the preceding pages was distinguished by another
great disaster in London. On the night of the 2d of
September, 1666, a fire broke out in a bake-house in
Pudding Lane, near Fish Street, one of the most crowd-
ed districts of the city. The spot was surrounded by
wooden buildings with tarred roofs, and a long succes-
sion of warm and fair weather had dried these com-
bustible materials to such a degree that they took fire
with inconceivable rapidity. The shops and stores in
the neighbourhood were filled with the most inflam-
mable materials, and the conflagration quickly spread,
and raged so furiously, that the inhabitants were panic-
struck at the beginning, and stood amazed, without the
power to use prompt and energetic means for checking
the fire. Moreover, by some accident which is not
explained, the pipes for conducting water from the
New River were found empty, and the machinery for
raising water from the Thames, being near the spot
where the fire broke out, was soon burned. At the
approach of day, the wind, which had sprung up from
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 159
the east, blew very strong, and hourly increased in
violence. The fire now advanced with frightful veloci-
ty, leaping from roof to roof through the air, and
fastening upon houses at a great distance. The Lord
Mayor, who had it in his power, by acting with prompt-
ness and decision, to arrest the progress of the flames,
exhibited nothing but timidity and irresolution. A
party of sailors suggested to him the expedient of
blowing up houses with gunpowder ; the plan was ap-
proved, but that functionary thought himself obliged to
wait till he could obtain the consent of the owner ; and
before this could be done the flames had anticipated
him.
The ensuing night, " if night," says an eyewitness,
" it could be called, which was light as day for ten miles
round," presented a most magnificent, but appalling
spectacle. Above ten thousand buildings were on fire
at one moment, sending upward a pyramid of flame
that could be seen for forty miles. The whole sky
was in a bright glow, as if the grand cope of heaven
were embraced in the conflagration. A column of
flame a mile in diameter now moved with a terrific
and irresistible march from east to west; and every
blast of the furious wind scattered through the air in-
numerable flakes of fire, which, falling on inflammable
substances, kindled new conflagrations. The roaring
of the flames, which resembled thunder, the scorching
heat, the lurid glare of the atmosphere, the crash of
falling towers, steeples, and walls ; the hurry and
clamor of tumultuous crowds, and the shrieking of the
distracted people, all combined to fill every breast with
such astonishment and terror as have seldom been ex-
hibited in the history of human calamities.
160 SKETCHES FROM THE
The consternation was augmented by reports that a
conspiracy existed between the Dutch, then at war with
England, and the papists and republicans, to burn the
whole city. Men were said to have been arrested
carrying with them fulminating powders ; others to have
been seen throwing fire-balls into the houses, as they
stole along the streets. The French residents in Lon-
don, to the number of twenty thousand, were said to
have taken up arms, and commenced massacring
every Englishman that came in their way. In the
general confusion and fright, all these stories were be-
lieved, and the terror of the credulous inhabitants was
raised to the highest point. The confusion every-
where became redoubled. All were mingled together
in the greatest disorder ; men laboring to extinguish
the flames ; citizens conveying away their families and
goods ; crowds flying from the imaginary massacre ;
other crowds in arms hastening to oppose the murder-
ers ; and mobs surrounding and il|-treating every stran-
ger, foreigner, and reputed papist, who ventured into
the streets.
The fire raged with the greatest fury during four
days and nights. " The stones of Paul's," says
Evelyn, " flew like grenadoes ; the melted lead run-
ning down the streets in a stream, and the very pave-
ments glowing with fiery redness, so as no horse nor
man was able to tread on them. The air all about was
so hot and inflamed, that, at the last, one was not able
to approach it, so that they were forced to stand still
and let the flames burn on, which they did for near
two miles in length and one in breadth. The clouds
also of smoke were dismal, and reached, upon compu-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 161
tation, near fifty miles in length." The whole city-
was now threatened with destruction, and an attempt
was made, when too late, to check the progress of the
flames by blowing up houses. Large chasms were
thus formed in the path of the rushing conflagration ;
but such was the fury of the wind, that the huge burn-
ing flakes were carried across the empty spaces and
rendered all such attempts abortive. At length the
wind began to subside, and, some very large openings
having been made with gunpowder, the further advance
of the conflagration was impeded, and it gradually
died away, though several months elapsed before the
flames were fully quenched.
Two thirds of London were in this manner reduced
to ashes ; thirteen thousand two hundred houses and
eighty-nine churches were consumed ; an immense
population was driven into the fields, houseless, and in
a state of utter destitution. In the suburbs of the city,
more than two hundred thousand people were to be
seen lying on the bare ground, or under sheds hastily
erected. The government applied all possible means
for the relief of these unfortunate people ; but it may
easily be imagined what an amount of loss and suffer-
ing existed beyond the power of public or private
charity to mitigate. All sorts of opinions were current
for a long while as to the cause of the fire. Many
persons were apprehended on suspicion of incendiar-
ism ; and one man, confessing the fact, was condemned
and executed ; but there is no doubt that he was in-
sane and innocent. Not a few considered the calamity
as a special visitation of the Almighty, and looked no
further for its origin. Among other explanations of
11
162 SKETCHES FROM THE
this sort, was one put forth by certain wise characters,
that it was designed as a signal rebuke of the London-
ers for their gluttony, which was clearly proved by the
fact that it began in Pudding Lane and ended in Pie
Corner. The general prejudice against the papists,
however, caused the fire to be ascribed to them by the
greater part of the people ; and on the monument
erected to perpetuate the memory of this great calam-
ity, which, according to the well-known lines of Pope,
"pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies,"
it was recorded, that " the burning of this Protestant
city was begun and carried on by the treachery and
malice of the Popish faction." This assertion, al-
though notoriously without a shadow of proof, was
allowed to remain till within about ten years, when it
was erased by public authority.
THE SOUTH SEA BUBBLE.
The early part of the last century was rendered
famous by the number and magnitude of " bubbles,"
a name given to extravagant and ruinous financial
schemes, and tricks of speculation. The most cele-
brated of all these was the South Sea Bubble, which
enriched for a moment vast multitudes of people in
England, and then plunged them into hopeless ruin.
Fraud, folly, and accident, all combined to pro-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 163
duce this singular catastrophe. The original scheme
was projected by Sir John Blunt, a man who was bred
a scrivener, but who had the invention and boldness
to start a financial project of most gigantic dimensions.
This was no less than to discharge the national debt
by the instrumentality of the South Sea Company, of
which Blunt was a director. He had the cunning and
plausibility to meet successfully all the objections of
the government to the scheme, and a bill was passed
by parliament, in 1720, authorizing the South Sea
Company to assume all the public debt.
Blunt had taken the hint of his plan from the famous
Mississippi Scheme formed by John Law, which, in the
preceding year, had raised such a ferment in France,
and entailed ruin upon many thousand families in that
kingdom. In the project of Law there was some-
thing substantial. An exclusive trade to Louisiana
promised some advantages, though the design was de-
feated by the frantic eagerness of the people. Law
himself became the dupe of the French Regent, who
transferred the burden of fifteen hundred millions of
the king's debts to the shoulders of the subjects, while
the projector was sacrificed as the scape-goat of the
political iniquity. The South Sea Scheme promised
no commercial advantage of any importance. It was
buoyed up by nothing but the folly and rapacity of
individuals, which became so blind and extravagant,
that Blunt, with moderate talents, was able to impose
upon the whole nation, and make tools of the other di-
rectors of the Company, to serve his own purposes and
those of a few associates. When this projector found
that the South Sea stock did not rise according to his
164 SKETCHES FROM THE
expectation, upon the passage of the bill, he circulated a
report that Gibraltar and Port Mahon would be exchang-
ed for some places in Peru, by which means the Eng-
lish trade to the South Sea would be protected and en-
larged. This rumor, diffused by his emissaries, acted
like a contagion. In five days the directors opened
their books for a subscription of one million. Persons
of all ranks crowded to the house in such numbers
that the first subscription exceeded two millions of
original stock. In a few days this advanced in such
a manner that the subscriptions were sold for double
the price of the first payment.
Without entering into a detail of the proceedings, or
explaining the scandalous deceits that were practised to
enhance the value of the stock and decoy the unwary,
we shall only observe, that by the promise of prodi-
gious dividends, and other dishonest arts, the price of
the shares was raised from one hundred pounds to one
thousand, and the whole nation became infected with
the spirit of stock-jobbing to an astonishing degree.
All distinctions of party, religion, sex, character,
and circumstances were swallowed up in this uni-
versal concern, or in some such pecuniary project.
Exchange Alley was filled with a strange concourse of
statesmen and clergymen, churchmen and dissenters,
whigs and tories, physicians, lawyers, tradesmen, and
even with multitudes of females. All other profes-
sions and employments were utterly neglected, and the
people's attention was wholly engrossed by this and
other chimerical schemes. New companies started up
every day, under the countenance of the prime nobility.
The Prince of Wales was constituted governor of the
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 165
Welsh Copper Company ; the Duke of Chandos ap-
peared at the head of the York Buildings Company ;
the Duke of Bridgewater formed a third company, for
building houses in London and Westminster. More
than a hundred such schemes were projected and put
in execution, to the ruin of many thousands of people.
The sums proposed to be raised by these expedients
amounted to three hundred millions sterling, which
exceeded the value of all the lands in England. The
nation was so intoxicated with the spirit of adventure,
that people became a prey to the grossest delusion.
An obscure projector, pretending to have formed a
very advantageous scheme, which, however, he would
not explain, published proposals for a subscription, in
which he promised that in one month the particulars
of his project should be disclosed. In the mean time
he declared that every person paying two guineas
should be entitled to a subscription for one hundred
pounds, which would produce that sum yearly. In
one forenoon this adventurer received a thousand of
these subscriptions, and then absconded.
During the infatuation produced by this extravagant
scheme, luxury, vice, and profligacy increased to an
enormous degree of extravagance. The adventurers,
intoxicated by their imaginary wealth, pampered them-
selves with the rarest dainties and the most expensive
wines that could be imported ; they purchased the
most sumptuous furniture, equipage, and apparel,
though without taste or discernment ; they indulged
their criminal passions to a most scandalous excess,
and their discourse was the language of pride, inso-
lence, and ridiculous ostentation.
166 SKETCHES FROM THE
The infatuation prevailed till the 8th of Septem-
ber, when the stock began to fall. Some of the ad-
venturers then awoke from their delirium. The num-
ber of the sellers daily increased. On the 29th, the
stock had sunk to one hundred and fifty ; several emi-
nent goldsmiths and bankers, who had lent great sums
upon it, were obliged to stop payment and abscond.
The ebb of this portentous tide was so violent that it
bore down every thing in its way, and an infinite num-
ber of families were overwhelmed with ruin. Public
credit sustained a terrible shock, the nation was thrown
into a dangerous ferment, and nothing was heard but
the ravings of grief, disappointment, and despair.
Some principal members of the ministry were deeply
concerned in these fraudulent transactions ; when they
saw the price of stock sinking daily, they employed
all their influence with the bank to support the credit
of the South Sea Company. That corporation agreed,
though with reluctance, to subscribe to the stock of
the Company. By this expedient the stock was raised,
at first, and those who contrived it seized the oppor-
tunity to sell out. But the bankruptcy of the gold-
smiths and of the Swordblade Company, from the fall of
South Sea stock, occasioned such a run upon the bank
that the money was paid away faster than it could be
received from the subscription. Then the South Sea
stock sunk again, and the directors of the bank, finding
themselves in danger of being involved in that com-
pany's ruin, renounced their agreement.
The directors and officers of the South Sea Company
were examined at the bar of the House of Commons.
A bill was brought in, disabling them from enjoying
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 167
any office in that company, or in the East India Com-
pany, or in the Bank of England. Three brokers were
likewise examined and made great discoveries. The
treasurer of the South Sea Company, who had been
intrusted with the secrets of the whole affair, thought
proper to withdraw himself from the kingdom. A
proclamation was issued to apprehend him, and an-
other for preventing any of the directors from escaping.
The Lords, in the course of their examination, dis-
covered that large portions of South Sea stock had
been given to several persons in the administration and
the House of Commons, for promoting the passage of
the South Sea Act. The House immediately resolved
that this practice was a notorious and most dangerous
species of corruption ; that the directors of the Com-
pany having ordered great quantities of their stock to
be bought for the service of the Company when it
stood at a very high rate, on pretence of keeping up
the price of stock, and at the same time several of
the directors and other officers having, in a clandes-
tine manner, sold their own stock to the Company,
such directors and officers were guilty of a notorious
fraud and breach of trust. Many other resolutions
were passed against this dishonest confederacy, in
which, however, the innocent were confounded with
the guilty. Sir John Blunt refusing to answer certain
interrogatories, a violent debate arose about the man-
ner in which he should be treated. Earl Stanhope,
conceiving certain reflections to be aimed at him-
self, was seized with a transport of anger. He under-
took to vindicate the ministry, and spoke with such
vehemence as produced a violent headache, and the
168
SKETCHES FROM THE
following day he became lethargic, was seized with
a suffocation, and expired.
The committee of inquiry found, that, before any
subscription could be made, a fictitious stock of five
hundred and seventy-four thousand pounds had been
disposed of by the directors to facilitate the passing of
the bill. The directors, in obedience to the order of
the House, delivered inventories of their estates ; which
were confiscated, by act of parliament, towards making
good the damages sustained by the Company, after
deducting a certain allowance for each according to
his conduct and circumstances. The delinquents being
thus punislied by the forfeiture of their fortunes, the
House turned their attention to the means of repairing
the mischiefs which the scheme had produced. While
this affair was in agitation, petitions from counties,
cities, and boroughs, in all parts of the kingdom, were
presented to the House, crying for justice against the
villany of the directors. Pamphlets and papers were
daily published on the same subject ; and thus the
whole nation was wrought up to the highest pitch of
excitement and indignation.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 169
SCOTLAND.
WALLACE AND HIS TIMES.
William Wallace is the most heroic character in
Scottish history. Yet his authentic biography can
scarcely be traced. Like all popular favorites, he has
suffered from the fictions with which fond tradition
has adorned his fame and obscured his history. His
actions have always been the prominent theme of his
countrymen, and his memory still lives in their un-
diminished admiration. His actions led the way to
the independence of his country, at a period when
that independence was a rescue from tyranny and
oppression, although in his own person he did not reap
the reward of his great services.
Edward the First, of England, had assumed the
Scottish crown by the right of conquest ; and the ad-
ministration of his officers was felt to be oppressive and
insulting to the conquered people. Scotland has at all
times had a high national feeling, and its mountain
chiefs have been distinguished for their habits of in-
dependence. No country was less likely, in the thir-
teenth century, to submit quietly to a foreign con-
170 SKETCHES FROM THE
queror. What the sword had extorted, the sword
might again dispute ; and it was easy to understand
that the Scots only wanted an able and resolute leader,
to give the conquerors serious trouble. Such a leader
they soon found in William Wallace, who, though not
of noble birth, soon made himself the most powerful
and famous man in his country.
He was the younger son of a small landholder in
the neighbourhood of Paisley, in Renfrewshire, and is
said to have been outlawed in his youth for killing an
English nobleman ; but this is rather a popular opinion
than a historical fact. He appears to have been en-
tirely unknown till he emerged from his obscurity to
attack the English. Seven years constitute the short
period of his exertions and his celebrity ; and his ac-
tions are more fully recorded in the chronicles of his
enemies, scanty as those notices are, than in the me-
morials of his countrymen. The first achievement by
which he attracted attention was his killing the sheriff
of Lanark, a brave and powerful man, on the English
side. This was probably a sort of guerilla exploit,
successfully accomplished at the head of a few wan-
derers whom he had collected ; but it struck the
imagination of the people, and from that time the dis-
contented and patriotic eagerly joined him and made
him their leader. He was highly qualified for the
great task he had undertaken. His personal appear-
ance was prepossessing, his courage daring, his forti-
tude unwavering, and his liberality unbounded. Wher-
ever he went, success crowned his enterprises, and the
English everywhere fell before him. Enlarging his
objects with his triumphs, he called upon the men of
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 171
rank to assert the cause of their country under his
banner. If any Scottish nobleman refused, he seized
and imprisoned him till he obeyed. Having thus col-
lected an active and imposing force, he attempted to
expel the English from the castles and fortresses in
which they had secured themselves throughout the
country, till his exploits reached the ears of Edward,
and aroused him to serious exertions for the preserva-
tion of his newly acquired realm.
Edward could not at first credit the account of this
unexpected rising of the Scots. He despatched the
Bishop of Durham, a warrior-prelate, to examine and
report the truth, and soon received a confirmation of
the unwelcome news. He was then about embarking
to defend Flanders from a French invasion, and im-
mediately ordered his former general, the Earl of
Warenne, to march and chastise the northern revolters.
An army of fifty thousand men took the field, and the
easy re-conquest of Scotland was confidently antici-
pated. In the mean time Wallace had been raised to
the command of all the Scottish forces. He was be-
sieging the castle of Dundee, in the year 1296, when
he heard that the English were advancing to Stirling.
Committing the siege to the citizens of the town, which
he charged them to prosecute under the penalty of
losing life and limb, if they were negligent, he hasten-
ed to meet the invaders. The waters of the Forth
spread between the English and the town of Stirling;
and a rising ground was beyond it. Wallace halted
behind the hill to watch the enemy. Warenne sent
two Dominican friars to offer peace. " Tell your
masters, 1 ' said Wallace, " we come not here for peace
172 SKETCHES FROM THE
but to fight, — to revenge and liberate our country !
Let them approach when they please, they will find
us ready to meet them to the very beard ! " This lofty
answer kindled the pride of the English. " They
threaten us ! " was the general exclamation, " let us
advance!" — "If you pass by the bridge," said a
friendly native, " you are ruined. Two only can pass
it at a time. They flank us, and can attack with all
their front. There is a ford not far off, where sixty
men may cross together ; let me conduct you to it."
The advice was rejected, and this presumptuousness
gave Wallace the brightest day of his short military life.
The English advanced in narrow files upon the
bridge. Wallace waited quietly till as many had
passed as he was sure of overcoming. He then sent
a body of lancers to secure the foot of the bridge, and
immediately charged, with speedy destruction, the
whole first division of the enemy. Their total dis-
comfiture threw Warenne into a panic, and he fled to
Berwick as fast as his horse could carry him, aban-
doning even the English border-counties to his tri-
umphant antagonist, who followed up his advantage
with such promptness that he was soon before Carlisle.
He sent in a friar with this message : " William the
Conqueror commands you to surrender." " Who is
this Conqueror ? " inquired the governor. " William,
whom you call Wallace." The summons was defied,
and Wallace, finding he could not carry the place by
assault, prepared to retreat. The epithet annexed to
his name shows the exultation of the Scots at his suc-
cess, and his popular celebrity.-
Wallace, having thus liberated his country from the
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 173
English yoke, assumed the title of " Governor of Scot-
land in the name of King John Baliol," who had been
imprisoned in the Tower of London by Edward. He
continued his exertions for maintaining the indepen-
dence of the country ; but Edward, having returned
from Flanders, made great preparations for a cam-
paign against the Scots ; and they soon felt that, the
crisis of affairs was not yet past. Eighty thousand
English soon penetrated beyond Edinburgh, but found
themselves severely incommoded by the want of pro-
visions. The scarcity soon became a famine, and
Edward was about making dispositions for a retreat,
when some one mentioned to him secretly, that the
Scottish army under Wallace was only a few miles
off, in the forest of Falkirk ; that they had heard of
the determination of the English to fall back, and had
rapidly advanced, hoping to surprise their camp on the
following night. Edward immediately gave orders to
march toward Falkirk ; his troops obeyed, knowing noth-
ing of his design, and wondering at his change of mind.
In the moor near Linlithgow Edward halted his
troops for the night. They rested on the bare earth,
with their shields for pillows, their armor for beds,
and their horses held unbaited near them. As the
king was sleeping, his war-horse struck his side with
his hoof, and broke two of his ribs. An alarm was
spread that the king was hurt ; treason was suspected,
and a panic might have dispersed the English army,
if Edward, subduing his sensations of pain, had not
placed himself in his saddle and reassured his troops
by his presence. At dawn of day they marched to
Falkirk, and beheld the Scottish army. The king
174 SKETCHES FEOM THE
wished to refresh his troops with food, but was re-
minded that nothing but a little brook separated the
two armies. He saw the point of the remark, and
instantly ordered the attack.
Wallace formed his men into four circular bodies,
facing outwards, with their lances held obliquely, and
with archers in their intervals. A peat morass was in
his front, and he caused a row of stakes, tied by ropes,
to be driven into the ground, as a defence against the
English cavalry. Behind these he posted his infantry,
with this short address : " I have brought you to the
ring, — dance well, if you know how."
Edward formed his troops in three divisions. The
first advanced directly towards the enemy, ignorant of
the morass, but on reaching it were obliged to deviate to
the west. The second line, under the Bishop of Dur-
ham, skirted the morass on the east. This division,
eager to strike the first blow, marched faster than the
Bishop desired, as he thought it better to wait for the
support of the other line. " It is not for you to teach
us war," cried an ardent knight, who shared the com-
mand ; " to your mass, Bishop ! " and led his willing
troops into the conflict with the first circle of the
Scots, while the van was also hastening into action.
The Scottish cavalry gave way before the impetuosity
of the charge, and fled. The northern bowmen, from
the forest of Selkirk, fought manfully, but were soon
destroyed. The condensed array of the Scottish lan-
cers, with their obliquely protruded weapons, was then
full before the English knights, and steadily kept them
at bay. In vain they attempted to break the firm
array ; the foremost of the assailants, with unavailing
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 175
bravery, perished on the lances, as Wallace had fore-
seen, and the repulse of the English chivalry did
credit to his military judgment. The circles of infan-
try were impenetrable. But the English commanders
were persevering and expert ; they observed that the
Scottish array, though so effective for defence, was in-
competent to attack ; these rings of men, were, in
fact, but so many immovable fortresses. The place
abounded with large stones, and the English brought
up their crossbow-men and machines. Stones and ar-
rows were poured without intermission upon the Scots,
till so many were killed, that the rest, overwhelmed,
began to fall back and close their circles. At this criti-
cal moment, the English cavalry burst in, followed by
their foot, before the Scottish officers could re-arrange
their broken rings, which this movement threw into
irretrievable confusion. The day was now lost, and
all that remained for the Scots was to save themselves
by flight. Many thousands of them were slain. — Such
was the disastrous result of " the fight of Falkirk,"
which took place in the summer of 1298.
Had Wallace been allowed the authority due to the
superiority of his genius, the result would have been
different. But it seems pretty clear that there were
dissensions in his army before the action. The proud
lairds and chieftains cavilled at the inferiority of the
hero's birth, and his right of command was disputed.
He had formed a safer plan of operations ; but the de-
cision and promptness of the English king having
suddenly brought his army before the Scottish lines,
the momentous battle became inevitable. This defeat,
the natural result of superior discipline and equipment,
176 SKETCHES FROM THE
and therefore not to be ascribed to any fault in Wal-
lace, destroyed his influence among the selfish chief-
tains. They foolishly deserted him, and, appointing
Robert Bruce and others the guardians of Scotland,
they protracted a defensive struggle till 1303, when
Edward, having made peace with France, was enabled
to pour the whole military force of his kingdom into
Scotland. After a siege of ninety days, he made him-
self master of Stirling, a success which enabled him
shortly after to carry his victorious army through the
country. Bruce, Comyn, and their followers, surren-
dered to the English. The Scottish chieftains all
abandoned the contest except Wallace, who had been
indefatigable in animating the previous warfare. He
was invited to imitate them, and put himself under the
royal grace ; but his unbroken spirit resolutely refused,
and he withdrew to a place of concealment.
Edward's resentment was inflamed to the highest
degree by this scornful rejection of his offer of pardon.
He felt his conquest to be insecure while Wallace
lived, and he despatched many parties of men to hunt
him out in his retreat. From his enemies the perse-
cuted patriot might seclude himself, but his asylum was
accessible to deceitful friends. One of these, directed
by a faithless domestic, betrayed him into the hands of
Edward. Age had now chilled in King Edward all the
generous feelings that ever mitigated his resentments.
He saw in Wallace only an irreconcilable adversary,
and his vindictive spirit had not the magnanimity to
pardon. Wallace was arraigned at Westminster as a
traitor. His defence was complete ; he had never sworn
allegiance to Edward, and owed him none by birth ;
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 177
he had never acquiesced in his authority ; he could not
be a traitor to him. But the English judges adopted
the feelings of their sovereign. Wallace was found
guilty of treason ; and was hanged, drawn, and quar-
tered on the 23d of August, 1305. His head was
exposed on London bridge, and his divided limbs were
sent to intimidate Scotland. Edward obtained the
wretched gratification of destroying his noble enemy ;
but his cruelty has only increased the celebrity of
Wallace, and indelibly blotted his own fame.
The Scottish writers, as might be expected, have
depicted Wallace as a character amiable and great.
The English, too indignant at imputed treason to feel
the justice of his motives, and too prejudiced by the
representations of the authority they revered not to
misconceive his actions, have transmitted to us his
portrait distorted with every moral deformity. They
assert that he was a rebel, a public robber, a murderer,
an incendiary, and an apostate ; more cruel than Her-
od, more wicked than Nero ; tormenting his prisoners
to make them dance in agony ; embowel ling infants,
and consuming schoolboys in flames. All these impu-
tations and tales may be construed to imply that he
was as cordially hated and misrepresented in one coun-
try as he was loved and panegyrist] in the other. We
may believe that he plundered, burnt, and slaughtered,
often without mercy, for such was the barbarous char-
acter of war in that ferocious age. We find Edward
described by his own chroniclers as putting the inhabi-
tants of Berwick to the sword on his first invasion ; and
Wallace, the native of a loss civilized country, would
hardly be more mild. But we may, perhaps, fairly
12
178 SKETCHES FROM THE
say, that his cruelties belonged to his age, and that his
noble spirit was his own. The world has been too
deeply indebted to similar characters and exertions, for
us not to feel that Wallace is entitled to all the praise
which his countrymen have lavished upon him.
The popular affection for Wallace is still strikingly
shown by the many local traditionary remembrances
of him which are still preserved in Scotland. The
hills, the houses, the castles, and the glens which he
frequented ; the stones on which he sat ; the tree in
which he was secreted ; the rock from which he
plunged into the sea ; the bridge which he crossed ;
the forest to which he withdrew ; the foaming cascade
behind which he was once screened ; the barn in
which he was taken ; and the lake into which, after he
was overpowered, he hurled his sword, are still fondly
pointed out. " The story of Wallace," says Robert
Burns, in his account of his youthful studies, " poured
a Scottish prejudice into my veins which will boil along
them till the flood-gates of life shut in eternal rest."
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 179
WALES.
LLEWELYN AND THE BARDS.
The history of Wales, during its earliest period, is
little else than the history of perpetual and inglorious
bloodshed. Usurpers, ambitious princes, irascible kins-
men, or depredating chieftains, are exhibited as suc-
cessively destroying each other, and depopulating their
country ; while England was advancing in a steady
progress, under a settled government and internal
tranquillity. If the storms of civil warfare sometimes
paused, other evils arose to this unhappy people from
the hostility of the Anglo-Normans, whose incursions
were often temporary conquests. After a series of
usurpations, the right line of the ancient British princes
was restored, and transmitted through successive de-
scendants to Llewelyn ap Gryffith, the last sovereign
of Wales.
The hostilities of William the Conqueror, and his
son Rufus, made a serious impression on the southern
provinces of Wales ; and two colonies of Flemings
were, in the reigns of Henry the First and Henry the
Second, successfully established there. The military
subjection of the country diminished during the reign
180 SKETCHES FROM THE
of John, and in the first years of his son, Edward the
First ; but as this prince advanced to maturity, his
martial spirit found in the country an inviting theatre
for his exploits. At the age of twenty -four, he had
led his father's forces over the Severn, and penetrat-
ed to Snowdon ; but the Welsh fell back to their fast-
nesses, and the conquerors withdrew. When he be-
came king, one of his first projects was to subdue the
country and annex it to England.
It is dangerous to praise ambition, but this was one
of those few military conquests which benefit humanity.
Nothing short of the extinction of its native sovereign-
ties, and its incorporation with England, could termi-
nate those scenes of murder and devastation, which
were succeeding each other with no prospect of cessa-
tion. Edward's character is responsible for the per-
sonal motives in this enterprise ; but its accomplish-
ment was a blessing to both countries. Sufficient
causes of quarrel existed between the two kings. Ed-
ward began his attack with every form of solemnity.
He procured the excommunication of Llewelyn, and
the English parliament pronounced judgment against
him. The first invasions produced the submission of
the Welsh king on conditions sufficiently humiliating.
But rigor never conciliates, and the warfare was soon
revived by the irritation and pride of the oppressed.
On the submission of Llewelyn, his brother David had
been treated by Edward with peculiar distinction.
This prince has been described as an ingenious, crafty,
and plotting man. He soon persuaded Llewelyn to
try again the fortune of war, which had twice dis-
graced him.
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 181
Edward advanced into Wales by land, in 1263, and
sent his fleet to Anglesey. When he heard of the
capture of this island, he exclaimed, " Llewelyn has
lost the finest feather in his tail," and caused a float-
ing bridge to be constructed, joining it to the main land.
Meantime the Welsh king had fortified himself on the
lofty heights of Snowdon, over against the island, and
at the first attempt of the English to pass the bridge
he defeated them, and drove into the sea upwards
of three hundred men. The Welsh thus having the
command of the bridge, the English remained pent up
in the island, when a traitorous AVelshman disclosed to
them a ford by which they might cross and attack
their enemy in the rear. Llewelyn, ignorant of this
treachery, descended from the mountains to reconnoitre
the position of the English, and, thinking himself in
perfect security, took but a single attendant with him.
Having inspected the opposite shore, he was reposing
himself in a barn, when he heard a war-cry. He
asked of his squire, " Are not my Welshmen at the
bridge ? " The answer assured him that they were.
" Then I am safe," said the king, " though all Eng-
land should be on the other side."
But the clamor soon increased and drew nearer
every moment, and presently he was thrown into as-
tonishment at beholding the English banners advancing.
The enemy had struck their unexpected blow at his
advanced guard, and their main body was rapidly
crossing the river. He now tried to regain his camp,
but was suddenly crossed in his way by an English
knight, who, ignorant of his rank, but discerning him to
be a Welshman, advanced immediately upon him. A
182 SKETCHES FROM THE
contest was unavoidable, and the king was too cour-
ageous to decline it ; but he was lightly armed, and
the lance of the Englishman was thrown with fatal
strength and precision. Llewelyn received it in his
side and fell dead. The English knight, unconscious of
the importance of his exploit, fell back to join his coun-
trymen, who were now in full march on the fortified
mountains. The Welsh formed eagerly on their clifFs,
prepared for battle, but awaiting the return and orders
of their sovereign. In vain they watched the valleys
for his approach, in vain ascended the highest emi-
nences to descry him ; they saw their dreaded foes
already climbing their steeps to close in deadly con-
flict, and they had no royal leader to animate or guide
them. Before they recovered from their disappoint-
ment, the English banners began to wave on their
heights, and they found themselves attacked on all
sides with an impetuosity which soon scattered them
in a panic from which they could not be rallied. All
who could escape the English sword fled in hopeless
confusion, and the unexpected casualties of that event-
ful day annexed the sovereignty of Wales to the crown
of England with a facility that could never have been
anticipated.
The curiosity of the knight having been excited by
the rumors of the field, he descended into the valley
to see whom he had encountered. He found the dead
body still on the ground, and, examining its face, it
was recognized to be Llewelyn. Eager to reap the
full profit of his fortunate encounter, he degraded his
chivalry by cutting off the head of the corpse, which
he carried to Edward. The king had not the magna-
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN. 183
nimity of William the Conqueror, who reprimanded the
knight who had wounded the dead body of Harold, but
sent the head of Llewelyn to London, adorned in de-
rision with a silver crown, that it might be exhibited to
the populace in Cheapside, and fixed upon the Tower.
Edward is said to have secured his conquest by the
massacre of the Welsh bards, who might have kept
alive the national spirit and nourished the animosity of
their countrymen to the English. This is rather a
fiction of an irritated people than a historical fact.
The destruction of the independent sovereignties of
Wales abolished the patronage of the bards, and in the
cessation of internal warfare and external ravages they
lost their favorite subjects and most familiar imagery.
They declined because they were no longer encour-
aged ; and their disappearance has been mistaken for
their forcible extirpation. The bards of Wales were
supposed to be endowed with powers equal to inspira-
tion. They were the oral historians of all past trans-
actions, public and private. They related the great
events of the state, and, like the skalds of the northern
nations, retained the memory of numberless transac-
tions which otherwise would have perished in oblivion.
They had another talent which probably endeared
them more than all the rest to the Welsh nobility, that
of being most accomplished genealogists, and flat-
tering their vanity in singing the deeds of an ances-
try derived from the most distant period. No public
festivity, great feast, or wedding could be duly solem-
nized without the presence of the bards and minstrels.
A glorious emulation arose among them, and prizes
were bestowed on the most worthy.
184 SKETCHES FROM THE
The court bard was a domestic officer. He held
his land free, and was entitled to a horse and a woollen
garment from the king, and a linen garment from the
queen. At the three principal feasts, of Christmas,
Easter, and Whitsuntide, he sat next to the prefect of
the palace, who delivered the harp into his hand, and
at these festivals he had the robe of the steward for his
fee. When a song was required, the bard who had
gained the badge of the chair, in musical contest, first
sung a hymn of glory to God, after that another in
honor of the prince, and then the bard of the hall was
to sing some other subject. If the queen desired a
song, he attended her in her own chamber. When he
accompanied the prince's domestic servants upon a
foray, he had an ox or a cow from the booty, and,
while the prey was dividing, he sung the praises of the
monarchy. He also sung in the same strain at the
head of the troops, when drawn up for fight. This
was to remind the Welsh of their ancient right to the
whole kingdom ; for, their inroads being almost always
on the English territories, they thought they did no
more than seize on their own. When invested with
this office, the prince gave the bard a harp, and the
queen a gold ring. If he asked any gift or favor of
the prince, he was fined an ode or poem ; if of a no-
bleman, three ; if of a common person, he was obliged
to sing till he was weary or fell asleep.
Wales, immediately after its incorporation with
England, ceased to be the theatre of turbulence, blood-
shed, and distress. Nothing more strongly marks the
beneficial change than the new features which the
Welsh poetry assumed after that event. We see no
HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN.
185
more, in endless repetition, the horrible imagery of the
prowling wolf, the gushing blood, and the screaming
kite feasting on human prey. It is no longer the
baneful encomium on the wasteful conflict and the
barbarous chief. The fair sex now began to form the
subject of the bardic lay, and their charms imparted
that inspiration, which had previously been derived
only from the mead-cup and the princely gift. The
praise of the sword was abandoned for more pacific
themes ; and the mountain muse found that delight in
beauty and rural nature, which she had formerly expe-
rienced only in murder and devastation.
St. Patrick, preaching.
IRELAND.
EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND.
The vanity of nations, as well as of individuals,
leads them to set up pretensions to high antiquity of
origin. Thus the Chaldeans traced back their history
for a space of four hundred and seventy thousand
years ; and the Egyptians were scarcely less moderate
in their claims. It is a good evidence of the credulity
which this species of pride inspires, that the faith of
the latter people in their fabulous chronology was not
disturbed by a chasm of eleven thousand three hun-
dred and forty years, which occurs between two of
their kings, Menes and Sethon.
If the bardic historians of Ireland have been a little
less extravagant in their pretensions, it is because their
stories were fabricated at a later date, and after the
Bible had been introduced among them. They there-
fore commence their story but a few weeks before the
flood, when, agreeably to their legends, Cesara, a
niece of Noah, arrived with a colony of antediluvians
upon the Irish coast. These were, at different times,
followed by other bands; and in the fourth century
188 EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND.
after the flood, Ireland was invaded and taken posses-
sion of by Partholen, a descendant of Japheth.
After holding the country for three hundred years,
the race of Partholen was swept away by a plague ;
and, in the time of Jacob, another colony, led by Ne-
medius, took possession of the country. The wars
that these settlers waged with the Fomorians, an Af-
rican tribe of sea-rovers, form one of the favorite
themes of the ancient Irish muse.
The next, and, in number, the third of these colo-
nies, were Belgians, and known under the name of
Fir-Bolgs ; these subjected the country to the yoke of
regal authority, and divided it into five kingdoms, — a
form of government which existed till the twelfth cen-
tury of the Christian era. The dynasty of the Fir-
Bolgs was, however, soon disturbed by the Tuatha de
Danaan, — a people famed for necromancy, which they
had learned in Greece. Aided by the Stone of Des-
tiny, the Sorcerer's Spear, and the Magic Caldron,
which they obtained in Denmark and Norway, and
led by Nuad of the Silver Hand, the Danaans landed
upon the island under cover of a mist, and penetrated
into the country before they were discovered. The
alarmed inhabitants retreated before them into Con-
naught, when, at Moytura, on the borders of Lake
Masg, that bloody conflict took place, which is called
the Battle of the Field of the Tower, and which was
long a favorite theme of Irish song. Having driven
their opposers to the Isle of Man, North Aran, and the
Hebrides, the victorious Danaans became sole masters
of the country. But they in turn were dispossessed
of their sway by the Scotic or Milesian colony, which
EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND. 189
through so long a series of ages furnished Ireland with
her kings.
This celebrated colony, though coming directly from
Spain, was originally, we are told, of the Scythic race;
and its various migrations and adventures, before reach-
ing its "Isle of Destiny" in the west, are detailed by
the bards with all that fond and lingering minuteness,
in which fancy, playing with its own creations, so
much delights to indulge. Grafting upon this Scythic
colony the traditional traces and stories of their coun-
try respecting the Phoenicians, they have contrived to
collect together, without much regard either to chro-
nology, history, or geography, every circumstance
that could tend to dignify and add lustre to such an
event, — an event upon which not only the rank of
their country itself, in the heraldry of nations, depend-
ed, but in which every individual, entitled by his Mile-
sian blood to lay claim to a share in so glorious a
pedigree, was imagined to be interested. In order
more completely to identify the ancestors of these
Scythic colonists with the Phoenicians, the bards relate
that by one of them, named Fenius, to whom the in-
vention of the Ogham character is attributed, an
academy for languages was instituted upon the Plain
of Shinar, in which that purest dialect of the Irish,
called the Bearla Feini, was cultivated.
From thence, tracing this chosen race in their mi-
grations to different countries, and connecting them,
by marriage or friendship, during their long sojourn
in Egypt, with most of the heroes of Scripture his-
tory, the bards conduct them at length, by a route not
very intelligible, to Spain. There, by their valor and
190 EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND.
enterprise, they succeed in liberating the country from
its Gothic invaders, and in a short time make them-
selves masters of the whole kingdom. Still haunted,
however, in the midst of their glory, by the remem-
brance of a prophecy which had declared that " an
island in the Western Sea was to be their ultimate
place of rest," the two sons of their great leader, Mi-
lesius, at length fitted out a grand martial expedition,
and set sail, in thirty ships, from the coast of Gallicia,
for Ireland. According to the bardic chronology,
thirteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, but
according to Nennius Acngus and others, near five
centuries later, this " lettered and martial colony ar-
rived, under the command of the sons of Milesius, on
the Irish coasts ; and, having effected a landing at
Inbher Sceine, the present Bantry Bay, on Thursday,
the first of May, A. M. 2934, achieved that great and
memorable victory over the Tuatha de Danaan, which
secured to themselves and their princely descendants,
for more than two thousand years, the supreme domin-
ion over all Ireland."
Such is a very brief outline of the early history of
Ireland, as furnished by the bards. It would, perhaps,
be equally unwise wholly to adopt or reject their story.
It is as probable that there is some foundation, in reality,
for most of these events, as it is that the Grecian tales
of Hercules and Theseus had their origin in truth.
But it is impossible to separate the fabulous from the
historical ; and we are therefore compelled to leave
the subject in one of those happy mists, in which anti-
quaries may continue to fight their bloodless battles.
Although the Milesian colony is embraced in the
EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND. 191
bardic fables, it seems properly to come within the
scope of veritable history. We do not, indeed, adopt
even the chronology of the sanguine Irish historians
of modern date. Dr. O'Connor, who has bestowed
vast learning upon the subject, considers Kimboath the
fifty-sixth king of the Milesian line, and carries his
reign back to a period at least two centuries before
Christ.
Leaving the date, as a matter of entire uncertainty,
we may proceed to some details respecting the Scotic
or Milesian dynasty. It seems that the tribe came to
Ireland under the two sons of Milesius, Heber and
Heremon. They divided the country between them,
constituting their brother Emergin arch bard, or pre-
siding minister over the departments of law, poetry,
and religion.
The two kings, Heber and Heremon, soon quarrelled
for the possession of a beautiful valley, and Heber was
slain, his brother now becoming sole sovereign of the
island. Passing over the immediate successors of
Heremon, we may notice Tishernmas, who was mirac-
ulously destroyed, with a vast multitude around him,
for offering sacrifice to the idol Crom Cruach. Achy,
his successor, passed an edict, regulating the exact
colors of the garments the different classes of people
should wear. Ollam Foodhla, the royal sage, as he
is called, instituted the triennial convention at Tara, in
which there seemed an approach to representative
government ; the leading persons of the three orders,
the king, the Druids or priests, and the plebeians, being
convened for the making of such laws as the public good
required. In the presence of these assemblies, the
192 EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND.
events to be entered on the public Psalter or record,
kept at Tara, were examined and prepared.
The space between Ollam Foodhla and Hugony the
Great, the royal builder of the famous palace of Ema-
nia, is filled up by the bards with thirty-two kings, all
of whom died by violence except three. In the reign
of Conary the Great, which coincides with the begin-
ning of the Christian era, the young hero Cuchullin
was slain in the full flush of his glorious career. With
the fame of this Irish warrior most readers have been
made acquainted by the poems of Macpherson, at-
tributed to Ossian. Tuathal the Acceptable, after
having been compelled to fly his kingdom, was restored
about the year 130, and introduced various improve-
ments in the laws and institutions of the country.
Feidlim the Legislator, and Con of the Hundred Bat-
tles, intervened between Tuathal and Cormac Ulfadha,
who is said to have founded three academies at Tara,
to have revised the Psalter from the time of Ollam
Foodhla ; and, having lost an eye in repelling an attack
upon his palace, resigned his crown, in obedience to a
law which excluded any one marked with a personal
blemish from the throne. Having retired to a thatched
cabin at Kells, this king devoted himself to the writing
of books, one of which, " The Advice to a King,"
was said to be extant in the seventeenth century.
A long space now occurs, in which there is little of
interest. Succeeding to the usurper Colla, Nial of the
Nine Hostages made a formidable invasion of Britain,
in the fourth century, and afterwards extended his
enterprises to the coast of Gaul, where he was assas-
sinated by one of his followers with a poisoned arrow.
EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND. 193
It was in the course of this expedition that the soldiers
of Nial carried off a youth destined to work a great
revolution in Ireland.
Such, from the period of Kimboath, is the semi-
authentic history of Ireland, based upon the annalists,
catching, however, an occasional ray of light from the
bardic legends. If it cannot be set down as entirely
worthy of our confidence, we may at least rest in the
belief, that, in its general outline, and doubtless in its
prominent characters, it affords a general representa-
tion of truth.
Succeeding to Nial of the Nine Hostages, Dathy,
the last of the pagan kings of Ireland, like his prede-
cessor, ravaged the coast of Gaul, and, making his
way to the foot of the Alps, was there slain by a flash
of lightning. Leogaire, who reigned at the time of
St. Patrick's mission, was killed by the sun and wind,
for violating an oath.
The authentic histoiy of Ireland properly begins
with St. Patrick, in the fifth century. The name of
this Christian apostle has been so often connected with
incredible tales and miraculous legends, that it is apt
to excite ridicule in the minds of many persons. But
an examination of his true history will lead every fair-
minded individual to a very different estimate of his
character. St. Patrick appears to have been a native
of Boulogne, in France, and to have been born about
the year 887, A. D. In his sixteenth year, he was
made captive, as before intimated, in a marauding ex-
pedition, conducted by Nial of the Nine Hostages.
Being carried to Ireland, he was sold as a slave to a
man named Milcho, living in what is now called the
13
194 EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND.
county of Antrim. The occupation assigned him was
the lending of sheep. His lonely rambles over the
mountain and the forest are described by himself as
having been devoted to constant prayer, to thought,
and to the nursing of those deep devotional feelings,
which, even at .that time, he felt strongly stirring within
him. At length, after six years of servitude, the de-
sire of escaping from bondage arose in his heart. " A
voice in his dreams," he says, " told him that he was
soon to go to his own country, and that a ship was
ready to convey him thither. 1 ' Accordingly, in the
seventh year of his slavery, he betook himself to flight,
and, making his way to the south-western coast of
Ireland, was there received on board a merchant ves-
sel, which, after a voyage of three days, landed him on
the coast of Gaul. He now returned to his parents,
and, after spending some time with them, devoted him-
self to study In the celebrated monastery of St. Martin
at Tours. During this period, it would appear that
his mind still dwelt with fond recollection upon Ire-
land ; for he had a remarkable dream, which, in those
superstitious ages, was regarded by him as a vision
from Heaven. In this he seemed to receive innumer-
able letters from Ireland, in one of which was written,
" The voice of the Irish." In these natural workings
of a warm and pious imagination, so unlike the prodi-
gies and miracles with which most of the legends of
his life abound, we see what a hold the remembrance
of Ireland had taken of his youthful fancy, and how
fondly he already contemplated some holy work in
her service.
Having left the seminary at Tours, he spent several
EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND. 195
years in travelling, study, and meditation ; but at
length, being constituted a bishop, and having, at his
own request, been appointed by the see of Rome to
that service, he proceeded on his long contemplated
mission to Ireland.
Let us pause a moment to consider the state of Ire-
land at this period, that we may duly estimate the task
which lay before this apostle, and which we shall find
he gloriously accomplished. The neighbouring island
of Britain, it will be remembered, was still under the
Roman yoke ; but, as before remarked, no Roman
soldier had ventured to cross the narrow channel be-
tween Britain and Ireland and set his foot upon Irish
soil. To Ireland, then, Rome had imparted none of
her civilization. The country was, in fact, in a state
of barbarism ; the government was the same as that
which had been handed down for centuries, and which
continued for ages after. The country was divided
into five principal kingdoms, whose chiefs acknowl-
edged a nominal allegiance to one principal sovereign
who was monarch of the realm. But there were still a
great number of petty chiefs, also claiming the title of
kings, and often setting up for independence, or dis-
puting the authority of their accustomed masters.
The wrangles between these rival powers were savage
and incessant ; and the people were therefore embroil-
ed in almost constant war. Among the rapid succes-
sion of princes, history tells us of but £ew that did not
die by violence. In some of the dynasties, whole
centuries pass, affording but a ghastly record of mur-
dering and murdered chiefs. In such a state of things,
it is obvious that there could be little progress in the
196 EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND.
arts of peace, or in that culture which proceeds from
the diffusion of intellectual light. A knowledge of
letters, indeed, is said to have existed in the country,
and there was, no doubt, much mystical lore among
the Druidical priesthood, who, at this dark period of
society, appear to have led both prince and people, as
their cheated and deluded captives, whithersoever they
pleased. The dominion, indeed, of these artful priests
over the mind of the nation seems to have been abso-
lute, and they exerted it with unsparing rigor. The
whole people were subjected to an oppressive routine
of rites and ceremonies, among which the sacrifice of
human victims — men, women, and children — was
common. The details of these shocking superstitions
are, indeed, too frightful to be repeated here. It is
sufficient to say, that the mission of St. Patrick con-
templated the conversion of a nation, wedded to these
unholy rites, to the pure and peaceful doctrines of the
gospel. He came alone, armed with no earthly power,
arrayed in no visible pomp, to overturn the cherished
dynasty of ages ; to beat down a formidable priest-
hood ; to slay the many-headed monster, prejudice ;
to draw aside the thick cloud which overspread a na-
tion, and permit the light of Heaven to shine upon it.
There was something in the very conception of this
noble enterprise which marks St. Patrick as endowed
with the true spirit of an apostle. We cannot follow
him through the details of his mission. It is sufficient
to say, that, exercising no power but persuasion, and
using no weapon but truth, he proceeded from place
to place, reasoning with the people, combating the
Druid, and preaching to the prince. It was on one of
EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND. 197
these occasions that he is said to have illustrated the
doctrine of the Trinity, hy stooping to the ground and
plucking a branch of trefoil, or three-leaved clover, —
maintaining that the three leaves upon one stem dis-
played, in nature, a trinity combined with unity, which
might fitly represent the Triune Deity whom he
preached. Thus, by his zeal and address, in the brief
space of thirty years, St. Patrick introduced Christiani-
ty into every province in the land, and that without
one drop of bloodshed. Everywhere the frowning
altars of the Druids fell before him ; the superstitious
prince did homage to the cross, and the proud priest
of the sun bent his knee to the true God. Christianity
was thus introduced and spread over Ireland without
violence, and by the agency of a single individual.
Such appear to be the true character and history of
St. Patrick, divested of the marvels and miracles with
which superstition has embellished them. Such, at
least, is the view taken by the Irish historian ; * and
such is the image pictured in the faith or fancy of the
Irish people. And where is there a brighter page in
history than this ? Where is there a life more enno-
bled by lofty purposes, more illustrious from its glori-
ous results, than this of St. Patrick ? Surely, such an
individual is no proper theme for ridicule or contempt.
If we Americans do homage to the memory of Wash-
ington, who aided in delivering our country from tyr-
anny, the Irishman may as justly hold dear the cher-
ished recollections of him who redeemed his country
* This is substantially the account given of St. Patrick by
Thomas Moore, in his " History of Ireland."
198
EARLY HISTORY OF IRELAND.
from paganism. Aside from the immediate benefits
which St. Patrick secured to Ireland, he has left to
all mankind the heritage of a glorious truth, — which
is, that, in contending with human power, human pas-
sions, and human depravity, the minister of Jesus
Christ needs no other weapon than truth, enforced by
holy example. He has left us an imperishable lesson
of wisdom, — that moral suasion can overturn the do-
minion of ignorance and prejudice, which might for
ever hold the sword at bay.
FRANCE.
CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS TIMES.
A distinguished epoch in the history of the world
was formed by Charlemagne, the only prince, as re-
marked by Gibbon, in whose favor the title of Great
has been indissolubly blended with the name. In the
dark ages of European history, his reign affords a soli-
tary resting-place between two long periods of turbu-
lence and ignominy. He stands like a beacon in the
waste, or a rock in the broad ocean. The mighty in-
fluence which he exercised upon the age, the illustri-
ous families which have prided themselves in him as
their progenitor, the very legends of romance, which
are full of his fabulous exploits, have cast a lustre
around his head, and testify the greatness that has em-
bodied itself in his name.
Thick darkness had settled over Europe with the
irruption of the barbarians of the North. A long race
of sovereigns, called in history the Sluggard Kings,
exercised a nominal sway over France ; but the gov-
ernment was a chaos, formed of the rude, irregular,
and contending passions of individuals. The dukes,
200 SKETCHES FROM THE
the counts, the bishops, and the patricians all strug-
gled for their own aggrandizement. There was no
popular party. Letters, science, peace, and stability
were unknown. The seas of blood which were pour-
ed out in the intestine struggles of the French nobles
had washed away every tincture of literature which
had been left by the Romans ; commerce and industry
were crushed under the iron steps of civil war. No
principle of law or justice remained to check the
strong or to protect the weak, and no acknowledged
power of legislation existed except in the sword. It
would be difficult, as an eminent historian has remark-
ed, to find anywhere more vice or less virtue than in
the annals of the Merovingian dynasty. Charles Mar-
tel, mayor of the palace, under Childeric the Second,
reduced this chaos to a certain degree of order ; but
the sciences which had fled, and the arts which had
been lost, were unrecovered, till a brighter era opened,
and a more lofty and comprehensive mind awoke to
recall the treasures of former days.
This was Charlemagne, or Charles the Great, a
prince, who, like Napoleon, seemed born for universal
innovation, and who exhibited in all his acts that
grandeur of conception which distinguishes extraordi-
nary minds. We see him conquering barbarous na-
tions and consolidating a great empire, reforming the
coinage and establishing the legal divisions of money,
gathering around him the learned of every country,
founding schools and libraries, interfering, but with the
tone of a king, in religious controversies, undertaking,
for the benefit of commerce, the magnificent enterprise
of uniting the Rhine and the Danube, and meditating to
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 201
mould the discordant codes of Roman and barbarian
laws into a uniform system.
Charlemagne was born in the year 742. The place
of his birth is not known, some writers mentioning
Aix-la-Chapelle, and others the castle of Ingelheim,
near Mentz. A great obscurity also rests over the
early part of his life. No records of his education
have come down to us, nor any of those particulars
of his early years which are generally ornamented by
the invention and fancy of biographers. His father,
Pepin the Short, mayor of the palace, assumed the
title of King of France about seven years after the
birth of Charles. At his death, in 768, the kingdom
was divided between Charles and his brother Carlo-
man. These princes quarrelled, and their hostility
would have produced fatal effects, had not the death of
Carloman, in 771, put an end to their disputes. This
event left Charles, without a struggle or a crime, sole
monarch of the Franks, and his vast and ambitious
genius being thus freed from every check, he was
placed in a condition to plan those great political
schemes which have conferred immortality on the
name of Charlemagne.
His reign lasted forty-six years, and was a con-
tinued series of victories, political reforms, and re-
markable events, which, in the midst of barbarism,
offer to our view objects worthy of absorbing our whole
attention. Previous to the death of his father he had
distinguished himself as a warrior by the defeat of
Hunalde, the revolted Duke of Aquitaine. On his ac-
cession to the throne of the Franks, he was in the
flower of his age, remarkably tall, robust, and active,
202 SKETCHES FROM THE
in the full vigor both of his physical and intellectual
faculties. The first military exploit of the king was
a campaign against the Saxons. France had long
been at war with this people, who preserved all the fe-
rocity of the German manners, while their courage was
further sustained by the love of liberty. Pepin had
subjected them to tribute, and compelled them to re-
ceive Christian missionaries ; but they felt the strongest
reluctance to pay the one and embrace the religion of
the other. These barbarians having massacred some
of the missionaries, Charlemagne took up arms against
them in 772. Though often defeated, the Saxons still
rebelled, their general, the celebrated Witikind, inces-
santly exciting their ardor for war, and their love of
independence. In the first campaign, he gained a
complete victory over the French. Charlemagne took
a cruel revenge by the massacre of Verdun, when up-
wards of four thousand chief men of the Saxons were
beheaded. Witikind, after being defeated with great
slaughter in several battles, made his submission and
embraced Christianity. But, though he kept his en-
gagements with fidelity, he never could tame the fierce
spirit of his countrymen. They often submitted, and
as often revolted : but, at last, after a war of thirty
years, they were entirely subjugated by transplanting
many thousand families of them into Flanders and
other countries. The most resolute fled into Scandi-
navia, carrying with them an implacable hatred of the
dominion and religion of the Franks.
Every nation in Germany that dared to offer the
least resistance sunk under the arms of the French
conqueror. The Duke of Bavaria, having rebelled,
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 203
was stripped of his dominions. The Sclavonians in
Pomerania were subdued. The Huns, or Avars, who
had settled in Hungary, were driven beyond the
Raab. Charlemagne needed only show himself in
order to disperse his enemies. In all his wars, the
newly conquered nations, or those whom fear had
made his dependent allies, were employed to subjugate
their neighbours, and the incessant waste of fatigue
and the sword was supplied by a fresh population that
swelled the expanding circle of dominion.
The conqueror looked upon Christianity as the best
instrument for softening the barbarous manners of a
ferocious people, without reflecting that Christians are
not made by violence. His laws for the Saxons strike
us as almost equally barbarous with their own man-
ners. He obliged them to receive baptism on pain of
death, and made it a capital offence to break the fas*
of Lent ; in a word, substituting force instead of per-
suasion. It must not be concealed that the great quali
ties of Charlemagne were alloyed by the vices of t
barbarian and a conqueror. This union of brute vio
lence with grand schemes and elevated views of na-
tional improvement has something like a modern par-
allel in the person of Peter of Russia ; yet the sovereign
of the Franks must be ranked far above the Czar.
The Saxon wars were spread over a great part of
the reign of Charlemagne. Other wars and conquests
in the mean time occupied his arms. In 773, he
marched into Italy, on the pretext of delivering the
Holy See from the oppression of the Lombards. Lay-
ing siege at the same time to the cities of Verona and
Pavia, he captured, in the former, the widow and child-
204 SKETCHES FROM THE
ren of his brother Carloman, who had sought refuge in
Italy from his jealousy. In Pavia, he gained posses-
sion of the person of Desiderius, king of the Lombards,
whom he carried prisoner to France, thus completely
extinguishing the Lombard monarchy. During the
siege of Pavia, he took up his march for Rome with a
considerable portion of his army, and an immense
train of bishops, priests, and nobles. Shouts and songs
of triumph greeted him on the way. Towns, castles,
and villages poured forth their inhabitants to see him
pass. The noble, the citizen, and the serf joined in
acclamations to welcome the conqueror of the Lom-
bards, and expiring Italy seemed to revive at the glo-
rious aspect of the victor. Thirty miles from the city,
he was met by all those who could still boast of gen-
erous blood in Rome, with ensigns and banners ; and at
a mile's distance from the walls, all the schools came
forth to receive him, bearing branches of palm and
olive, and singing in the sweet Roman tongue the
praises of their deliverer. Since the days of her an-
cient splendor, never had Rome beheld such a specta-
cle as entered her gates with the monarch of the
Franks. Pope Adrian the First recognized him as
Patrician of Rome, and King of Italy. At the surren-
der of Pavia, he was crowned with the diadem of the
Lombard monarchs, the iron crown, which has in our
day encircled the brows of Napoleon. After an expe-
dition of fifteen months he returned to France.
The ambition of Charlemagne was excited in a dif-
ferent quarter in 778, when several Moorish chiefs in
the northwestern parts of Spain implored his protec-
tion and invited him to accept their vassalage. He
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 205
assembled an army in Aquitaine, crossed the Pyrenees,
penetrated as far as Saragossa, captured that city, and
received the submission of all the neighbouring lords.
But his return to France was signalized by a disaster
which has afforded a copious theme for poetry and
romance, — the defeat of Roncesvalles, — where, in
the exaggerated language of Milton,
" Charlemagne and all his peerage fell,
By Fontarabia."
News of threatened hostilities on the Rhenish fron-
tier caused him to hasten his march homeward. Di-
viding his army into two bodies, he advanced in person
at the head of the first division, leaving all the baggage
with the rear guard, which comprised a strong force,
and was commanded by some of the most renowned
of his chieftains, among whom was Roland or Orlan-
do, the nephew of Charlemagne. Mounted on heavy
horses, and loaded with a complete armor of iron, the
soldiers pursued their march through the narrow passes
of the Pyrenees, without suspecting the neighbourhood
of an enemy. The king himself, with the first division,
issued from these intricate defiles and trackless woods
unmolested ; but when the rear body, following leis-
urely at a considerable distance, had reached the wild
and narrow valley of Roncesvalles, the woods and
rocks around them suddenly bristled into life, and they
were attacked on all sides by the perfidious Gascons,
whose light arms, swift arrows, and knowledge of the
country gave them every advantage over their oppo-
nents.
In the first panic and confusion, the Franks were
206 SKETCHES FROM THE
driven down into the bottom of the pass, embarrassed
both by their arms and baggage. The Gascons pressed
them on every point, and slaughtered them like a herd
of deer, singling them out with their arrows from above,
and rolling down the rocks upon their heads. Never
wanting in courage, the Franks fought to the last man,
and died unconquered. Orlando and his companions,
after innumerable deeds of valor, were slain with the
rest ; and the Gascons, satiated with carnage and rich
in plunder, dispersed among the mountains, leaving
Charlemagne to seek fruitlessly for vengeance.
During the lapse of many centuries, tradition has
hung about this famous spot, and the memory of Or-
lando and his companions has been consecrated in a
thousand shapes throughout the country. The Casque
de Roland is the name of a mountain flower of the
Pyrenees. The stroke of his sword is shown upon the
rocks. The tales and superstitions of the district are
full of his exploits and fame. Ariosto, on the slight
basis which history affords, has raised up the splendid
structure of his immortal poem, and inscribed it with
the name of Orlando ; but, without this, that name
would still have been repeated through all the valleys
of the Pyrenees, and ornamented with the fictions
of a thousand years.
The year 800 was rendered memorable by the crown-
ing of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West. Leo
the Third, who succeeded Adrian, in 796, immediately
on his accession, sent the king the standard of Rome,
requesting him to despatch some person to that city to
receive the allegiance of the inhabitants. Three years
after, two men of considerable rank among the clergy,
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 207
relations of the deceased Pope, and enemies of Leo,
made an accusation against him, attacked him in the
street, overwhelmed him with blows, attempted to tear
out his eyes and tongue, and shut him up, half killed,
in the dungeon of a monastery. He found means to
escape, and fled to Charlemagne, who sent him back
with the greatest honors, and, shortly after, followed
him to Italy. On Christmas day, 800, while the king
was attending mass in St. Peter's church, the Pope, in
the midst of the service, at the moment when the mon-
arch was kneeling at the altar, suddenly placed on his
head an imperial crown, and the multitude instantly
shouted, " Long life and victory to Charles Augustus,
crowned by God, great and pacific Emperor of the
Romans ! " We are assured that Charlemagne was
taken by surprise on this occasion, and that he declar-
ed he would not have gone to church that day, had he
suspected the design. Those who choose may believe
the story ; what we are sure of is, that he did not
shake the diadem from his brows.
Charlemagne, Emperor of the West, by his splendid
title, his martial successes, the extent of his dominions,
and the wisdom of his government, had now become
famous throughout the civilized world. He was not
only respected by the Moors of Spain, but even the
Iwughty and potent Caliph Haroun Al Raschid sent
him an embassy of friendship, and a variety of rich
presents. The description of one of these will show
the perfection to which the mechanic arts had reached
among the Arabians of that age. It was a clock of
gilt bronze, round which the course of the twelve hours
was exhibited ; at the end of each hour, the number
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of brazen balls which were requisite to mark the time
were thrown out from above, and, falling one after an-
other into a cymbal below, struck the hour required.
In like manner, a number of horsemen issued from
windows around the dial. An unbroken friendship
and sincere admiration existed between these two
great monarchs of the East and West, during all the
remainder of their respective reigns. Haroun not only
protected the Christian pilgrims who resorted to Jeru-
salem, but he sent to Charlemagne the keys of the
holy places and a standard, as a mark of sovereignty
in that city.
The empire of Charlemagne attained nearly the
extent of that of ancient Rome in Europe. To the
kingdom of France, which then comprised the Low
Countries and all the left bank of the Rhine, he added
Aquitaine, Gascony, the country of the Pyrenees, and
Catalonia. In Italy, as King of the Lombards and Pa-
trician of Rome, he reigned from the Alps to the
borders of Calabria. He united under his sceptre
all the nations of Germany, the pagan tribes on the
northwest and the borders of Poland excepted ; and,
by his conquest of the Avars, he obtained possession
of Hungary, Transylvania, Istria, Croatia, and most
of Dalmatia. He was indefatigable in his application
to the cares of government. His love of learning
and his liberal efforts to promote it were wonderful in
that unlettered age. He collected scholars from all
parts, and placed them at the head of institutions for
education. In particular, he invited the famous Al-
cuin from England, made him his companion, and fol-
lowed his advice in all matters for the promotion of
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 209
letters and science. He instituted a sort of academy
in his court, every member of which assumed some
celebrated name of antiquity. He collected all the
ancient songs relative to the history of the Franks and
Germans, and, while at his meals, caused to be read to
him passages from history or the writings of the
Fathers. His own education had been neglected in
his youth, yet his ardor in the pursuit of knowledge
was such that he applied himself to the driest and most
rudimentary parts of a schoolboy's studies after his
arrival at manhood. His knowledge of Latin and
Greek is said to have been perfect ; the former he
spoke as fluently as his vernacular tongue.
Charlemagne died in 814, in the seventy-second
year of his age. His life was a life of improvement
on all that immediately preceded him. He was great
both in war and peace. War was deemed a neces-
sity of the age and country ; the Franks could hardly
have been governed without it. This prince, happily
for himself and for his people, brought with him to
the throne talents adapted to his position, and, hap-
pily for the world, possessed likewise the spirit of
civilization and improvement". His great success in
civilization was all his own. He took possession of a
kingdom torn by factions, surrounded by enemies, des-
olated by long wars, disorganized by intestine strife,
and as profoundly ignorant as the absence of all litera-
ture could make it. By the continual and indefatigable
exertion of his mental and corporeal powers, he restor-
ed order and harmony, formed a great empire, estab-
lished internal tranquillity, and raised up science and
arts. His highest eulosy is written in the calamities
14
210
SKETCHES FROM THE
of preceding and subsequent times. Those were ages
of great misery to the people, the severets, perhaps,
that Europe has ever known. The reign of Charle-
magne was a relief to the general suffering of Christen-
dom. Even under his sway, we have proofs of no
trifling calamities endured by the people. The light
which shone around him was that of a consuming fire.
After his death, France was doomed to another age of
darkness. Italy fell into worse disorders than before ;
but Germany, which owed its redemption from the
night of barbarism solely to his genius, received light
which has continued unextinguished to the present day.
HISTORY OF FRANCE.
211
THE CRUSADES.*
Peter the Hermit and his Followers.
The history of mankind offers few events more
striking than the Crusades, an enterprise which in its
day was esteemed the noblest effort of piety and zeal,
but which in the present age is regarded as a stupend-
ous monument of human folly. Such is the stern
severity with which a cool and calculating posterity
* We have placed this article amid the sketches drawn from
the history of France, partly because the French princes,
knights, and nobles took so large a share in the Crusades, and
partly to give them a proper place in relation to other import-
ant topics which are presented to the reader.
212 SKETCHES FROM THE
will reverse the judgment passed by an age upon itself.
All Europe combined for once, and for once only, in
a common undertaking ; yet Europe was in the end
unsuccessful. A view of the heroic ages of Chris-
tianity, in regard to their grand and general results, is
a useful and important, but a melancholy lesson. The
crusades were a Holy War, a war undertaken from
the impulse of religious feelings ; yet this war was
most savage and cruel. The whole enterprise retard-
ed the march of civilization, thickened the clouds of
superstition, and encouraged intolerance, cruelty, and
fierceness. Religion lost its mildness and charity, and
even its mitigating qualities of honor and courtesy.
The wars of the crusades do not seem to have had the
effect which has attended other great wars, that of
rousing Europe from intellectual torpidity, and strength-
ening and refining the tone of mind. Those were
times of action rather than of letters. Spoliation and
slaughter were accounted the highest pitch of human
glory, and all that in reality merited fame and applause
was hid in silence and obscurity. Modes for the de-
struction of men, and not for their improvement, occu-
pied the minds of Christians.
The fanatic enthusiasm of an obscure individual
first set the ball in motion, which rolled with such
impetuous force from Europe into Asia. Peter, a
hermit of Picardy, on his return from a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, represented the condition of the Holy City,
and the cruel oppressions suffered by the Christians
there, in such lively colors to Pope Urban the Second,
that this pontiff countenanced him in a project to set
both kings and people in motion for the recovery of
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 213
the sepulchre of Christ. This hermit, of a hideous
figure, covered with rags, walking barefooted, speak-
ing as a prophet, and hearkened to as such, inspired
the people everywhere with an enthusiasm similar to
his own. The Pope held a council at Placentia, in
Italy, in 1095, to determine upon the expedition.
Thousands of people flocked to this meeting, and ap-
proved of the proposal. But the most vivid demon-
stration was made at the council of Clermont, in France,
the same year. The Pope preached up the Holy War
as the means of wiping away all offences which the
people had committed. He placed all who took up
arms under the protection of the Church, and prom-
ised that God would give them victory, and the spoils
of the Mussulmans. The assembly set up a shout
" It is the will of God ! " echoed from every quarter,
and French vivacity was instantly aroused to the high-
est pitch of enthusiasm.
Every class of people, old men, women, and chil-
dren, entered into the cause with the same lively spirit.
The promise of pardon for sins, and the influence
of curiosity, the love of adventure, the hope of gain-
ing thrones and dominions, and the certain expectation
of sitting in the next world as judges over the infidels,
were the moving causes which incited persons of every
rank to rush by hundreds of thousands into this un-
dertaking.
All the wars of the European powers among them-
selves were laid aside for the prosecution of this gen-
eral war against the infidels. People sold their estates
to defray the expense of equipping themselves for the
march ; and the churches and monasteries were en-
214 SKETCHES FROM THE
riched by the purchase of vast quantities of property
at a low price. The multitude of people who enlisted
would exceed all belief, were we not aware of the
strength of the motives and passions which incited
them to action. Contemporary historians estimate the
number of those who embarked in the first crusade at
six millions ; the most moderate computation is one
million three hundred thousand. They marched with
a red cross sewed on their clothes, from which was
derived the name of croisade or crusade. When the
cross had once been taken, the wearers were obliged
to march, under pain of excommunication ; but this
badge gained them a dispensation from all penance.
Thousands of the most profligate and abandoned
wretches found, in this manner, a plenary indulgence
for all their crimes, and probably no band of professed
pirates and freebooters ever contained a more atrocious
set of villains than the armies of the first crusaders.
Peter the Hermit, with sandals on his feet, a rope about
his middle, acting both as prophet and genei'al, and per-
suaded that God would work miracles to supply all their
wants, was the first that set out, at the head of eighty
thousand men without provisions or discipline. The
command was shared with him by a poor gentleman
called Walter the Penniless. These banditti committed
the most dreadful outrages on their march through Hun-
gary and Bulgaria, and were almost exterminated by
the inhabitants before they reached Constantinople.
Godeschald, a German priest, followed next with a
similar rabble. These let loose their pious fury upon the
Jews, thousands of whom they massacred in cold blood.
After this, they pillaged everybody without distinction,
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 215
till the inhabitants rose and cut them nearly all off.
Of both these armies, about twenty thousand starving
wretches at length reached Constantinople.
With the assistance of the Greek Emperor Alexius,
they crossed the Bosphorus, and, in spite of his pru-
dential warnings, divided their forces to plunder the
Turkish provinces of Asia Minor. In order to decoy
them into a snare, the sultan caused a report to be
spread, that Nice, his capital, had fallen into the hands
of an advanced body of crusaders. Allured by the
prospect of sharing in the spoils of this city, they
blindly rushed into the heart of a hostile country ; but
when they descended into the plain of Nice, instead
of being welcomed by the sight of the Christian ban-
ners on its walls, they found themselves surrounded by
the Turkish cavalry. In the first onset, Walter fell
bravely, covered with wounds ; the disorderly multi-
tude was immediately overwhelmed and slaughtered ;
a remnant of three thousand escaped by flight to the
nearest Byzantine fortress ; and a huge mound, in
which the victors piled the bones of the slain, formed
an ominous monument of disaster for succeeding hosts
of crusaders.
The numbers, the gross superstition, the licentious
wickedness, and the miserable extirpation of this fa-
natical horde, were surpassed by what was exhibited
in the composition and conduct of another division of
the rabble of Europe. From France, from the Rhen-
ish provinces, from Flanders, and from the British
islands, there gathered, on the western confines of Ger-
many, one huge mass of the vilest refuse of these
nations, amounting to two hundred thousand persons.
216 SKETCHES FROM THE
Some bands of nobles, with their mounted followers,
were not ashamed to accompany their march, and
share their prey ; but their leaders are undistinguisha-
ble, and the most authentic contemporary records of
their proceedings compel us to repeat the incredible
assertion, that their movements were guided by a goat
and a goose, which were believed to be divinely in-
spired. The actions of these brutal wretches were as
detestable as their superstition was blind and unholy.
Under pretence of beginning the Holy War by extir-
minating the enemies of God in Europe, they let loose
their fury on the Jews. The most horrible scenes of
murder, rapine, and spoliation marked every step of
their course from the Rhine to the Danube. But in
the hour of danger they proved as dastardly as they
had been ferocious. On crossing the Danube, they
were met by a Hungarian army. Struck by a sudden
panic, they took to flight ; an unresisted slaughter fol-
lowed, and so great was the carnage, that the Danube
was choked with the bodies of the slain, and its waters
were dyed with their blood. The remnant that es-
caped saved their lives only by flight and dispersion.
The first disasters of the crusades thus swept an
immense mass of corruption from the surface of so-
ciety. The genuine spirit of religious and martial
enthusiasm was more slowly evolved. The real hero
of the first crusade is Godfrey of Bouillon, a brave
and accomplished French knight. His march from the
banks of the Moselle was conducted with admirable
prudence and order, by the same route which had
proved so calamitous to the preceding rabble. The
mailed and organized chivalry of Europe now began
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 217
to array itself for the mighty contest. Many princely
and noble leaders took the cross. Martial conduct and
discipline secured them from the disasters of their
predecessors, and a respectable force of crusaders was
soon collected in Asia Minor, where several large
cities fell into their hands. But the Turkish hordes
now flocked from all quarters to the standard of the
sultan. Immense armies encountered each other in
the plains of Asia Minor. The sieges, the battles, and
the vicissitudes of this gigantic war must, in a great
measure, be passed over in our brief narrative ; we
can only relate a few prominent events.
At Antioch, in 1099, the Christians were besieged
by two hundred thousand infidels. The miracle of the
Holy Lance revived their drooping courage, and saved
the city. A priest declared that he had been favored
with a revelation of the place where the lance which
pierced the side of Jesus Christ was buried. The
people followed him ; the earth was dug, the head of
a lance was found, and the multitude exclaimed, "A
miracle ! a miracle ! " An attack on the enemy was
immediately resolved upon. The holy lance, carried
into the fight, inspired the troops with heroic valor,
and the infidels were defeated by the help of another
miracle. Three knights, in white garments and shin-
ing armor, issued, or seemed to issue, from the hills
adjoining the field of battle ; and the papal legate, who
bore the holy lance, immediately proclaimed them the
martyrs St. George, St. Theodore, and St. Maurice.
The tumult of battle allowed no time for doubt or
scrutiny ; and the triumph of the crusaders was com-
plete.
218 SKETCHES FROM THE
In the end of April, 1099, the army of the crusaders
reached Jerusalem, forty thousand in number, having
lost more than eight hundred and fifty thousand on
their march. Thirty-nine days they lay before the
city, and on the 7th of June they made a general
assault. Battering-rams, towers, and military engines
were directed against the walls ; the besieged met the
assailants with darts, stones, and the Greek fire. The
Christians were repulsed, but a miracle was again em-
ployed to revive their courage. At the moment when
all appeared to be lost, a knight was seen on Mount Oli-
vet, waving his glittering shield, as a sign for the soldiers
to rally and return to the charge. The languishing
spirit of enthusiasm was revived, and they renewed the
battle with increased animation. At the hour of the
day when the Saviour was crucified, a soldier leaped
upon the inner wall ; his brother followed ; and Godfrey
was the third Christian who stood as a conqueror upon
the fortifications of Jerusalem. The banner of the
cross now streamed from the wall, the gates were
burst open, and the Holy. City was taken.
The capture of Jerusalem was disgraced by all the
horrid cruelties which might be expected from a horde
of fanatics maddened with the excitement of battle.
The conquerors put all to the sword without distinc-
tion. The Mussulmans fought in the streets for a while,
and then fled to their temples and submitted their necks
to the slaughter. Arms protected not the brave, nor
submission the timid. No age or sex was spared.
Infants perished by the same sword that pierced their
mothers. The streets were encumbered by heaps of
the slain ; and such was the carnage in the mosque of
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 219
Omar, that the mutilated carcasses were floated by-
torrents of blood into the court, and the Christian cav-
aliers rode in the sanguine tide up to their horses'
knees. Seventy thousand persons were massacred ;
and the Jews were all burnt in their own synagogues.
The remainder of the narrative exhibits a contrast of
barbarity and piety which strikingly depicts the man-
ners of the age. These triumphant warriors, glutted
with slaughter, threw aside their arms yet streaming
with blood, and advanced, with naked feet and bended
knees, to the sepulchre of the Prince of Peace, sung
anthems to that Redeemer who had purchased their
salvation by his death, and, while insensible to the
calamities of their fellow-creatures, were dissolved in
tears for the sufferings of the Messiah. Such are the
inconsistencies of human nature.
Godfrey of Bouillon was elected King of Jerusalem.
A Christian kingdom was established, and the laws,
language, and manners of Europe were planted in
Palestine. In vain the Fatimite Caliph Mostali drew
out his forces to oppose the crusaders in the field of
Ascalon, and in vain the Seljukian Turks withstood
them at Antioch. Religious enthusiasm incited the
Christians to almost supernatural exertions, and they
maintained themselves in their conquest for a period
of nearly two centuries. In its largest extent, the Latin
kingdom of Palestine spread from the Mediterranean
to the desert of Arabia, and from the mountains of
Armenia to the confines of Egypt. The lands were
parcelled out among the crusaders agreeably to the
principles of the feudal system. Sometimes the con-
quered Mussulmans were allowed to live as tributaries,
220 SKETCHES FROM THE
but generally the towns were exclusively occupied by
the Christians. The mercantile cities of Italy, and the
people of the North of Europe cooperated with the
crusaders in forming the kingdom. France, Italy, and
Germany poured forth their hosts as soon as the
Western World had been blessed with the news that
the Holy Sepulchre was in the hands of the faithful.
The new champions of the cross encountered, but sunk
under, the horrors of Asia Minor. The sword of the
enemy, famine, and disease swept from the earth
more than four hundred thousand of these fanatical
adventurers.
Three monastic and military orders, the Hospital-
lers, the Templars, and the Teutonic Knights, were
instituted at Jerusalem to protect the pilgrims from the
attacks of the Turks. These institutions were charac-
teristic of an age in which the sacred was so confound-
ed with the profane, that it was thought the virtues of
the monk might be combined with the qualities of the
soldier. The new orders, loaded with wealth and
particular privileges, in a short time became greedy,
licentious, and insolent, enemies of one another, and
by their mutual hatred weakened the cause of Chris-
tianity.
Eight different crusades were set on foot, one after
another, and the rage for making war upon the infi-
dels continued for nearly two centuries. But within a
century from its foundation the kingdom of Jerusalem
began to decline. Incessant attacks by the Mussulmans
consumed the resources of the crusaders, and at length
the city was captured by Sultan Saladin, in 1187.
After this loss the metropolis was established at Acre,
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 221
and the kingdom, in a decaying state, was preserved a
century longer. In 1291, the Sultan Khalil laid siege
to the place, and, on the 18th of May, captured it by
assault. Sixty thousand crusaders were killed and
made prisoners. The Turks swept all Palestine, and
put to death every Christian who could not flee the
country. All the churches and fortifications of the
Latins were demolished, and, in the language of Gib-
bon, " A mournful and solitaiy silence prevailed along
the coast which had so long resounded with the
World's Debate."
THE TROUBADOURS.
Southern France, after having been the inherit-
ance of several of the successors of Charlemagne, was
elevated, in 879, to the rank of an independent king-
dom. Provence, a portion of this territory, subsequent-
ly became celebrated for the origin of the earliest
European literature which arose after the decline of
the Latin language. The Troubadours of Provence
created the first modern poetry, and contributed much
toward the formation of the earliest Italian literature.
Raymond the Fourth, of Arragon, Count of Provence,
a lover of letters, and a skilful critic, about the year
1220, invited to his court the most celebrated of the
songsters, who professed to polish and adorn the Pro-
vencal language by various sorts of poetry. Charles
the First, his son-in-law, and the inheritor of his vir-
222 SKETCHES FROM THE
tues and dignities, conquered Naples, and carried into
Italy a taste for the Provencal literature. Soon after-
wards the Roman court was removed to Provence.
Hitherto the Latin language only had been in use.
The Provencal writings established a common dialect,
and their example convinced other nations that the
modern languages were no less adapted to composition
than those of antiquity. They introduced a love of
reading, and diffused a popular taste for poetry, by
writing in a language intelligible to the ladies and the
people. Their verses, being composed in a familiar
tongue, became the chief amusement of princes and
feudal lords, whose courts had now begun to assume
an air of greater brilliancy. These arts of ingenious
entertainment thus became universally fashionable, and
imperceptibly laid the foundation of polite literature.
Thousands of poets flourished almost contempora-
neously in the Provencal language, who gave it a
character of originality which owes nothing to classi-
cal literature. The Provencal word, Trobador, means
an inventor. The poetry of the first Troubadours
consisted of satires, moral fables, allegories, and sen-
timental sonnets. As early as the year 1180, a tri-
bunal, called the Court of Love, was instituted in
Provence, by which questions of gallantry were decid-
ed. This institution furnished a perpetual supply of
matter for the poets, who threw the claims and argu-
ments of the different parties into verse. The art of
the Troubadours went by the name of the Gay Sci-
ence. It was in the twelfth century that their poetry
attained its highest perfection. It was essentially lyri-
cal, mostly amorous, and was characterized by simpli-
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 223
city, or rather paucity of ideas, and by a strained
refinement of expression and peculiarity of form which
made it quite distinct from the classical models. In that
age and country of chivalry, every noble beauty had
in her train some admiring poet, and every poet select-
ed some fair lady, sometimes the daughter, but oftener
the wife, of the nobleman to whose retinue he was
attached, for the object of his poetical passion, and the
subject of his song. It was a poetical attachment,
although it sometimes ended in a real one. The
Troubadours often sang of loftier themes. Some of
them, who had followed the crusaders and shared the
dangers of Eastern campaigns, commemorated, after
their return, the valiant deeds of the soldiers of the
cross. Others, about the time of the persecution of
the Albigenses, wrote bitter satires against the perse-
cutors, the Inquisitors, the priesthood, and against
Rome itself.
The wildness of the imagination and manners of the
Troubadours receives a striking illustration in the his-
tory of Geoffrey de Rudel, a Troubadour of the twelfth
century. The knights who returned from the Holy
Land spoke with enthusiasm of a countess of Trip-
oli, who had shown them the most generous hospital-
ity, and whose grace and beauty equalled her virtues.
Rudel, hearing this account, fell deeply in love with
her, although he had never seen her, and prevailed
upon one of his friends, also a Troubadour, to accom-
pany him to the Levant. In 1162, he embarked for
the Holy Land, but was attacked by a severe illness
on the voyage, and had lost the power of speech when
he arrived at the port of Tripoli. The countess, being
224 SKETCHES FROM THE
informed that a celebrated poet was dying of love for
her, visited him on shipboard, took him kindly by the
hand, and attempted to cheer his spirits. The poet,
we are assured, recovered his speech sufficiently to
thank the countess for her humanity, and to declare
his passion, when his expressions of gratitude were
silenced by the convulsions of death. He was buried
at Tripoli, beneath a tomb of porphyry, which the coun-
tess raised to his memory, with an Arabic inscription.
The following are his verses on Distant Love, which
he composed previous to his voyage.
" Angry and sad shall be my way,
If I behold not her afar;
And yet I know not when that day
Shall rise, for still she dwells afar.
God ! who hast formed this fair array
Of worlds, and placed my love afar,
Strengthen my heart with hope, I pray,
Of seeing her I love afar.
Though but one blessing may repay
The thousand griefs I feel afar,
No other love shall shed its ray
On me, if not this love afar j
A brighter one, where'er I stray,
I shall not see, or near or far."
Rhyme was the groundwork of the Provencal poe-
try, from whence it passed into the poetry of all the
other European nations. This form of verse appears
to have been adopted first from the Arabians. The
Troubadours improved on the Arabic rhymes, and
varied them in a thousand different ways. They
crossed and intertwined their verses so that the return
HISTORY OF FRANCS. 225
of the rhyme was preserved throughout the whole
stanza ; and they relied on their harmonious language,
and on the well exercised ears of their auditors, for
making the expectation of the rhyme, and its return
after many lines, equally productive of pleasure. In
this manner they became completely masters of rhyme,
and treated it as their own peculiar property. The
laws of versification, which the Troubadours discover-
ed, are of very general application. They have been
adopted in all the countries of the South, and in most
of those of the North of Europe. The structure of
the verse, this mechanical part of poetry, is singularly
connected, by some secret and mysterious associations,
with our feelings and our emotions, and with all that
speaks to the imagination and the heart.
Poetry, as we have shown above, became the recre-
ation of the most illustrious men in Europe, imme-
diately after the appearance of the Troubadours in
Provence. The amorous monarchs celebrated their
mistresses in verse ; and, when the first sovereigns of
Europe had thus assumed this rank, there was not a
single baron or knight, who did not think it his duty to
add to his fame, as a brave and gallant man, the repu-
tation of a gentle Troubadour. To these poetical pur-
suits nothing more was necessary than a quick per-
ception of the musical and harmonious. In obe-
dience to this faculty, the words naturally fell into the
order most agreeable to the ear, and the thoughts, the
images, and the sentiments acquired that general ac-
cordance and melodious congruity which seem to pro-
ceed from the soul, and to which study can add noth
ing. We are struck with surprise at observing what
15
226 SKETCHES FROM THE
very slight traces of learning are displayed in the
poetry of the Troubadours. No allusion to history or
mythology, no comparisons borrowed from foreign
manners, no reference to the sciences, or the learning
of the schools, are mingled with their simple effusions
of sentiment. This fact enables us to comprehend
how it was possible for princes and knights, who were
often unable to read, to be ranked among the most
ingenious Troubadours.
The martiaJ songs of the Troubadours afford in-
stances of the most lively and powerful inspiration.
The following is by Guillaume de St. Gregory.
" The beautiful spring delights me well,
When flowers and leaves are growing ;
And it pleases my heart to hear the swell
Of the birds' sweet chorus flowing,
In the echoing wood ;
And I love to see, all scattered around,
Pavilions and tents on the martial ground ;
And my spirit finds it good
To see, on the level plains beyond,
Gay knights and steeds caparison'd.
" It pleases me when the lancers bold
Set men and armies flying ;
And it pleases me, too, to hear around
The voice of the soldiers crying :
And joy is mine
When the castles strong, besieged, shake,
And walls uprooted totter and quake,
And I see the foemen join
On the moated shore, all compassed round
With the palisade and guarded mound.
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 227
" Lances, and swords, and stained helms,
And shields dismantled and broken,
On the verge of the bloody battle-scene,
The field of wrath betoken ;
And the vassals are there,
And there fly the steeds of the dying and dead :
And where the mingled strife is spread,
The noblest warrior's care
Is to cleave the foeman's limbs and head,
The conqueror less of the living than dead.
" 1 tell you that nothing my soul can cheer,
Or banqueting or reposing,
Like the onset cry of ' Charge them ! ' rung
From each side, as in battle closing :
Where the horses neigh,
And the call to ' Aid ! ' is echoing loud,
And there on the earth the lowly and proud
In the fosse together lie,
And yonder is piled the mingled heap
Of the brave that scaled the trench's steep.
" Barons ! your castles in safety place,
Your cities and villages too,
Before ye haste to the battle scene ;
And, page, now quickly go,
And tell the lord of ' Yes and No,' *
That peace already too long hath been ! "
The high reputation of the Provencal poets, and the
rapid decline of their language, are two phenomena
equally striking in the history of the cultivation of the
human mind. All at once the voice of the Trouba-
dours became silent ; the Provencal language was
abandoned, and, undergoing new changes, again be-
* Richard Coeur de Lion.
228 SKETCHES FROM THE
came a mere dialect, till, after a brilliant existence of
three centuries, its productions were ranked among
those of the dead languages. That literature which
has given models to other nations has not produced,
among its abundance of agreeable poems, a single
master-piece, or a work of high genius, destined to
immortality. It was entirely the offspring of the age,
and not of individuals. Had Dante been born in Pro-
vence ; had he boldly united in one great poem all
the high mythology of Catholicism, with the senti-
ments, the interests, and the passions of a knight, a
statesman, and a crusader, he would have opened a
mine of riches unknown to his contemporaries. By
his sole influence, the Provencal language might still
have been in existence, the most cultivated, as well as
the most ancient language of Southern Europe. But
no Dante arose in Provence, and the poetry of that
country merely reveals to us the imagination and the
spirit of the modern nations in their infancy. It ex-
hibits what was common to all and pervaded all ; and
not what genius, superior to the age, enabled a single
individual to accomplish. It had no resources except
such as were within itself, no classical allusions, no my-
thology, either native or borrowed, nor even a roman-
tic imagination. It was a beautiful flower springing up
on a sterile soil ; nor could any cultivation avail it, in
the absence of its natural nourishment.
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 229
THE JACQUERIE.
The middle of the fourteenth century was one of
the most calamitous periods in the French annals.
There was hardly any affliction or disgrace which did
not fall upon the kingdom during those disastrous
times. Edward the Third, of England, had carried
his arms into the heart of France. King John was
made a prisoner, and the army of the French over-
thrown at the battle of Poictiers. The capital was in a
state of sedition. A traitorous prince of the blood was
in arms against the sovereign authority. Famine, the
certain and terrible companion of war, for several
years desolated the country. In 1348, the great
plague, the most extensive and unsparing recorded in
history, visited France as well as the rest of Europe,
and consummated the work of hunger and the sword.
To these calamities we must add the Jacquerie, or
insurrection of the French peasantry, which seemed
to fill the cup of woes to the brim, and was marked
by all the circumstances of horror incident to the sud-
den rising of an exasperated and ignorant populace.
The companies of adventurers, or mercenary troops,
in the French and English service, finding no imme-
diate occupation during the truce between the two coun-
tries, scattered themselves over France in search of
pillage. No force existed sufficiently powerful to
check these robbers in their career. Unswayed by
superstition, they compelled the Pope to ransom him-
self, in Avignon, by the payment of forty thousand
crowns. France continued to be the passive victim
230 SKETCHES FROM THE
of their violence, even after the pacification was con-
cluded with England, till some were diverted into
Italy, and others led by Du Guesclin to the wars of
Castile. Impatient of these sufferings, the peasants,
formerly oppressed by their lords, and now left unpro-
tected by them, grew desperate, and, rising every-
where in arms, carried the disorders to the last ex-
tremity. The wild state of nature seemed to be re-
newed in the bosom of society ; every man was thrown
loose and independent of his fellow-citizens, and the
whole populace of France was in a state of furious
insurrection. This is commemorated in history by the
name of the Jacquerie, from the title of Bon Homme
Jacques, or Good Man Jacques, commonly applied to
the peasantry.
This insurrection first broke out in 1358, at Beau-
voisis in Brie upon the Marne. At first, it was noth-
ing more than a disorderly troop of about a hundred
persons, without any leader, who, after discussing their
grievances, began to declaim against the nobles of
the kingdom, the knights and squires, by whom they
felt oppressed. Murmurs of revenge were heard, and
at length a voice arose, declaring that it would be a
meritorious act to destroy them all. To this declara-
tion a general assent was given ; and all the persons
present, encouraging each other to violent measures,
immediately ran to such arms as they could seize,
which were, in general, nothing more than knives, and
sticks shod with iron ; marched tumultously to the
house of a knight in the neighbourhood, broke it open,
murdered him and all his family, and burnt the house.
They next attacked the castle of another knight, cap-
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 231
tured and destroyed it, murdering all the inmates
under circumstances of the greatest atrocity. In a short
time, their numbers increased to six thousand persons,
who spread themselves in every quarter, burning,
plundering, and murdering all before them. The bet-
ter sort of people abandoned their dwellings and fled
for their lives. Consternation prevailed throughout the
country. The multitudes of the insurgents increased
everywhere in their onward movements, and before
long they amounted to a hundred thousand.
"This infuriated rabble," as Froissart says, "plun-
dered and burnt all the houses in their march, mur-
dered every gentleman, and violated every lady and
damsel they could find. He who committed the most
atrocious actions, and such as no human creature would
have imagined, was the most applauded, and consider-
ed as the greatest man among them. I dare not write
the horrible and inconceivable atrocities they commit-
ted. When asked, for what reason they acted so
wickedly, they replied, they knew not, but did so be-
cause they saw others do the same ; and they thought
that by this means they should destroy all the nobles
and gentlemen in the world."
A body of nine thousand of these savage boors broke
into the city of Meaux, where the wife of the Dauphin,
the Duchess of Orleans, and above three hundred
other ladies had taken shelter. The most horrible
enormities were about to be committed, and the unfor-
tunate fugitives gave themselves up for lost. They
had no defence against this ferocious mob, except sixty
knights led by the Count de Foix and the Captal de
Buch. But these gallant knights, animated by the
232 SKETCHES FROM THE
true spirit of chivalry, advanced boldly to the gates of
the market-place, .where the ladies were lodged, and
fell upon the tumultuous rabble, who, struck with a
panic at this intrepid attack from a handful of men,
gave way and fled in a most disorderly rout. The
knights pursued them and drove them from the town
with much slaughter. Great numbers were forced
into the river, where they were drowned, and their
whole loss on that day was not less than seven thou-
sand. On the return of the knights to Meaux, they
set fire to the town, where they burnt to death all the
peasants of the neighbourhood they could find, be-
cause the townspeople and the peasantry had assisted
the rioters in their outrages.
After their repulse at Meaux, these banditti began
to encounter resistance from other quarters. The
gentlemen of Beauvoisis, Corbie, and Vermandois,
finding themselves unable, without assistance, to check
these increasing violences, had sent for help to their
friends in Flanders, Hainault, and Bohemia. Aided
by auxiliaries from these countries, they took the field
against the common enemy, who, ill-armed, and with-
out discipline or order, could not stand their attacks.
These wretches were cut to pieces and dispersed,
wherever they were found. All who were taken
were hung upon the trees along the roads. The king
of Navarre put to death in one day, near Clermont, up-
wards of three thousand. An individual, who was
called their captain, was taken prisoner and sent to the
Dauphin, who, understanding that he had assumed the
title of King, caused him to be crowned with an iron
trevet heated red hot, and then hanged for his barba-
rous cruelties.
HISTORY OF FRANCE.
233
The deplorable condition of France at this time, and
for a considerable period afterward, is strikingly exhib-
ited in a letter of Petrarch, who made a journey to
Paris in 1360. " When I beheld the kingdom lying
under the desolation of fire and sword, I could hardly
persuade myself that it was the same country which I
had formerly seen so rich and flourishing. I could re-
cognize nothing. All that met my view was a frightful
solitude, the extreme of misery, general desolation,
lands run to waste, fields devastated, houses in ruins.
Not a building was to be seen, except those defended
by fortifications, or enclosed within the walls of cities.
Paris was surrounded by heaps of ruin and marks of
conflagration. That despoiled and melancholy city
appeared still to dread a repetition of the horrors to
which it had lately been a prey ; and the Seine, in
bathing its walls, seemed lo weep for its miseries and
fear new calamities."
234
SKETCHES FROM THE
THE HUGUENOTS.
Henry the Fourth.
A long train of causes prepared the way for the
Protestant Reformation, and an acute observer might
have seen that a storm was gathering over the Catholic
Church in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Old
abuses were succeeded by new ones, and the improvi-
dence of Pope Leo the Tenth precipitated the explo-
sion. The boldness, perseverance, and fiery temper
of Martin Luther maintained a successful opposition
against the authority of the Roman pontiff, and within
a few years from the condemnation of the great re-
former by a papal bull, in 1520, the Church of Rome
had lost Saxony, Hesse, Brunswick, Denmark, Swe-
den, and a great part of Switzerland.
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 235
The first appearance of the reformed religion in
France was marked by the most bloody persecution.
The parliament of Aix, in Provence, condemned to the
flames, as heretics, all the masters of families in the
town of Merindol, ordered all the houses to be razed
to the ground, and the trees of the neighbouring forest
to be rooted up. The execution of this barbarous act
exceeded the order. Twenty-two towns and villages
fell a prey to the flames, and three thousand persons,
without distinction of age or sex, were massacred.
This was the signal for the ferocious wars which fanat-
icism soon after lighted up in the kingdom. From the
death of Henry the Second, the court of France was
filled with turbulent factions. Catherine de Medicis,
the Queen Mother, ambitious, versatile, treacherous,
and capable of the blackest crimes, swayed the actions
of the imbecile Francis the Second. She made no
scruple of committing any wickedness when it was
found expedient, and may be said to have breathed the
very spirit of Machiavellism. The active authority was
in the hands of the Guises, uncles of the young queen,
Mary Stuart ; but other powerful aspirants for domin-
ion exerted their intrigues to throw the state into con-
fusion, for the sake of their own private interest. All
of them used religion as the instrument of faction.
Be religion they kindled the civil wars, in which ambi-
tion and fanaticism vied with each other in exerting
their fiercest rage upon the people.
Under Francis the First, the Protestant religion had
spread greatly at court, as well as in the capital and
provinces, notwithstanding the royal edicts against it,
which were less owing to the zeal of Francis, than
236 SKETCHES FROM THE
to controlling circumstances. The massacres of Mer-
indol, and the executions which were imprudently
multiplied by Henry the Second, irritated, instead of
humbling, the spirit of the sect. Some aspired to mar-
tyrdom ; others mingled with their zeal great ardor for
liberty and thirst for revenge. Admiral Coligni and
his brothers, D'Andelot and Cardinal Chatillon, neph-
ews of the Grand Constable, men of weight and influ-
ence in the kingdom, were firm friends to a reforma-
tion, and the Prince of Conde inclined to the same
side. Such powerful protectors kept them in courage.
The origin of the term, Huguenot, like that of many
other names which spring up in times of party, is un-
certain. It is most commonly thought to be a corrup-
tion of Eidgenossen, the appellation of the Swiss lea-
guers in their early struggle for liberty. It was ap-
plied exclusively to the Protestants of France. The
government incessantly harassed them, and, by a most
dishonorable policy, tempted them into snares, that
pretexts might be obtained for punishing them. Far
from correcting the superstitions that had crept into
the Catholic worship, new observances still more su-
perstitious were invented. At the corners of the streets
were placed images of the Virgin and the Saints with
lighted tapers before them. Round these the populace
assembled, singing hymns, and forcing passengers to
put money into begging-boxes. If a man did not bow
to these images, and stop with marks of reverence
while the fanatic people were paying this worship, he
was insulted, knocked down, and dragged to prison.
The Protestants, under these outrages, thirsted for re-
venge, and only wanted a leader, to break out into
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 237
open violence. The first demonstration was the con-
spiracy of Amboise, in 1560, having for its object to
take the government out of the hands of the Guises,
who were hated for the double reason of being foreign-
ers and persecutors. The conspiracy was prematurely
betrayed, and the Huguenots, flocking from all quar-
ters to the place of rendezvous, were surprised, massa-
cred, or put to death by the executioners.
Such a misfortune could only further inflame a party
so numerous and resolute. A general assembly was
held at Fontainebleau to deliberate on the exigencies of
the state, when Admiral Coligni presented to the king
a petition from the Huguenots, demanding the public
exercise of their religion, and that their particular
meetings might no longer be imputed to them as a
crime. He declared that fifty thousand men were
ready to sign it. This bold proceeding was not with-
out effect. The persecutions were suspended, and
the Huguenots had time to breathe under a shadow of
toleration.
Shortly after, Francis the Second died, and was
succeeded by his brother, Charles the Ninth, not yet
ten years of age. The intrigues of the Queen Mother
again plunged the government into troubles, and all
hopes of peace were completely dissipated by an acci-
dent which revived the religious feuds in their full
rage. As the Duke of Guise was travelling through
Vassy in Champagne, some of his men insulted a
congregation of Protestants, who were attending a ser-
mon in a barn. Seeing a fray beginning, he ran to
appease the combatants, and was struck with a stone.
His attendants, in a fit of rage, killed about^sixty per-
238 SKETCHES FROM THE
sons. This massacre, which was greatly exaggerated
by public report, drove the Huguenots to take up arms.
Such was the beginning of the religious wars which
threw the whole kingdom into confusion. The Prince
of Conde, who put himself at the head of the Protest-
ant party, seized Orleans, Rouen, and other cities and
towns. He gave up Havre to Elizabeth of England,
in order to obtain her assistance. The French seemed
to have lost their national spirit in the heat of their
animosities. The whole kingdom was filled with fa-
natics transported with the hottest rage against each
other. The parliament proscribed the Huguenots, and
commanded the Catholics to pursue and kill them
without fear of being brought to justice. The age of
Marius and Sylla appeared to be renewed. Surprisals
and massacres occurred every moment, and hardly a
town in the kingdom escaped the bloody and horrible
scenes of civil war.
Short intervals of peace seemed to promise occa-
sionally a termination of these calamities ; but the trea-
ties in favor of the Huguenots were shamefully vio-
lated by the stronger party, when it suited their pur-
poses. Deeds of the most profound dissimulation and
treachery at length prepared the way for the massa-
cre of St. Bartholomew, one of the foulest transactions
that stain the page of French history. The court
flattered and cajoled the Protestants in order to bring
them into their toils. The perfidious Charles the Ninth
invited Admiral Coligni to his court, offered him the
command of an army against Spain, and treated him
with the greatest respect and affection. Coligni fell
into the snare, and was completely won by the frank
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 239
demeanour of the young king. He employed his in-
fluence to induce other Protestant chiefs to follow his
example, and, though repeatedly warned of his danger,
his confidence was unshaken. In this deceitful calm,
he exclaimed, " Rather than renew the horrors of civil
war, I would be dragged a corpse through the streets
of Paris."
The court resided then at Blois ; but the marriage
of Henry, king of Navarre, with Margaret, the sister
of Charles, drew it to Paris on the 18th of August,
1572. Coligni, the Prince of Conde, and the most
considerable men of the Protestant party, attended
without suspicion, and entertained a hope that the
marriage of a Protestant king with the king's sister
would appease the religious animosities. But at this
moment a most diabolical plot was in existence for the
total extirpation of the Huguenots by massacre. Con-
de and the king of Navarre only were to be spared,
on condition of changing their religion. Volumes
have been written upon the disputed points, of the
original projectors of the plot, and the precise share
which the king bore in it ; but this is not the place for
such topics. We can only state the general and well
authenticated facts.
The marriage was celebrated with great pomp.
Four days were passed in all sorts of festivities. On
the fifth, as Coligni was walking home, reading a
paper, he was shot by an arquebuse from the upper
window of a house occupied by the Duke of Guise.
One ball shattered his hand, and another lodged in
his right arm. The wounds were declared to be not
dangerous ; but, on the news of the occurrence, the
240 SKETCHES FROM THE
Huguenots repaired in crowds to the Admiral's resi-
dence, and offered him their services, with menacing
language against the Guises, the suspected assassins.
The real authors of this deed, however, were the
Queen Mother, the Duke of Anjou, and the Duke of
Nemours. The attempt having failed, the conspira-
tors met secretly the next morning. After dinner, the
Queen Mother was seen to enter the king's chamber ;
Anjou and some other Catholic lords presently joined
her. According to Charles's account of this meeting,
as reported by his sister, Margaret, he was there sud-
denly informed of a treasonable conspiracy of the
Huguenots against himself and family ; was told that
the Admiral and his friends were at that moment plot-
ting his destruction, and that, if he did not promptly
anticipate the designs of his enemies, he and his fami-
ly might be sacrificed. Under this impression, he
states that he gave a reluctant and hurried consent to
the proposition of his counsellors, exclaiming, as he left
the room, that he hoped not a single Huguenot would
be left alive to reproach him with the deed. The
plan of the massacre had been previously arranged,
and the signal was to be given in two hours.
All Paris was tranquil at this moment. Charles, his
mother, and Anjou repaired to an open balcony of the
Louvre, and awaited the result in breathless silence.
This awful suspense was broken by the report of a
pistol. Charles shook with horror ; his frame trem-
bled ; his resolution failed him, and cold drops stood
upon his brow. But it was too late to recede ;
the bell of the church of St. Germain l'Auxerrois
tolled, and the horrible massacre commenced at two
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 241
o'clock in the morning of the 24th of August, 1572,
the day of St. Bartholomew. Coligni and his friends
were immediately murdered in cold blood, and their re-
mains were treated with brutal indignity. The popu-
lace were then called upon to join in the carnage, and
protect their religion and their king against Huguenot
treason. The leaders galloped through the streets
shouting, " Kill ! kill ! — kill the Huguenots ! kill
every man of them ! — It is the king's orders ! " The
wretched Protestants were murdered in their beds, or
cut down in attempting to escape. The streets and
houses streamed with blood. The rage of the murder-
ers spared neither age, sex, nor condition. The king
was said to have encouraged the massacre, by firing
from the windows of his palace upon the miserable
fugitives as they ran along the streets. The affair now
took a turn which was not anticipated. Secret re-
venge and personal hatred embraced that favorable
opportunity for gratification, and many Catholics fell
by the hands of Catholic assassins. Towards evening,
the excesses of the populace became so alarming, that
the king, by sound of trumpet, commanded every man
to return to his house, under penalty of death, except
the officers of the guard and the civil authorities.
The next day, he issued another proclamation, declar-
ing that no person, under pain of death, should kill or
pillage another, unless duly authorized. It is evident
that the massacre was more extensive and indiscrimi-
nate than its projectors had anticipated, and that it was
necessaiy to check the disorderly fury of the popu-
lace. Yet it was not till the end of the third day that
the slaughter ceased. But, in the mean time, orders
16
242 SKETCHES FROM THE
had been sent for the perpetration of the same butch-
ery in the provinces, and one hundred thousand vic-
tims are computed to have fallen in this diabolical
massacre. On the 26th of August, Charles went in
state to the parliament of Paris, and avowed himself
the author of the whole proceeding, claiming to him-
self the merit of having thereby given peace to his
kingdom. A medal was struck in commemoration of
the event, with the inscription, " Piety put the sword
into the hand of Justice."
Yet the conduct of Charles is not easily understood.
Sully informs us, that, while the massacre was going
on, he behaved like one possessed. A few days after,
he said to the celebrated Ambrose Pare, his surgeon,
and a Huguenot, " I know not how it is, but for the
last few days I have felt like one in a fever ; my mind
and body are both disturbed. Every moment, whether
I am asleep or awake, visions of murdered corpses,
covered with blood, and hideous to the sight, haunt me.
Oh ! I wish they had spared the innocent and feeble ! "
— He died in less than two years after the massacre,
in an agony of mental and bodily suffering.
The massacre of St. Bartholomew produced effects
entirely the reverse of what had been expected by the
Catholics, but exactly such as a knowledge of human
nature, and of the principles of religious zeal and en-
thusiasm, would have anticipated. The Huguenots,
instead of being crushed into submission, became more
formidable from despair. A thirst for revenge, and an
ardent spirit of civil and religious liberty, were kindled
all over the country. Civil war burst out again in all
its fury. The Protestants assembled in large bodies,
HISTOKY OF FRANCE. 243
and took refuge in strong places. The king of Na-
varre and the prince of Conde placed themselves at
their head. With the most heroic valor they com-
bated for their religion ; and, in these dreadful com-
motions, such deeds were committed as cannot be re-
membered without horror. The king of Navarre, by
his fortitude, prudence, and policy, at length calmed
these agitations. By embracing the Catholic religion,
he made his way to the throne of France ; and this
monarch, Henry the Fourth, secured to his Protestant
subjects, by the famous Edict of Nantes, in 1598, a
full enjoyment of their civil rights and privileges,
without persecution or molestation from any quarter.
But the sufferings of the Huguenots were afterwards
renewed under Louis the Fourteenth, when the bishops
and Jesuits, who influenced that weak prince, formed a
plan to extirpate them by fire and sword, and to ruin,
by one mortal blow, the cause of the Reformation in
France. The Edict of Nantes was revoked in 1685 ;
liberty of conscience was abolished ; all the Protestant
churches were destroyed ; and orders were issued to
take their children from them, and place them in the
hands of Catholics. The ministers were banished, and
all the terrors of military execution were employed to
force the others to profess the Catholic religion. Such
of these compulsory converts as relapsed were ex-
posed to the most dreadful punishments. Great num-
bers were put to death, and a price was set on the
heads of the rest, who were hunted like wild beasts.
By this atrocious persecution, more than half a million
of the most useful and industrious inhabitants of France
were driven into exile ; and the bigoted cruelty and in-
244
SKETCHES FROM THE
justice of Louis the Fourteenth received their just re-
ward, in the loss of the staple manufactures of his
kingdom, which not only declined in France, but were
transferred to the dominions of his rivals.
LOUIS THE FOURTEENTH AND HIS TIMES.
Louis the Fourteenth in his Chamber.
The reign of Louis the Fourteenth has been termed
the Augustan age of France. This monarch had none
of the commanding qualities which create a nation or
an era, and he would not have been distinguished from
common princes in common circumstances. Destitute
himself of the true sentiment of greatness, he yet
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 245
became, fortuitously, the instrument of great deeds,
and his reign will always be a memorable period in
history. France made great progress under his rule,
for which, however, she was no further indebted to him
than as he was a general encourager of every thing
that could flatter his pride and vanity. He was perpetu-
ally told that he was the greatest of all mortals, and
he believed it. One of his ablest panegyrists has
summed up his character by saying, that, if he was
not a great king, he was, at least, a great actor of
royalty.
Louis the Fourteenth was born in 1638. On the
death of his father, in 1643, he succeeded to the crown,
under the regency of his mother, Anne of Austria.
France was disturbed by a civil war, and the royal
family were obliged to leave the capital, and wander
from province to province. The education of the
young king was much neglected, and he was kept ig-
norant of most things useful to a monarch. The les-
son most strongly impressed upon him from his child-
hood was the sentiment of his own importance.
Taught by his flatterers that he himself was every-
thing, and that his subjects were nothing in the com-
parison, he considered no sacrifice of theirs too great
for the promotion of his glory, or the gratification of
his desires. Cardinal Mazarin was at first his prime
minister; but after his death, in 1661, Louis determin-
ed to govern by himself, and that office became vacant.
An ignorant young man, whose time had been devoted
to amusement, could not, however, really manage the
concerns of a great nation ; and it was fortunate for
him that able officers, in all the departments of state,
246 SKETCHES FROM THE
had been formed under the preceding administrations.
To the genius of Colbert, the great financier, France
is indebted for the revival of her commerce, and the
splendid establishments of manufactures and the arts
which flourished jn the early part of this reign. It
was he, who, though unlearned himself, yet capable of
valuing literature, suggested to Louis that plan of pen-
sioning all the eminent men of letters throughout Eu-
rope, which at a very small expense secured to him
more erudite adulation than any other prince in mod-
ern times has received.
Louis made war upon his neighbours for his own
glory and to amuse the ladies of his court. Holland
was at that time flourishing by her commerce and col-
onies, and, with her prosperity, had adopted a character
of republican haughtiness. Louis, who could endure
no pride in competition with his own, and who viewed
the wealth of this country as a tempting prey, found a
frivolous pretext for quarrelling with the Dutch. He
poured a vast army into Holland, and overran nearly
all the country. Amsterdam was saved only by laying
the surrounding territory under water. The ambition
and rapacity of Louis stirred up coalitions against him,
and he was forced to abandon Holland as speedily as
he had conquered it. Other wars followed, with Spain,
the German Empire, and other powers. Louis, at-
tended by his courtiers, ladies, and all the pomp and
luxury of a court, formed several sieges in person,
and his generals took care that he should always
prove successful. He carried with him historiograph-
ers to record his exploits, and every act that flat-
tery could devise was employed to exalt him in his
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 247
own estimation and in the eyes of Europe. He re-
ceived from his subjects the title of " the Great," which
for a considerable time seemed durably attached to his
name ; but he lived to see it lost among foreigners, and
it has finally become obsolete among his own country-
men.
From the palace of St. Cloud one may descry the
spire of the abbey of St. Denis, where the kings of
France are entombed. Louis could endure the sight
of nothing that reminded him of his mortality. He
determined upon a residence in another quarter, and
Versailles was built, at an expense so enormous, that
even Louis himself was alarmed on examining the
accounts, and ordered them to be burnt, that the world
might never know what monstrous sums had been
squandered upon his pleasures. His leading object
was always his personal grandeur, and in whatever
point any other prince had attained greatness, he re-
solved to emulate him. Absolute master of a rich and
powerful countiy, he employed all its resources to sur
pass every competitor in all that could conduce to his
own glory. This disposition led to many truly great and
useful projects, but, for want of limit and moderation, it
defeated its own purposes, and exhausted the means
before the end had been attained. If the age of Louis
the Fourteenth was that in which the reputation of
France for arms, arts, literature, and magnificence
stood at its highest pitch, it was also that of its wretch-
edness and humiliation ; and this king ought rather to
be regarded as the squanderer of his country's wealth
than as the author of its prosperity. . The conceited
and egotistical French nation, however, found its own
248 SKETCHES FROM THE
vanity gratified by the assumed superiority of le
Grand Monarque, and regarded him with the most
profound and servile veneration.
Louis the Fourteenth was a most regular and devout
observer of the forms of religion ; yet in morals he
was far from setting an example of virtue, or even of
decency. More than one chapter in the history of
France must be occupied by the scandalous chronicle
of his mistresses. He seemed to claim the privilege
of impudent licentiousness as the exclusive preroga-
tive of the crown. In his expedition through the con-
quered places of Flanders, he displayed to the eyes of
Europe the shameful sight of a king, calling himself
" Most Christian," accompanied by his wife and two
acknowledged mistresses, sometimes all together in the
same carriage, sometimes each in her own vehicle,
with the royal guard riding at the side of each. The
simple peasantry, unable to conceive the full impu-
dence of crime, imagined that a new law had been
framed for the especial pleasure of the monarch, and,
running forward to behold the splendid display of con-
cubinage and adultery, asked each other if they had
seen " the three queens."
Every species of ostentatious luxury, magnificent
palaces and gardens, works of art, shows of pomp and
splendor, and infinite sums of money, were lavished
upon these favorites. Yet Louis, thus living in the
violation of every moral duty, received high praise,
because " he never ate meat on a fast day, except
when ill, and never was absent a single day from mass,
but once, on a very long march." One after another,
his mistresses were discarded and new ones assumed,
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 249
till at last he fell into the hands of a woman who ob-
tained such an influence over his weak mind as to com-
pel him to make her his wife ; and, in the year 1685,
Louis the Fourteenth, the proudest monarch in Europe,
secretly married the widow of a buffoon, born in beg-
gary, to whom he had a {ew years before refused
alms. This was Madame de Maintenon, who, though
possessing many virtues and accomplishments, had
been the wife of Scarron, a gross, vulgar, and licen-
tious man, and so ugly as to be accustomed to say of
himself, that " Nature had made him of the scrapings
of her pot." This woman almost enslaved Louis,
although she was fifty years old at the time of her
marriage. She appointed, removed, preferred, or dis-
graced ministers, and they were obliged to consult her
pleasure in every thing.
Thus he who was the terror of Europe, and who
seemed to be the absolute master of France, was con-
verted into the easy tool of a talented woman. While,
in the fancied exercise of an unfettered will, he issued
his commands to obedient millions, he was himself
controlled in almost every movement, and, though it is
little to his credit, it must be stated that his govern-
ment was benefited by this course. When he had set
himself free from all outward restraints, he was the
more sure of having his mind enslaved. He was dis-
turbed by no representative assembly ; he had silenced
even the judicial bodies, which, before and after him,
manifested a noble independence. The word " peo-
ple " no man in the dominions would have dared to
utter in any other sense than that of " slaves." " I
am the state," said he. Dungeons were everywhere
provided for the writers who could be so insane as to
250 SKETCHES FEOM THE
utter a syllable of censure on his measures. The tor-
ture was used without scruple ; the practice of arbi-
trary imprisonment was applied in the most remorse-
less manner. He confined a man for many years,
whose condemnation by any competent tribunal was
never made public, under a horrid artifice which
stands alone in the history of human cruelty. We
refer to the celebrated " Man in the Iron Mask," of
whom Voltaire gives the following account.
" A short time before the death of Cardinal Maza<-
rin, there happened an event unexampled in the his-
tory of the world, and, what is still more surprising, it
was not known to any of the historians of that time.
An unknown prisoner was carried with the greatest
secrecy to the island of St. Marguerite, on the French
coast of the Mediterranean ; he was a tall young man,
with an elegant and noble figure. He wore a mask,
the lower parts of which were furnished with steel
springs, so as to allow him to eat with the mask on.
His guards had orders to kill him, should he discover
himself. He remained in the island till 1690, when a
confidential officer, named St. Mars, was appointed gov-
ernor of the Bastile at Paris. This officer transported
him from the island to the Bastile, the prisoner con-
stantly wearing his mask. The Marquis de Louvois,
the minister of war of Louis the Fourteenth, paid him
a visit while in the island, and treated him with a con-
sideration bordering on respect, never sitting down in
his presence. This unknown personage was left in
the Bastile, and as well accommodated as it was possi-
ble to be in that place. Whatever he requested was
granted him. He showed a great partiality for lace
HISTORY OF FRANCE. 251
and fine linen, and played upon the guitar. His table
was served in a superior style, and the governor rarely
sat down in his presence. An old physician of the
Bastile, who attended him often during illness, affirmed
that he never saw his face, though he had often exam-
ined his tongue and the rest of his body. This man
states that he was extremely well made, with a brown-
ish tint of the skin ; the tone of his voice was highly
interesting, though he never complained of his situa-
tion, and gave no sign to discover who he was.
" This unfortunate person died in 1703, and was bu-
ried at night in the parish of St. Paul. What adds to
the mystery is, that, at the time he was transported to
the island of St. Marguerite, no person of any note
disappeared in Europe. The prisoner was, without
doubt, a person of consequence, as may be inferred
from the following circumstance, which happened short-
ly after his arrival in that island. The governor com-
monly placed the dishes on the table before him, and
then retired. One day the prisoner wrote something
with the point of his knife on a silver plate, and
threw it out of the window towards a boat which he
saw on the beach near the tower. A fisherman, to
whom the boat belonged, picked up the plate and
brought it to the governor, who, in great alarm, de-
manded, ' Have you read what is written on the plate,
or has any one else read it ? ' — 'I cannot read,' re-
plied the fisherman, ' I have just picked it up, and
nobody has seen it.' The governor kept him in cus-
tody till he had assured himself that all this was true,
and then dismissed him, saying, ' Go, 't is lucky for
you that you cannot read. 1
252 SKETCHES FROM THE HISTORY OF FRANCE.
" Among many persons who knew this singular his-
tory, there is one very trustworthy individual still liv-
ing (1760). M. de Chamillart was the last of the
ministry who possessed the knowledge of this strange
secret. The second Mareschal de Feuillade, his son-
in-law, told me, that, on the death of M. de Chamillart,
he begged him on his knees to let him know this mys-
tery of the person who went by the name of the Man
in the Iron Mask. M. de Chamillart replied, that it
was a secret of state, and that he had taken an oath
never to divulge it. Many of my contemporaries are
still living to confirm the truth of the above relation.
I know of no fact in history better proved or more
extraordinary."
Louis the Fourteenth died in 1715, leaving France
in a most unprosperous condition, the finances ex-
hausted, public morals corrupted, and the people op-
pressed by enormous taxes. He may be said to have
laid the foundation of the French Revolution by his
prodigality and despotism.
SPAIN.
THE MOORS IN SPAIN.
In the eighth century, the Gothic conquerors of Spain
had so far declined from the valor of their ancestors
that they seemed no longer to belong to that warlike
and enterprising race which humbled the pride of
254 SKETCHES FROM THE
Rome, despoiled the Queen of Nations, and penetrated
from the Danube to the shores of the Atlantic. Se-
cluded from the rest of the world by the Pyrenean
mountains, the successors of Alaric had slumbered in
a long peace. The walls of the cities were moulder-
ing into dust, and the yoatli had abandoned the exer-
cise of arms. The wealthy and fertile kingdom of
Spain tempted the ambition and avarice of the victo-
rious Saracens, who had now extended their conquests
along the whole northern coast of Africa.
The Spanish historians and the voice of tradition
ascribe the first invasion of the Moors to the forcible
violation of Florinda by Roderick, the Gothic kincr of
Spain. Florinda, whom tbe Moors call Cava, was the
daughter of Count Julian, one of the king's principal
lieutenants, who, when the crime was perpetrated, was
engaged in the defence of Ceuta, a town on the Afri-
can side of the strait. In his indignation at the ingrati-
tude of his sovereign, Count Julian forgot the duties of
a Christian and a patriot. He formed an alliance
with Musa, the Moorish leader, and invited him to the
invasion of Spain. The memory of Florinda became
detestable to the Spaniards from this circumstance,
and Cervantes informs us that they never bestowed
that name upon any human female, but reserved it for
their dogs.
The history of this invasion is adorned by the most
highly colored romantic fictions, among which we
are tempted to select the following. About a mile
from the city of Toledo stood an ancient tower, of mag-
nificent structure, though much dilapidated by time.
Underneath was a large cave, cut out of the solid rock,
HISTORY OF SPAIN. 255
and closed by a massy iron gate with many locks.
Above the gate some Greek letters were engraved,
which, although abbreviated, and of doubtful meaning,
were thus interpreted : " The king who opens this
cave, and can discover the wonders, will know many
good and evil things." Several of the Spanish sove-
reigns desired to know the mystery of this tower ; but,
when they opened the gate, so tremendous a noise
arose in the cave, that all were terrified, and some lost
their lives. At last, King Don Roderick, led on by his
evil fortune, opened the tower. He discovered a spa-
cious and magnificent hall, in the middle of which
stood a bronze statue of most ferocious appearance,
holding a battle-axe in his hands. With this he struck
the floor violently, causing the terrific sounds which
had frightened away every other visitant. At the ap-
proach of Roderick, the statue ceased his blows, and
the king proceeded to examine the wonders of the
place. On the left of the statue, he saw written on
the wall these words : " Unhappy king ! thou hast
entered within these walls in an evil hour ! " On the
right, " By strange nations thou shalt be dispossessed,
and thy subjects foully degraded. 1 ' On the shoulders
of the statue he read, " I call upon the Arabs " ; and
upon his breast, " I do my office." At the entrance
of the hall was a round bowl, from which a great noise,
like the fall of waters, proceeded. Nothing else was
to be seen.
The king, sorrowful, and greatly affected, had
scarcely turned to leave the cavern, when the statue
recommenced its blows upon the ground. Roderick
ordered his attendants not to disclose what they had
256 SKETCHES FROM THE
seen, and directed that the gate of the cavern should
be blocked up with earth, that no memory might re-
main of so portentous and ill-boding a prodigy. The
ensuing midnight, they heard dreadful sounds from the
cave, like the noise of a battle, the ground shook with
a tremendous roar, and the old tower fell with a terrible
crash into a heap of ruins.
In the year 710, an army of five hundred Moors and
Arabs, under a leader named Tarif, crossed the strait
from Africa and landed at a spot now occupied by the
town of Tarifa. They were received in a friendly
manner at the castle of Julian, and, after acquiring a
rich spoil, returned in safety. In the ensuing spring,
a stronger force, of five thousand men, embarked under
the command of Tarik, a dauntless and skilful soldier.
They landed on that famous rock, which, from the
name of their leader, was called Gebel Tarik, or. the
Mountain of Tarik, now corrupted into Gibraltar.
Roderick bad slumbered over the first invasion, but he
was awakened by the magnitude of the second. He
despatched his lieutenant, Edeco, with a body of select
troops against the invaders ; but the Goths were unable
to withstand the martial enthusiasm of the Moslem fa-
natics. Roderick was aroused to a complete sense of
his danger by the defeat of his lieutenant, and took the
field in person, at the head of one hundred thousand
men. The army of Tarik was increased, by new
arrivals from Africa, to twelve thousand Moslems, and
to these were joined a promiscuous crowd of Christian
malecontents.
About two leagues from Cadiz stood the town of Xeres,
destined to be famous for two things, the best wine,
HISTORY OF SPAIN. 257
and the most fatal battle in Spain. Here the two
armies met in an encounter which was to decide the
fate of the Gothic monarchy. Roderick appeared at
the head of his troops, encumbered with a flowing
robe of gold and silver embroidery, his head crowned
with a diadem of pearls, and reclining on a car of
ivory drawn by white mules. The battle commenced
with slings, darts, javelins, and lances. The combat-
ants then took to their swords ; and the shouts and
cries of both armies, with the noise of the Moorish
drums and Gothic trumpets, seemed to shake the earth.
Notwithstanding the intrepidity of the Moslems, they
seemed fainting under the weight of multitudes, and
the plain of Xeres was overspread with their dead
bodies. " My brothers," said Tarik, " the enemy is
before you, the sea is behind ! Whither would you
fly ? Follow your general ! I am resolved either to
lose my life, or trample on the prostrate king of the
Visigoths ! "
The renewed exertions of the Moslems were second-
ed in the crisis of the battle by the treachery of Op-
pas, the archbishop, who suddenly went over to the
enemy with a large train of followers. The Goths,
struck with panic at this unexpected turn of affairs,
gave way, and took to flight. Roderick, seeing the
battle lost, leaped from his chariot, and mounted Ore-
lia, the fleetest of his horses. The rout and disper-
sion of his army were complete. AVhat became of the
king never was known. His diadem, his robes, and
his steed were found on the banks of the Guadalete, a
little stream which skirted the field of battle ; but Rod-
erick was never seen afterwards. A belief was cur-
17
258 SKETCHES FROM THE
rent among tho Spaniards, that he fled to a hermit's
cell, concealing his disgrace, and eluding the search
of the enemy, in the disguise of an anchorite. It is
more probable that he was drowned in the river.
The battle of Xeres put an end to the glory, the
name, and the empire of the Goths in Spain. The
victorious Musa spread his conquests to the North over
Castile and Leon. The terrified cities opened their
gates, and surrendered their treasures, on his approach.
The celebrated table, of one single solid emerald, en-
circled with three rows of fine pearls, and supported by
three hundred and sixty-five feet of gems and massy
gold, acquired by the Goths among the spoils of Rome,
was presented by Musa to the sovereign of Damascus.
Spain, which, in a mere savage and disorderly state,
had resisted, for two centuries, the arms of the Ro-
mans, was overrun in a few months by the Moorish
conquerors. This kingdom, which had been succes-
sively tinctured with Punic, Roman, and Gothic blood,
adopted, in a few generations, the institutions and
manners of the Arabs. The scanty remnant of the
Christians, who rejected their yoke, became almost lost
to the view of history. After the disastrous day of
Xeres, and the reduction of Seville and Merida, a band
of fugitives still cherished the flame of liberty in the
Asturian valleys. In a life of poverty and freedom,
their former virtues revived ; and, in many a bloody
encounter, they asserted against the fanatics of Arabia
their descent from the hardy warriors of the North.
Amidst their trackless retreats, they preserved with
care and affection their ancient laws and customs ; and,
under the guidance of Pelagius or Don Pelayo, they at
HISTORY OF SPAIN. 259
length achieved such successes as awakened the Moors
from the illusion that all resistance to their dominion in
Spain was extinguished. The perpetual contests be-
tween the two nations from this period down to the
overthrow of the Moorish dominion by the conquest
of Granada, in the fifteenth century, are' dignified by
the Spanish historians with the name of a war of seven
hundred years.
In the first period of this long struggle, the Arabs
carried learning and the arts to a degree of cultivation
far beyond any thing known in the Christian parts of
Spain. Those wild enthusiasts learned, on the Euro-
pean soil, to estimate the value of civilized life, with a
rapidity as astonishing as that which distinguished the
social improvement of their brethren whom they had
left behind in Asia, under the government of the Ca-
liphs. Before the era of Mohammed, their language
had been cultivated and adapted to poetry and elo-
quence, according to the laws of Oriental taste. In
Spain, it soon acquired, even among the conquered
Christians, a superiority over the barbarous dialect of
the country, which was then governed by no rule.
This rude language was soon forgotten in all parts
under the Moorish dominion ; and the Oriental speech
and manners soon began to exercise a strong influence
over the independent Christians. The intervals of re-
pose, which formed short links in the chain of their
sanguinary conflicts, afforded them some opportunities
for the interchange of the arts of peace, and they
were soon taught to feel for each other that involun-
tary respect which the brave can never withhold from
brave adversaries.
260 SKETCHES FROM THE
The Arab, who, in his native deserts, had not been
accustomed to impose on women half the despotic
restraints to which the sex is subject in the harems
of Mohammedan cities, was soon disposed to imitate
the gallantly of the descendants of the Goths ; and
still more readily did the imagination of the Christian
knight, in a climate which was far from being un-
genial, even to African invaders, acquire an Oriental
loftiness. Thus arose the spirit of Spanish knight-
hood, which was, in reality, only a particular form of
the general chivalrous spirit then prevailing in most
of the countries of Europe ; but which, under that
form, impressed, in an equal degree, on the old Euro-
pean Spaniard an Oriental, and on the Spanish Moor
a European, character.
Literature, and the elegant and useful arts, were
carried to a high degree of excellence by the Spanish
Moors, while the rest of Europe remained sunk in
barbarism. The munificence and taste of their sov-
ereigns were most ostentatiously displayed in their
public edifices, palaces, mosques, and hospitals, and in
the construction of commodious quays, fountains,
bridges, and aqueducts, which, penetrating the sides of
the mountains, or sweeping on lofty arches across the
valleys, rivalled in their proportions the works of an-
cient Rome. The great mosque of Cordova, now a
Christian cathedral, bears testimony, at the present
day, to the architectural skill and magnificence of the
infidels. This edifice covers more ground than any
other church in Christendom. It was completed about
the year 800. A thousand columns of the richest
marble astonish the spectator, at the first step into
HISTORY OF SPAIN. 261
this gorgeous pile. Twenty-four gates of bronze,
richly embossed, formerly gave entrance to the Mus-
sulman worshipper ; but these have disappeared, as
well as the four thousand seven hundred lamps which
illuminated it every night. The main entrance had its
folding doors covered with plates of gold, and on the
highest cupola were three golden balls sustaining a
golden pomegranate and lily.
Three miles from Cordova stood another edifice,
which offered a still more astonishing display of the
magnificence and wealth of the Moorish sovereigns.
The palace of Zehra, with its gardens and accom-
paniments, was constructed by one of the Ommiades
for his favorite sultana. The labor of twenty-five years,
and fifteen millions of dollars, were expended upon
this spot. The artists of Constantinople, and the most
skilful sculptors and architects of the age, were em-
ployed by his liberal taste in the design and execution
of this splendid pile. Twelve hundred columns of
beautiful marble adorned the palace. The hall of au-
dience was encrusted with gold and pearls. In the cen-
tre of the principal saloon, which was adorned with
golden arabesques, and the walls of which were stud-
ded with precious stones, was a magnificent alabaster
vase, from which issued a fountain of quicksilver, glis-
tening with the blaze of innumerable lamps of crystal.
The royal fortress or palace of the Alhambra, was
the pride of Granada, — a city, which, in the days of its
glory, could send fifty thousand warriors from its gates,
and was surrounded by a wall with one thousand and
thirty towers. The Alhambra was sufficiently large to
contain forty thousand men ; and its magnificent ruins
262 SKETCHES FROM THE
form the most interesting object in Spain for the con-
templation of the traveller. Its graceful porticos and
colonnades, its domes and ceilings, glowing with tints
which have lost nothing of their original brilliancy in
that pure atmosphere, its airy halls and cooling foun-
tains, show the taste, opulence, and luxury of the
builders. Granada, under the Moors, was the great
commercial mart of Europe, and its sovereigns were
distinguished for their liberality and taste. They free-
ly dispensed their revenues in the protection of letters,
the construction of sumptuous public works, and in the
display of a courtly pomp unrivalled by any of the
princes of that period. Fifty colleges and academies
were scattered over the suburbs and populous plains
of Granada. The Spanish Arabs emulated their East-
ern countrymen in their devotion to science. Their
travellers penetrated into the remotest regions of Afri-
ca and Asia, transmitting an exact account of their
discoveries to the national academies. They con-
tributed to astronomical knowledge by the number and
accuracy of their observations, and by the improve-
ment of instruments, and the erection of observatories,
of which the noble tower of Seville is one of the ear-
liest examples. The copious catalogues of writers, still
extant in the Escurial, show how extensively the culti-
vation of science was pursued by them. They pro-
duced no less than thirteen hundred historical writers,
and one of their scholars published one thousand and
fifty treatises upon the various topics of ethics, history,
law, medicine, &c. Granada, Cordova, Seville, and
all the other great cities of the Peninsula, rivalled each
other in the magnificence of their schools, colleges, and
HISTORY OF SPAIN. 263
academies. Seventy public libraries were open to the
Moorish students in Spain, at a time when all the rest
of Europe was without science, literature, or cultiva-
tion of manners. The dormant energies of Christen-
dom received a strong impulse from the Spanish Moors.
Their writings were translated and diffused throughout
Europe ; the Christians, roused from their lethargy,
caught something of the taste and civilization of the
infidels, and a healthful action was thus communicat-
ed to the European intellect.
During eight centuries of the dominion of the Moors
in Spain, they exhibited all the various phases of civili-
zation, from its dawn to its decline. Their constant
wars with the Spaniards at length terminated in the
conquest of Granada by Ferdinand and Isabella, at the
close^of the fifteenth century, and the Moorish domin-
ion in Spain was at an end. They were driven from
the stately palaces reared by their own hands, wander-
ed as exiles over the lands which still blossomed with
the fruits of their industry, and wasted away under
persecution, till their very name as a nation was blotted
out from the map of history. Under the appellation
of Moriscos, they remained subjects of Spain till the
reign of Philip the Third, when religious bigotry ex-
pelled them from the soil. A few, who preferred
death to exile, fled to the mountains, and endeavoured
to defend themselves ; but they were hunted by their
inhuman tyrants like wild beasts ; part perished by the
sword, part by hunger ; their chief was made prisoner,
and, after suffering every insult that triumphant tyranny
could devise, was publicly executed. By this act of
wanton cruelty and injustice, Spain was robbed of four
hundred thousand of her most industrious inhabitants.
RUSSIA.
PETER THE GREAT.
Russia is indebted to this sovereign for much of her
present greatness. He was a barbarian, but a bar-
barian who possessed great qualities. He changed the
manners, customs, and laws of the empire ; and, though
he ruled his subjects with the most arbitrary despotism,
he still lives in the memory of the Russians as the
Father of his Country. The history of his reign offers
one of the most singular chapters in the annals of
Europe.
He was the third son of the Czar Alexis Michaelo-
vitz, a man of a liberal mind, who had accomplished
some reforms and improvements in the political and
social condition of the empire. Peter was born at
Moscow, on the 11th of June, 1672. On the death of
his eldest brother, Fcodor, he was nominated to the
succession in preference to his brother Ivvan, who was
set aside for incapacity. Their sister, the princess
Sophia, taking umbrage at this, set on foot a mutiny
of the Strelitzes or guards, and a revolution took place,
accompanied with much bloodshed. Peter's maternal
SKETCHES FROM THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 265
kindred and all their adherents fell by massacre. Peter
narrowly escaped with his life ; he fled, at the com-
mencement of the insurrection, to a convent near Mos-
cow, and was pursued by the Strelitzes, who found
him before the altar, and were deterred from striking
a fatal blow only by feelings of reverence or super-
stition. The commotions were at length quieted by
an accommodation. Iwan and Peter were proclaimed
joint sovereigns. Both were crowned accordingly ;
and the Princess Sophia was declared regent, as both
the Czars were boys. The schemes of this ambitious
princess thus seemed to be fully accomplished.
Notwithstanding Peter's youth, — he being only ten
years of age, at the time of the revolution, — he appears
to have given some indications of great qualities, which
excited the jealousy of his profligate sister, who dread-
ed lest he might one day prove the ruin of her author-
ity. She accordingly did not scruple to form a plan
to corrupt his morals and cripple the energies of his
mind. His education was neglected, and he was en-
couraged in every species of excess and debauchery,
by being placed amidst the most profligate compan-
ions. But, as a good education can never create a
great character, neither can a bad one utterly spoil it.
Heroic qualities may be modified, but they cannot be
extinguished, by accidents. Peter contracted early
habits of intemperance, and coarseness of manners ; his
natural violence of temper was augmented, and his
health impaired, by his intercourse with these vicious
companions ; but his manly spirit was not broken, and
he soon showed a disposition to rebel against the con-
trol which was exercised over him.
266 SKETCHES FROM THE
It is a singular fact, that Peter, to whom the Rus-
sians are indebted for the creation of their navy, enter-
tained in his youth a most unconquerable antipathy to
the water. From the sixth to the fourteenth year of his
age, he was so fearful of this element, that he could
not look upon so much as a pond or a rivulet without
the greatest terror. For this reason he never walked in
the garden of the palace, which is watered by the
river Moskwa ; nor would he traverse a bridge which
crossed the smallest brook, unless the windows of his
coach were shut close. This remarkable disposition
originated in an accident. When he was about five
years old, his mother had him one day asleep in her
lap as she was riding in her coach. Passing over a
dam where there was a heavy fall of water, the loud
noise awaked him in such a fright as threw him into
a fever, which, after he recovered, left on his spirits a
terror of the water, that nothing apparently could over-
come.
With the maturity of his faculties, he grew more
and more dissatisfied with the authority of his sister.
He married against her will, in his eighteenth year,
and claimed a seat at the council board. Violent alter-
cations arose between them. Sophia was ambitious and
overbearing, Peter was irascible and stubborn. An
open rupture was the consequence. She excluded
him from the council, and is said to have formed a
conspiracy, in conjunction with Prince Galitzin, against
his life or liberty. The chief of the Strelitzes and six
hundred others of that body were engaged in the plot,
and Peter with difficulty escaped to a monastery. He
was there joined by loyal subjects from all quarters,
HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 267
so that he was soon enabled to seize all the disaffected
persons. By force of torture, a confession of the
conspiracy was obtained. Sophia was confined for life
in a convent, Galitzin was banished to Siberia, and
Peter assumed the reins of government in 1689. His
brother Iwan never interfered with his authority, and
died in 1696.
He immediately began the vast undertaking of re-
forming the whole system of government and the man-
ners of the people, in which he was opposed by the
jealousies of every class of his subjects, who looked
upon these changes as subversive of their ancient con-
stitution. Peter's untiring energy, however, overcame
all obstacles. He first directed his attention to the
army. He entered the ranks as a private soldier, and
rose through all the intermediate stages before he ob-
tained a commission. He caused all the young nobles
to follow his example. He made the soldiers lay aside
their long coats, shave their beards, and dress their
hair, and in a very short time he had an army of five
thousand men, disciplined and trained on the German
plan. He had by much practice conquered his youth-
ful aversion for the water, and, walking one day by
the river at Moscow, had his curiosity aroused by the
sight of a decayed sloop, of foreign construction, which
he was told would sail against the wind. He caused
the vessel to be repaired by a Dutch shipwright whom
his father had invited into Russia, and took much
pleasure in watching her manoeuvres. He learned to
manage her himself, and soon after had several small
vessels built, with which he made excursions on the
lake of Perislav. His partiality for ships increased in
268 SKETCHES FROM THE
such a manner, that, in 1693, he visited the port of
Archangel, and made a short voyage on the White
Sea, attended by all the merchant vessels in the harbour.
In the following year, he spent several months in simi-
lar excursions. His attachment for every thing con-
nected with maritime affairs now grew to a passion,
and he resolved to be no longer dependent on for-
eigners for his ships ; accordingly he sent a number of
young Russians to Venice, Leghorn, and Holland, to
learn the art of ship-building.
In 1694, a war with the Turks opened to him views
of aggrandizement on the Black Sea, and the next
year he marched with an army to besiege Azof. A
naval force was found necessary, and Peter equipped a
flotilla with such celerity that he was enabled the year
following to defeat the Turkish galleys and capture
the place. Of this conquest he was justly proud. He
caused his army to make a triumphal entry into Mos-
cow, in which his generals and admirals took the pre-
cedence over himself, as the Czar had served only as
a volunteer in the campaign.
As his mind expanded, he became more sensible of
the barbarism of his vast empire, and of his own defi-
ciency in knowledge to improve and civilize it. He
resolved to educate himself by foreign travel, not in
the ordinary manner of royal tours, which generally
serve but for the gratification of a vague curiosity,
but by a residence of some duration in those places
which he thought most proper for affording the instruc-
tion he wanted. It was an interesting and extraordi-
nary circumstance in the history of mankind, that the
despotic monarch of a mighty dominion should descend
HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 269
from the throne, and travel in the train of his own
ambassadors as a private person, rejecting all the pa-
geantry of state, and disdaining no means which ap-
peared necessary to perfect himself in those arts which
he thought of essential importance to his country. He
began his journey in 1697. The first country in
which he made any stay was Holland, taking up his
quarters in the admiralty yard at Amsterdam. In the
disguise of a Dutch skipper, he went to the famous
ship-building town of Saardam, where he worked as a
common carpenter and blacksmith, clad and fed like
his fellow-laborers. People were strictly prohibited
from standing about him or going to gaze at him, —
things which gave him great uneasiness. The follow-
ing year, he visited England, and took lodgings at the
navy-yard of Deptford, devoting his time principally to
the acquisition of maritime knowledge. The variety
of religious sects, both in England and Holland, attract-
ed his notice, and probably gave him those views of
the benefits of religious toleration upon which he al-
ways acted in his intercourse with foreigners. From
England he proceeded to Vienna, for the purpose of
studying the military discipline of the Austrians.
His return to Russia was hastened by the news of a
formidable rebellion which had broken out among the
Strelitzes, fomented by some of the old nobility and
clergy, who hated all innovations. A body of eight
thousand of this licentious soldiery collected on the
borders of Lithuania, and marched towards Moscow,
with the intention of placing on the throne the Princess
Sophia, who is accused of having secretly instigated
their revolt. This attempt, however, was quickly de-
270 SKETCHES FROM THE
feated by General Gordon, the commander of Peters
troops, who killed and made prisoners nearly all the
rebels. Those who were captured suffered the severest
punishment. Two thousand of them were hanged,
the body of the Strelitzes was broken up, and the very
name abolished. New regiments were formed upon
the German model ; and the dress and discipline of the
rest of Europe were introduced into the Russian army.
Peter proceeded with similar vigor in his other
meditated reforms. He altered the calendar by re-
moving the beginning of the year from September to
January. In all the lesser manners and customs he
introduced alterations, the object of which was to as-
similate the Russians to the more polished nations
of Europe. In many things he was too precipitate,
and in others he did not well understand the peculiar
circumstances and character of his subjects. In gen-
eral, the impatience of his temper and his despotic
will led him to look for effects before the causes were
duly prepared, — the common fault of arbitrary power.
He wished to make his people orderly, polished, and
industrious, without giving them either education, prop-
erty, or freedom. Desiring to raise a magnificent
structure, he provided the ornaments before clearing
away the rubbish, or laying the foundation. He com-
pelled his nobles to travel into other countries, without
preparing them by any previous education, or provid-
ing society or occupation for them on their return.
He shaved the beards of his barbarians by force, and
fancied that they would act, because they looked, like
polished men. Pie did not scruple at reforms which
required the aid of the axe and the knout ; and, blinded
HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 271
with the plenitude of that power to which he trusted
for success, he did not perceive, in that abasement
which made his slaves kiss the rod with which he
struck them, an invincible obstacle to his preposterous
ambition of enriching a nation of serfs with the treas-
ures of civilization.
In his war with Charles the Twelfth of Sweden, he
at first suffered defeat, owing to the superior discipline
of the Swedish troops. But Peter was not a man to
be dispirited by a failure, and his perseverance at
length enabled him to overthrow his enemy completely
at the battle of Pultawa. He conquered Finland in
1713 and 1714. His military enterprises were mostly
crowned with success, and large additions were made
to his empire by the peace of Neustadt in 1721. He
had now attained the summit of his glory. He was
requested, and after some hesitation consented, to adopt
the titles of " Peter the Great, Emperor of all the
Russias, and Father of his Country." This was done
amid great rejoicings, which continued for fifteen days.
He now turned his undivided attention to the arts of
peace. He made canals to unite navigable rivers, en-
couraged by bounties the manufacture of woollen and
linen cloths, the erection of com, powder, and sawing
mills ; established a manufactory of small arms, insti-
tuted hospitals, established a uniformity of weights and
measures, founded an academy of sciences, collected
books, pictures, &c.
The most magnificent monument of his reign is the
city of St. Petersburg, founded by him in 1703, in a
marsh surrounded by forests. A vast number of lives
were expended in carrying on the labors necessary for
272 SKETCHES FROM THE
this gigantic undertaking, amidst innumerable hard-
ships of every sort ; but human life was a trifling object
in the consideration of Peter. Nothing could be more
arbitrary than the means he took to fill the new capital
with inhabitants, one of which was, compelling all the
nobility and principal merchants to have houses there.
It was peopled, however, chiefly by the foreigners
whom he settled in his dominions, and, to this day,
foreigners and their descendants make a great part of
its population, and have given the tone to its character
and appearance. The removal of the metropolis to a
corner of this vast empire, at such a distance from the
most fertile and populous districts, has been by many
considered an impolitic sacrifice made by Peter to his
ruling passion. It was, however, powerfully instru-
mental in civilizing the Russians, by breaking through
those national habits of life which were fostered in the
barbaric grandeur of Moscow.
Peter married a parish foundling, who afterwards
governed Russia as the Empress Catharine the First.
By the sweetness of her temper and the charm of her
manners, she was able to soften the violence of her
husband in the paroxysms of gloomy rage to which he
was subject, and she retained her influence over him
to the end of his life. By a former marriage he had a
son named Alexis, whose history forms a dark chapter
in Peter's life, and has left a stain on his memory.
The education of this young prince was much neglect-
ed, and he grew up ignorant, debauched, and full of
vulgar and obstinate prejudice against all his father's
improvements. In consequence of his disorderly be-
haviour, Peter first excluded him from the succession
HISTORY OF RUSSIA. 273
to the crown, and subsequently brought him to trial for
high treason, on a charge of conspiracy to depose his
father. A confession was extorted from him, and he
was condemned to death. The next day he died in
convulsions, and there were suspicions that he had been
forced to take poison. The whole of this tragic affair
is shrouded in mysteiy. It is certain that Peter showed
little paternal affection, and he punished with extreme
barbarity all whom his son named as his confidants.
Peter the Great died on the 28th of January, 1725,
in the fifty-third year of his age. He was of a lofty
stature, and of a commanding, but coarse and fero-
cious countenance. His gestures were quick and im-
patient ; his speech fluent and animated. His charac-
ter was compounded of striking contradictions. Be-
nevolence and humanity were as conspicuous in him
as a total disregard of human life. He was at once
kind-hearted, and severe even to ferocity. Without
education himself, he promoted arts, science, and
literature. He gave a polish to his people, and was
himself a savage. He taught them the art of war, of
which he was himself ignorant. From the sight of a
small boat in a river, he created a powerful fleet, and
made himself an expert and active shipwright, sailor,
pilot, and commander. His manners and tastes were
gross and boorish. While in England, he passed his
nights either in a pot-house near Tower Hill, regaling
himself in low company, with beer and tobacco, or
with King William, drinking brandy and pepper.
In 1717, he visited the king of Prussia, at Berlin,
with his empress and whole court. A most amusing
account of this visit may be found in the Memoirs of
18
274 SKETCHES FROM THE HISTORY OF RUSSIA.
the Princess of Bareit.h, written by herself. "On his
first presentation, the Czar took the king by the hand,
and told him he was glad to see him ; he then offered
to kiss the queen, but she declined the honor. He
next presented his son and daughter, and four hundred
ladies-in-waiting, the greater part of whom were wash-
erwomen and scullions promoted to that nominal dignity.
Almost every one of them had an infant, richly dressed,
in her arms." The Czar took the princess up in his
arms, and in kissing her rubbed the skin off her face
wifch his rough beard, laughing very heartily at the airs
with which she resented this familiarity. He was lia-
ble, at times, to convulsive starts and spasms, and being
seized in this manner when at tabic, with his knife in
his hand, put his hosts into no little bodily terror. He
told the queen, however, that he would do her no
harm, and took her hand in token of his good humor,
but squeezed it so unmercifully that she was obliged
to cry out ; at which he laughed again with great vio-
lence, and said " her bones were not so well knit as
his Catharine's." What pleased him most among the
curiosities of Berlin was a piece of antique sculpture,
most grossly indecent. He insisted that his wife should
kiss this figure, and, when she hesitated, he told her
he would cut off her head if she refused. He then
begged this piece, and several other things of value,
from the king, and packed them off for St. Petersburg
without ceremony. In a few days he took his depar-
ture, leaving the palace, in which he had been lodged,
in a most extraordinary state of filth and dilapidation.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
CHIVALRY AND KNIGHT-ERRANTRY.
The chivalry of the Gothic nations began in the
woods of Germany- No youth was then permitted to
assume arms, at that time the great privilege of the
noble and the free, at his own pleasure. It was made
276 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
a social rank, to which it was necessary that the as-
piring candidates should be elected in the public coun-
cils of their rude commonwealth ; and the emulated
distinction was then solemnly conferred by the prince,
or a kinsman, giving them a javelin and a shield. In
these customs we see the origin of knighthood. As
the Christian clergy prevailed in Europe, and became
a constituent portion of the national councils of every
country, they made religion a part of the ceremonial
on these elections. They caused an oath to be im-
posed on the knight. They made the protection of the
Church a part of his duty, and extended this to the
assistance of the weak and injured ; and they gained
an influence over his mind by consecrating his sword
and belt on the altar. Chivalry, thus improved by its
religious ceremonial and obligations, became an im-
portant agent in civili^g the fierce and predatory
warriors of the Gothic nations. It led their rude minds
to make even the warfare they loved a subject for
moral discrimination. The actions of the base knight
became marked and separated from those of the noble
and gallant. One path led to fame, and the other to
disgrace. Hence, our savage ancestors, who differed
little from banditti, were gradually taught to feel dis-
tinction ; from honor, an intellectual principle ; from
courtesy, a social merit ; and from moral sensibility,
the surest source of human improvement.
This distinction, having once arisen, could not fail to
be permanent. It was the interest of the Church to
preserve and increase it ; for their property was always
at the mercy of the depredator. The king found his
advantage in maintaining it, because it softened the
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 277
turbulence of the baronial character, and gave the law
the protection of its bravery. The barons themselves
at last perceived the superior safety and comfort which
arose from the extinction of the habits of the lawless
knight. The fair sex at all times found in honorable
chivalry their most effective guardian and avenger. It
was, perhaps, their influence that established its pre-
dominance in Europe. In their presence, knights de-
lighted to prove their martial prowess, and from their
hands received their public honors. The smile of the
lady he adored, or professed to extol, became the high-
est ambition of the sturdy warrior ; and her excellence
was the topic, not only of his praise, but of his defi-
ance. Her service and her favor were his proudest
boast. Gradually, in his festive hours, he imitated her
dress. Her gentle manners diffused their magic over
his own ; and social courtesy, the first herald of the
compassionate virtues, became the indispensable ac-
complishment of the brave and polished chevalier.
Knights were usually persons of birth, but not al-
ways so ; the lower ranks were sometimes raised to
that honor for extraordinary valor. They were quali-
fied for their duty by laboring, running, carrying
weights, exposing themselves to the sun and dust, eat-
ing rustic food, living in the open air, or in tents, and
practising the use of arms. The true merit of a
knight is thus stated by a Troubadour : " It is to fight
well ; to conduct a troop well ; to do his exercise well ;
to ride his horse well ; to present himself with a good
grace at courts ; and to render himself agreeable there."
He adds : " Seldom are all these qualities united."
This is very probable. To unite martial habits and
278 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
vigor with the courteous elegan cesof polished life
could not be often accomplished in a half civilized
age. Knighthood was conferred by girding the person
with a sword, and striking him a blow over the shoul-
ders with that weapon. In some countries the candi-
dates confessed themselves, and watched all the pre-
ceding night in a church ; but the fierce Normans
thought this too unwarlike. The Spanish knight
watched his armor previous to the ceremony. After
being dubbed, he went solemnly to church, his sword
and belt were placed upon the altar, and prayers were
offered. His oath declared his duty to be, " To defend
the Church ; to attack the perfidious ; to venerate the
priesthood ; to protect the poor from injury ; to keep
the country quiet ; and to shed his blood, and, if ne-
cessary, to lose his life, for his brethren.'"
As they had their duties, so they had their privileges.
They were free from taxes, and all other services and
burdens, in order, says the authority, " that, being so
alleviated, they may instruct themselves in the use of
horses and arms, and be apt and ready for action, and
the defence of their country." But the great induce-
ments to the occupation were the honor v the donations
they frequently received, and the plunder they were
always acquiring. It is in vain to suppose, that, before
that happy era commenced, in which the greatest man
was subjected to the power of the law, the armed force
of the country could be kept in peaceful demeanour.
But, as the manners of the age softened, they attached
themselves to the fair sex. In the earlier stale of
chivalry, they had neither leisure nor taste for the re-
finements of love. Their gratifications were then
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 279
coarse. War was their passion, and their manners
partook of the fierce spirit of the times. Even the
ladies were fond of war, and sometimes engaged in it.
We read of one who was so skilful in knightly exer-
cises, that she was styled, in masculine phrase, Le bel
Cavalier. Two Norman ladies quarrelled, Eloisa
and Isahella. Each roused her friendly knights to
espouse her cause, and plundered and burned the
other's possessions. They were both spirited, loqua-
cious, and beautiful, and governed their husbands ; but
they differed in temper. Eloisa was cunning and per-
suasive, fierce and parsimonious. Isabella was liberal
and courageous, good-humored, merry, and convivial.
She rode among the knights, armed like them, and
was as dexterous as the rest in the use of her weapons.
The knights travelled with their squires or armor-
bearers, and pages. Their state-parade was to march
with their shields uncovered, their spears elevated, and
a banner before them. If a knight came to a camp
with his shield on his neck, and his lance in his hand,
it was deemed an act of defiance, for which, if attack-
ed, he had no redress. The shields were highly orna-
mented with, gold and brilliant colors ; and some
knights placed on them the portrait of their favorite
lady. It was the fashion for newly made knights to
travel to other countries, to prove their prowess at
tournaments against foreign knights. Great chieftains
appointed tournaments on purpose that knights might
come both to learn and show their martial powers.
In great national emergencies, kings invited knights to
their courts by profuse liberality. They were the dis-
ciplined and effective soldiery of the day. They were
280 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
the only portion of the military that was completely
armed ; and their skill and power in the use of their
weapons made their exertions the common means of
victory.
Knight-errantry was a profession brought into ex-
istence by the turbulent and disorderly state of Europe
in the Middle Ages. At the close of the eleventh cen-
tury, that quarter of the world exhibited the political
anomaly, of countries with governments that were
nominally monarchical, infested by a host of petty
sovereigns in every part, who were despotic in the ter-
ritories they occupied, and who acknowledged in the
king little else than a titular superiority, and the right
of receiving, for a few weeks in the year, their military
attendance. These petty sovereigns were the lords or
barons, who shared the landed property of the king-
doms. As they had originally acquired their property
by the sword, they were obliged to preserve it by the
same means. They were perpetually striving to dis-
possess each other by violence ; and this singular state
of aristocratical society made chivalry and knight-
errantry both popular and necessary.
Estates are now held by written muniments, and
their peaceable possession is guarded and guarantied
by law, easily enforced by the whole executive power
of the country. But, in those times, when they were
often conferred by the gift of a horn or an arrow, and
the monarch had but feeble means to enforce right, or
to punish wrong, it is obvious that possession was the
great evidence of title ; and he that had strength suffi-
cient to wrest lands from another usually kept his ac-
quisition till superior violence forced it from him. In
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 281
this state of society, the services of knights were every-
where wanted by the great proprietors of estates, as
well to defend their ancient possessions as to enable
the more ambitious to obtain others. Knights, there-
fore, were perpetually errant, or travelling about in
quest of adventures or employment ; some for the
pleasure of the expedition, and some for its expected
profits. They often met with the oppressed or unsuc-
cessful, and they cheerfully undertook to redress those
wrongs which the laws were too feeble to remedy ; and
for redressing which, honor, plunder, or rich gifts be-
came their usual compensation.
The petty chieftains of that age were often notori-
ous robbers, plunderers, and cut-throats. Their cas-
tles were so many dens of banditti. It is scarcely
possible to exaggerate the violent spirit of those times.
William Rufus permitted his young knights and squires
to amuse themselves by plundering the estates of the
country people with impunity. A great baron of that
period not only laid all the churches near him under
contribution, but he also put his own wife into prison and
in fetters, to compel her to give up her property. He
carried a naked sword under his cloak, and, when the
humor seized him, he stabbed, with shouts of laughter,
the first person he met. His possessions he daily aug-
mented by the most infamous robberies, and such was
his power, and the terror he excited, that this monster
was admired and venerated. Robert de Belesme was
a noted character of this sort. He took delight in
seeing his captives perish ; he amused himself with
thrusting out the eyes of children with his thumb, and
impaling men and women. " The bishops them-
282 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES,
selves," says a contemporary writer, " I blush to say
it, yet not all, but many, bound in iron and completely
furnished with arms, were accustomed to mount war-
horses with the annoyers of their country, to share
their prey ; to expose to bonds and torture the knights
whom they took in the chance of war, or whom they
met full of money ; and, while they themselves were
the head and cause of so much wickedness and enor-
mity, they ascribed it to their knights. 1 '
It is true, that most of these ministers of cruelty
died violently, as " those who live by the sword must
perish by the sword." But while such habits lasted,
the institution or practice of knight-errantry was an
advantage to the community. Unquestionably, many
knights-errant considered the benefit of an exploit
rather than its morality ; but, while society was in this
state of military chaos, there were so many wrongs to
redress, that their exertions could not fail to be often
on the side of right. There were always tyrant barons
to be conquered, captives to be released, ladies to be
assisted, and the castles of caitiffs, that defied law, to
be taken ; and therefore a knight-errant, with a mod-
erate portion of true chivalry and religious feeling,
could easily contrive to unite his interest with his con-
science, and relieve, with profit as well as credit to
himself, the brave and injured. Knight-errantry, in
fact, became a popular and lucrative profession. Till
the increasing power of the kings had pervaded every
part of the country, and compelled the great to respect
the voice of law, and to feel the punishment of offend-
ed justice, no class of people could be more valued
and useful than these knight adventurers. But, after a
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 283
time, the improvement of society having diminished
their utility, the institution of knight-errantry disap-
peared with the evils winch it had contributed to re-
move.
In illustration of the general spirit and manners of
chivalry, as exhibited in that portion of Europe most
abounding in romantic exploits, we present the follow-
ing narrative.
On the first day of the year 1434, while the Span-
ish court was holding its festivities at Medina del Cam-
po, a noble knight, named Sueno de Quiliones, presented
himself before the king, John the Second, with a train
of nine cavaliers gallantly arrayed, whose lofty de-
meanour and armorial ensigns showed that they prided
themselves on the perfect purity of their Christian de-
scent. The king smiled graciously on the strangers,
and, learning from his attendants that they had come to
court in order to solicit his patronage, he waved his hand
in sign of permission for them to speak. A herald, whom
they had brought with them, stepped in front, and in
the name of Sueno de Quifiones spoke thus : " It is
just and reasonable, that any one, who has been so long
in imprisonment as I have been, should desire his lib-
erty, and, as your vassal and subject, I appear before
you to state that I have been long bound in service to
a noble lady ; and, as is well known through heralds, not
only in this country, but through foreign lands, every
Thursday I am obliged to wear a chain of iron around
my neck. But, with the aid of the Apostle James, I
have discovered a means of liberation. I and my nine
noble friends propose, during the fifteen days that pre-
cede and the fifteen days that follow the festival of that
284 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
saint, to break three hundred lances with Milan points,
in the following manner : Three lances with every
knight who shall pass this way on the road to the
shrine of the saint. Armor and weapons will be
provided in ample store for such cavaliers as shall
travel in palmers' weeds. All noble ladies, who shall
be on their pilgrimage unattended by a chivalric es-
cort, must be contented to lose their right hand glove,
till a knight shall recover it by the valor of his arm."
When the herald concluded, the king and his council
conferred together, and they soon agreed that the laws
of chivalry obliged them to consent to the accomplish-
ing of this emprise of arms. When the royal permis-
sion was proclaimed by the heralds, Sueno got a noble
knight to take off his helmet, and thus bareheaded ap-
proached the throne and humbly thanked the king.
He afterwards retired with his nine friends, and having
exchanged their heavy armor for silken dresses of fes-
tivity, they returned to the hall and joined the dance.
Six months were to elapse before the valiant and
amorous Sueno de Quifiones could be delivered from
his shackle, and all that time was spent by him and
his friends in exercising themselves to the use of the
lance, and in providing stores of harness and lances
for such knights as would joust with them. The place
that was arranged for the contest was the bridge of
Orbigo, six hours' ride from Leon, and three from As-
torga. The marble effigy of a herald was set up in
the road, and by the label in its right hand travellers
were acquainted that they had reached the passage of
arms. The lists were erected in a beautiful plain
formed by nature in a neighbouring wood. Tents for
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 285
banqueting and repose were raised and amply furnish-
ed by the liberality of Sueno. One tent was admirable
for the beauty of its decorations, and more so for its
purpose. It contained seven noble ladies, who, at the
request of the mother of Sueno, devoted themselves to
attend such of the knights as should be wounded in
the joust. At the time appointed, Sueno de Quifiones
appeared in the lists with his nine companions, all
arrayed in the most splendid tourneying harness, the
enamored knight himself having about his neck the
chain of his mistress, with the motto, which his friends
also wore on some part of their armor, ' II faut de-
liherer.' 1 Many stranger knights jousted with him, and
his success was generally distinguished.
The fair penitents to the shrine of the saint were
stopped, and such as were of noble birth were asked
by the king's herald to deliver their gloves. The pride
and prerogatives of the sex were offended at this de-
mand ; the ladies resisted, as much as words and looks
of high disdain could resist, the representative of the
king ; but they yielded with grace and pleasure, when
they were asked to surrender their gloves in the name
of the laws of chivalry, of those laws which had been
made under their auspices and for their benefit. There
was no lack of knights to peril themselves for the
recovery of these gloves in the listed plain ; and, if the
champions of the dames were ever worsted by the
hardier sons of chivalry, the gallantry of the judges of
the tournament would not permit the ladies to suffer
from any want of skill or good fortune in their chosen
knights. When the thirty days had expired, it appear-
ed that sixty-eight knights had entered the lists against
286
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
Sueno de Quinones, and in seven hundred and twenty-
seven encounters only sixty-six lances had been bro-
ken, — a chivalric phrase, expressive either of the
actual shivering of lances, or of men being thrown
out of their saddles. The judges of the tournament,
however, declared that although the number of the
lances broken was not equal to the undertaking, yet
as such a partial performance of the conditions of
the passage of arms had not been the fault of Sueno
de Quinones, they commanded the king-at-arms to
take the chain from his neck, and to declare that the
emprise had been achieved. Accordingly the chain
was removed, and the delivered knight entered Leon
in triumph.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 287
THE MIDDLE AGES.
^^^P^
— j*^ss^g5?
In the history of mankind every thing is gradual.
Society does not receive a new form in a day. The
ideas cast abroad in one century become the leading
principles of the next ; and a revolution, however sud-
den it may appear, is but the explosion of a train that
has been long and curiously laid. We shall endeav-
our, in a brief sketch, to exhibit the progressive steps
by which the political and social institutions of the
Middle Ages in Europe were developed and estab-
lished.
288 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
When the fierce and barbarous nations of the North
poured down upon the Roman empire, and began to
form permanent settlements, they made a partition of
the lands in the conquered provinces between them-
selves and the original possessors. The Burgundians
and Visigoths took two thirds of their respective con-
quests, leaving the remainder to the Roman proprie-
tors. The Vandals in Africa, a more furious race of
plunderers, took all the best lands. The Lombards of
Italy took a third part of the produce. The Franks in
Gaul took the greater portion of the territory, and im-
posed their name upon the kingdom. It is here that
we trace most distinctly the rise and extension of the
feudal system. Clovis, the Prankish conqueror, was
a leader of barbarians, who respected his valor and the
rank which they had given him, but were incapable
of servile feelings, and jealous of their common, as
well as individual rights. In order to appreciate the
extent of his power, we have only to refer to the story
of the Vase of Soissons. When the plunder taken in
the invasion of Gaul was collected in that city for dis-
tribution, he begged for himself a precious vessel be-
longing to the church of Rheims. The army express-
ed a willingness to consent. " You shall have nothing
here," exclaimed a soldier, striking the vase with his
battle-axe, " but what falls to your share by lot." The
king dared not express his resentment at the time, but
took his revenge a year afterward.
The kingdom of Clovis was divided into a number
of districts, each under the government of a Count.
The authority of this officer extended over all the in-
habitants, as well Franks as natives. It was his duty
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 289
to administer justice, to preserve tranquillity, to collect
the revenues, and to lead, when required, the free pro-
prietors into the field. The title of Duke implied a
higher dignity, and commonly gave authority over
several counties. The reigning family was immutable ;
but, at every vacancy, the heir awaited the confirma-
tion of the people, whether that were a substantial
privilege or a mere ceremony. The barbarous con-
querors of Gaul and Italy were guided by notions very
different from those of Rome, who had imposed her
own laws upon all the subjects of her empire. Ad-
hering in general to their ancient customs, without de-
sire of improvement, they left the former inhabitants
in unmolested enjoyment of their civil institutions.
The name of Gaul or Roman was not entirely lost in
that of Frenchman, nor had the separation of the laws
ceased till after the time of Charlemagne. In the
South of France the Roman jurisprudence survived the
revolutions of the Middle Ages.
The essential distinction of ranks in France was
founded upon the possession of land or upon civil em
ploy merit. The aristocracy of wealth preceded that of
birth, which, indeed, is still chiefly dependent upon the
other for its importance. A Frank of large estate was
styled a Noble. If he wasted or was despoiled of his
wealth, his descendants fell into the mass of the peo-
pl^and the new possessor became noble in his stead.
In those ages, property did not very frequently change
hands and desert the families who had long possessed
it. Wealth gave them power, and power gave them
preeminence.
19
290 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
The essential principle of a feudal tenure was a
mutual contract of support and fidelity. Whatever
obligations of service to his lord were laid upon the
vassal, corresponding duties of protection were impos-
ed on the lord toward his vassal. If these were trans-
gressed on either side, the one forfeited his land, and
the other his seigniory, or the right over it. The vassal
was bound to serve his lord in war ; in battle he was
to lend him his horse when dismounted, to adhere to
his side while fighting, and to go into captivity as a
hostage for him when taken. Forty days was the
usual term during which the tenant of a knight's fee
was bound to be in the field at his own expense.
Every lord, in those days, having independent juris-
diction, and his own vassals immediately devoted to
him, was in fact a petty sovereign, and a few of these
in a country were generally an overmatch for the
king, and often occasioned the greatest disorders.
Hardly ever has there been a government in which
there was less provision for the security and happiness
of the bulk of the people than in the feudal govern-
ment. Had not religion, or rather superstition, pro-
vided an asylum to a portion of the inhabitants, those
times, in which this system was at its height, would
have constituted a period of utter anarchy. Thefts,
rapine, murders, and disorders prevailed in every king-
dom of Europe to a degree almost incredible, #nd
scarcely compatible with the existence of civil society.
Every offender sheltered himself under some chieftain
who shielded him from justice. Some of this portion
of the feudal spirit seems to have lingered in England
as late as the time of Shakspeare.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 291
" Davy. I grant your Worship that he is a knave, Sir ; but
yet God forbid, Sir, but a knave should have some countenance
at his friend's request. I have served your Worship truly, Sir,
this eight years ; and if I cannot, once or twice in a quarter,
bear out a knave against an honest man, I have but a very little
credit with your Worship. The knave is mine honest friend,
Sir ; therefore, I beseech your Worship, let him be counte-
nanced.
" Shallow. Go to. I say he shall have no wrong."
The two grand elements which operated on society
from the establishment of the barbarous invaders in Ro-
man Gaul, and which maintained a constant struggle
for predominance over the opinions of men from the
seventh to the tenth century, were the physical force
of the conquerors, and the moral and intellectual force
of the clergy. The annals of the Merovingians and
the Carlovingians are filled with the quarrels and mu-
tual encroachments of the warriors and the ecclesias-
tics. The one party seized the lands or the treasures
of cathedrals and monasteries, and the other took re-
venge by interdicts and excommunications ; but about
the tenth century the triumph of the Church may be
considered complete. Its advantages over its rival,
from the beginning, were obvious. It was a regular in-
stitution, and possessed a formal hierarchy, consecrated
forms, a written code, and invariable maxims. It pur-
sued a definite object with order and perseverance.
The armed feudality, on the other hand, was but a
confused mass of isolated forces, a government with-
out a common object. What it gained by violence it
lost by want of system.
Nearly half the territory of Roman Gaul belonged
to the monasteries and cathedrals ; in addition to which,
292 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
they reaped the tenth of the productions of the other
half. Besides the influence of riches, the clergy pos-
sessed the influence of superior intelligence. The
little knowledge current was confined to them. They
alone could read and write. They were necessary in
every castle. From the suzerain to the lowest vassal,
all had their chaplain to draw up their deeds, to recite
the breviary, or enliven the long nights of winter with
some tale of chivalry. The Christian faith of the Middle
Ages may be considered as a vast Polytheism ; eleven
thousand saints were habitually invoked by the people.
Before we arrive at the end of the eleventh century,
we find that the Church had become the unique source
of all social existence. Every thing flowed from it ;
the moral and intellectual order of men's ideas was
founded on its doctrines ; and nothing existed out of its
pale, but brutal and unorganized force. At this period,
Europe may be considered a great religious federative
republic, governed by a clerical aristocracy, with the
Pope for a President.
But the Church itself was destined to undergo its
revolution. The Popes first set up their pretensions as
spiritual monarchs ; the Church then lost its republican
form of government by councils, and assumed an
aspect altogether monarchical. As letters began to
revive, a source of instruction was opened to the peo-
ple, which did not flow from the Church, and its au-
thority thus received a blow from which it never recov-
ered. When the clergy ceased to hold despotic sway
over the minds of men, the feudal institutions remain-
ed, though greatly changed and mutilated. Another
form of government arose. The people collected in
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 293
towns, and began to be sensible of their force, and to
vindicate their rights. Scattered abroad in the fields,
or collected in small hamlets, the serfs were the slaves
of their masters' will ; but when once they had gather-
ed together in large bodies, and had learned to sym-
pathize with each other, and to act in concert, they
disdained the authority of their lords.
The Middle Ages, although they constitute a period
of war, violence, and destitution of letters, have been,
in general, spoken of in terms of too great disparage-
ment. We owe much to what have been termed the
Dark Ages. The human mind was very far from
being alike inactive in all the portions of this long
period. During the darkest part of it, which extends
from the fall of the Western Empire to the begin-
ning of the thirteenth century, the Arabic numerals
were introduced into Europe, paper was manufac-
tured from linen, gunpowder and the mariner's com-
pass were discovered. Before the end of this century,
oil-painting, printing, engraving, and Gothic architec-
ture closed this series of improvements. These inven-
tions were proofs of mental activity, as well as incite-
ments to it ; and it may even be doubted whether the
human mind could have rendered a greater service to
the science of the succeeding age, than in thus preparing
the soil whieh it was to cultivate, and constructing new
instruments for its use. The government, laws, and
manners of the Middle Ages have lately been studied
with a diligence due to the investigation of the sources
whence has proceeded the diversity of institutions
and national character which still prevails in Europe.
The literature of the same period has recently almost
294 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
everywhere inspired a general curiosity and interest ;
and most nations have returned with renewed affection
to the earliest monuments of the genius of their fore-
fathers.
The favorite diversions of the higher classes in the
Middle Ages, during the intervals of war, were those
of hunting and hawking. The former must, in all
countries, be a source of pleasure, but it seems to have
been enjoyed in moderation by the Greeks and Ro-
mans. With the Northern invaders, however, it was
rather a predominant appetite than an amusement. It
was their pride and their ornament, the theme of their
songs, the object of their laws, and the business of
their lives. Falconry, unknown, as a diversion, to the
ancients, became, from the fourth centuiy, an equally
delightful occupation. A knight seldom stirred from
his house without a falcon on his wiist, or a greyhound
following him ; and on the monuments of those who
died anywhere but on the field of battle, it is usual to
find the greyhound lying at their feet, or the bird upon
their wrists. Nor are the tombs of ladies without
their falcon ; for this diversion, being of less danger
and fatigue than the chase, was shared by the delicate
sex.
About the eighth century, trade was principally car-
ried on by means of fairs, which lasted several days.
Charlemagne established many great marts of this sort
in France, as did William the Conqueror and his suc-
cessors in England. The merchants, who frequented
these fairs in numerous caravans or companies, em-
ployed every art to draw the people together. They
were therefore accompanied by jugglers, minstrels,
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 295
and buffoons. As but few large towns then existed,
no public spectacles or popular amusements were es-
tablished ; and, as the sedentary pleasures of domestic
life and private society were yet unknown, the fair-
time was the season for diversion. In proportion as
these shows were attended and encouraged, they were
heightened with new decorations and improvements ;
and the arts of buffoonery, being rendered still more
attractive by extending their circle of exhibition, ac-
quired an importance in the eyes of the people. By
degrees, the clergy, observing that the entertainments
of dancing, music, and mimicry at the fairs turned
the minds of the people from religion, proscribed these
sports, and excommunicated the performers. But,
finding that no regard was paid to their censures, they
changed their plan, and took these recreations into
their own hands. They turned actors, and, instead of
profane mummeries, presented stories taken from holy
legends, or the Bible. Such was the origin of the
Religious Shows and Mysteries of the Middle Ages,
the most singular amusements, perhaps, that ever were
known, and which merit a detailed description, in order
to exhibit a faithful picture of the manners of the
times.
In these most extraordinary performances, the re-
ligious ceremonies of the time and the events of
sacred history were travestied in so bizarre a style,
that we could hardly credit the facts, were they not re-
lated in the most circumstantial detail by numerous
writers. About the year 990, Thcophylact, Patri-
arch of Constantinople, caused the Feast of Fools,
and the Feast of the Ass, with other religious farces,
296 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
to be exhibited in the Greek Church. Beletus, who
lived in 1182, mentions the Feast of Fools as celebrat-
ed in some places on New Year's day, and in others,
on Twelfth day. In France, at different cathedral
churches, there was a Bishop or an Archbishop of
Fools elected ; and, in the churches immediately de-
pendent on the papal see, a Pope of Fools. These
mock pontiffs had usually a proper train of ecclesias-
tics, and one of their ridiculous ceremonies was to
shave the Precentor of Fools upon a stage erected
before the church, in the presence of the populace,
who were amused, during the operation, by his coarse
and licentious discourses, and tricks of buffoonery
They were attired in the ridiculous dresses of panto
mime players, and, in these grotesque habiliments
entered the church, and performed the sacred service
accompanied by crowds of people in masks, represent
ing monsters, or with their faces smutted to excite
laughter. During divine service, they sang vulgar
songs in the choir, ate puddings on the corner of the
altar, played at dice upon it by the side of the priest
while he celebrated mass, incensed it with smoke from
old shoes set on fire, and ran capering all over the
church. The Bishop or Pope of Fools performed
the service habited in pontifical garments, and gave
his benediction. When it was concluded, he was seat-
ed in an open carriage, and drawn about the town, fol-
lowed by the crowd, and by a cart filled with dirt, which
they threw upon the spectators, to the great glee of all
concerned. These licentious festivals were called the
December Liberties. They were always held about
Christmas, and appear to have continued through the
chief part of January.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 297
The Feast of the Ass, as it was anciently celebrated
in France, consisted almost entirely of dramatic shows.
It was instituted in honor of Balaam's ass. The cler-
gy walked on Christmas day in procession, dressed to
represent the prophets and other Scripture characters.
Moses appeared in an alb and cope, with a long beard
and a rod. David was clad in green. Balaam, with an
enormous pair of spurs, was mounted on a wooden ass,
which enclosed a speaker. There were also six Jews
and six Gentiles. Among other characters, the poet
Virgil was introduced, singing monkish rhymes, as a
Gentile prophet, and a translator of the Sibylline ora-
cles. They moved in procession through the church,
chanting versicles, and conversing in character on the
nativity and kingdom of Christ. Sometimes they per-
formed the miracle of the fiery furnace, with Nebu-
chadnezzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Some-
times the Feast of the Ass commemorated the flight
of the Virgin into Egypt with the infant Jesus. The
most beautiful girl that could be procured was selected
to represent the Virgin ; a pretty child was placed in
her arms, and she was mounted on an ass richly ca-
parisoned. The Bishop, with a train of clergy, follow-
ed, and they all went in grand procession to church,
where the service was performed, with the burden of
" Hin-han ! Hin-han ! " to represent the braying of
an ass. The Archbishop of Sens composed a missal
for this ceremony, containing, among other strange
things, a hymn in praise of the ass, from which we
extract the two following verses.
" From the country of the East
Came this strong and handsome beast,
298 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
This able Ass, beyond compare,
Heavy loads and packs to bear.
Huzza ! Seigneur Ass, Huzza !
" Amen bray, most honored Ass,
Sated now with grain and grass ;
Amen repeat, Amen reply,
And disregard antiquity.
Huzza ! Seigneur Ass, Huzza ! "
This was sung in the most discordant manner possi-
ble. The service lasted all night and part of the next
day, and constituted the most ridiculous medley imagi-
nable. A liberal use of wine was not wanting on the
occasion, and both clergy and laity danced round the
animal, and strove to imitate his braying.
The Mysteries, or sacred plays, were acted on a
stage consisting of three platforms, one above another.
On the uppermost sat God the Father, surrounded by
his angels. On the second story were the glorified
saints ; and on the lowest, men who had not yet passed
from this life. On one side of the lowest platform
was the resemblance of a dark, pitchy cavern, whence
issued flames ; and when it was necessary, the audi-
ence were treated with hideous yellings and noises,
in imitation of the cries of the damned. From this
yawning cave the devils ascended, to delight and edify
the spectators. The Mysteries were usually acted in
churches or chapels, on temporary scaffolds, and the
performers were chiefly of the clergy. In the Coven-
try Mysteries, the story of Adam and Eve was repre-
sented in the genuine natural costume, and this extra-
ordinary spectacle was beheld by a numerous company
of both sexes with perfect composure. They had the
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 299
authority of Scripture for such a representation, and
they gave matters just as they found them in the third
chapter of Genesis. The present age rejects, as mon-
strously gross and indelicate, those free compositions
which our ancestors not only countenanced but admir-
ed ; yet the morals of that age were as strict, to say
the least, as our own. Those people were strangers,
indeed, to delicacy of taste ; they beheld the broad
and faithful delineations of nature, and thought no
harm. The present age has gained in refinement of
manners and external decorum, but has probably lost
as much in real purity of morals.
It remains to add a iew words respecting the modes
of dress and architecture during the Middle Ages.
Much diversity existed in these matters, in the dine rent
countries of Europe. Italy and Provence made the
first rapid transition from simplicity to refinement. As
early as the beginning of the fourteenth century, lux-
ury had made great progress. Previous to this time,
the manners of the Italians were rude. A man and
his wife ate from the same plate. There were no
wooden-handled knives, nor more than one or two
drinking-cups, in a house. Candles of wax or tallow
were unknown, and a servant held a torch during sup-
per. The clothes of men were of leather, unlincd ;
scarcely any ornament was seen on their dress. The
common pride of men was, to be well provided with
arms and horses ; that of the nobility, to have lofty
towers, of which all the cities in Italy were full. The
conquest of Naples, by Charles of Anjou, in 1266,
seems to have been the epoch of increasing luxury
throughout Italy. His Provencal knights, with their
300 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
plumed helmets and golden collars, the chariot of his
queen, covered with blue velvet and sprinkled with
lilies of gold, astonished the citizens of Naples. Pro-
vence had enjoyed a long tranquillity, the natural
source of luxurious magnificence ; and Italy, now liber-
ated from the yoke of the German emperors, soon
reaped the same fruit of a condition more easy and
peaceful than had been her lot for several ages.
In England, great rudeness in manners and dress
prevailed before the Norman Conquest ; but that revo-
lution introduced, by degrees, the improvements and
luxuries of the Continent. An English beau of the
fourteenth century wore enormously long pointed
shoes, with gold chains from the points fastened up to
his knees ; hose of one color on one leg, and of a dif-
ferent color on the other ; short inexpressibles reaching
but half way down to the knees ; a coat one half white,
and the other half black or blue ; a long beard ; a silk
hood buttoned under his chin, embroidered with gro-
tesque figures of animals, dancing men, &c. Similar
dresses were also worn in France and Italy. The
pointed shoe continued in use till a very late period,
and at one time it was fashionable to shape the upper
parts into the form of a church window. Chaucer's
spruce parish clerk had
" Poules windowes corven on his shoos."
In spite of the bulls of popes, the decrees of councils,
and the declamations of the clergy, all which were put
in requisition to condemn this absurd fashion, it lasted
for three centuries.
It is to the Middle Ages that we are indebted for
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 301
some of the most imposing specimens of architecture
now existing in Europe ; the cathedrals and the cas-
tles ; yet domestic architecture made but a slow pro-
gress'. The houses of the common people in England
are described as " mere sticks and dirt," as late as the
sixteenth century. Even in Italy, where, from the size
of the cities, and the social refinement of the inhabi-
tants, greater elegance and splendor in buildings were
justly to be expected, the domestic architecture of the
Middle Ages did not attain any perfection. In many
towns the houses were covered with thatch, and suf-
fered, consequently, from destructive fires. We may
guess from this, how mean were the habitations in less
polished parts of Europe. The two most essential
improvements in architecture during this period, one
of which had been missed by the sagacity of Greece
and Rome, were chimneys and glass windows. Noth-
ing, apparently, can be more simple than a chimney,
yet the wisdom of ancient times had been content to
let the smoke escape by an aperture in the centre of
the roof ; and a discovery, of which Vitruvius had not
even a glimpse, was made by some forgotten semi-
barbarian. The first mention of chimneys is about
the middle of the fourteenth century, when they were
known in Italy and England. In France they did not
come into common use till three hundred years later.
Glass was probably not employed in domestic archi-
tecture in France and England before the fourteenth
century ; nor were glazed windows in general use
during any part of the Middle Ages.
The Middle Ages are commonly regarded as com-
prising about one thousand years, from the invasion of
302 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
France by Clovis, to the irruption of the French under
Charles the Eighth into Italy, at the close of the fif-
teenth century. This period, considered as to the state
of society, lias been esteemed dark through ignorance,
and barbarous from poverty and want of refinement.
And, although this character is much less applicable to
the last two centuries of the period than to those which
preceded its commencement, yet we cannot expect to
feel, with regard to ages, at best but imperfectly civil-
ized, and slowly progressive, that interest which attends
a more perfect development of human capacities, and
more brilliant advances in improvement. The first
moiety, indeed, of these ten centuries, is almost abso-
lutely barren, and presents little but a catalogue of evils.
The subversion of the Roman empire, and the devas-
tation of its provinces by barbarous nations, either im-
mediately preceded, or were coincident with, the com-
mencement of the middle period. We begin in dark-
ness and calamity, and though the shadows become
fainter as we advance, yet we break off our pursuit as
the morning breathes upon us, and the twilight reddens
into the lustre of day.
FALL OF THE GREEK EMPIRE.
The last great event of the Middle Ages was the
extinction of the Eastern Empire by the capture of
Constantinople. That event seems to have been provi-
dentially delayed till Italy was ripe to nourish the
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 303
scattered seeds of literature, that would have perished a
few ages earlier in the common catastrophe. From
the commencement of the fifteenth century, even the
national pride of Greece could not blind her to the
signs of approaching ruin. From the time that
Michael Palasologus drove the Latins out of Constan-
tinople in 1261, the empire, which had been reduced
to a state of debility before the crusades, being equally
exposed to the depredations of the Christians and the
Turks, preserved only a high-sounding name, while it
tottered on the brink of destruction. The monastic
spirit seemed to quench the last glimmering rays of
common sense. Narrow, superstitious ideas directed
the measures of government, while they did not check
the course of heinous crimes. Andronicus, the son
of Pateologus, suffered himself to be persuaded that
the Greek empire was under the peculiar protection of
Heaven, and, therefore, a fleet was unnecessary for its
defence. For this reason, the country was first rav-
aged by pirates, and then overrun by the Turks. In
the fourteenth century, they crossed the straits into
Europe, took Adrianople, and spread universal terror.
The Sultan Amurath, who achieved this conquest,
established the janizaries on the same footing as that
on which they existed down to the present century.
His son Bajazet, surnamed Ilderim, the Thunderer, was
still more formidable. Conquerors seldom degenerate,
till they reap in peace the delicious fruits of their con-
quests. The whole Greek empire was reduced to
little more than the precincts of Constantinople, yet
discord prevailed in it. The Genoese fomented these
dissensions, and, by means of their fleet, were become
304 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
masters of the trade, and even of part of the city.
The Emperor Andronicus undertook to fortify Con-
stantinople, but Bajazet sent him orders to demolish his
works, and was obeyed, — a presage of unavoidable
and speedy ruin. The Christian princes were alarmed
by the progress of the Turks ; but it was no longer
possible to inspire the European republics, distracted
by wars, and restrained by calculating policy, with the
generous fanaticism of the crusades ; and at the Council .
of Florence, in 1439, the court and church of Con-
stantinople had the mortification of sacrificing their
long cherished faith, without experiencing any sensible
return of protection or security. Their city was be-
sieged by the Turks, and the Emperor Manuel Paloeolo-
gus purchased a show of peace by an annual tribute
of ten thousand pieces of gold, and a permission for
the Turks to build a mosque and establish a cadi to
administer justice, for the benefit of such of their na-
tion as resided in Constantinople.
Mahomet the Second, by whose arms the last fatal
blow was struck at the Greek empire, has been painted
in different colors by his panegyrists and his enemies.
He was unjust and cruel, like most conquerors, but he
showed an elevation of soul and a degree of intellect
which made some amends for these vices. He was a
scholar, yet not redeemed from barbarism. With
some taste for the liberal arts, or, at least, some sense
of the value of their productions, he entertained a
general contempt for their professors. He was a war-
rior and a politician in the most extensive meaning of
the words, and as such he was truly great. His early
life was marked by two instances of uncommon mod-
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 305
eration, in suffering his father to leave his retirement
and again ascend the throne. Whether we consider
the conception or the execution of his enterprises, we
shall find equal cause to admire the extent of his un-
derstanding and the vigor of his spirit. At the head of
a powerful army, and inflamed by the ambition of con-
quest, he meditated the great design of subjugating
that magnificent city, which was now the only remnant
of the empire of Constantine the Great.
The Emperor John Palseologus was succeeded in
1449 by his son Constantine, a prince of courage, but
whose capacity was unequal to the emergencies of the
time, and who was destined to be the last monarch of
his line. Aware of the designs of Mahomet, he took
care to strengthen the fortifications of his capital, and
he made many advances to the sultan in order to in-
duce him to lay aside his project. But Mahomet's
resolution was unalterably fixed, and his whole soul
was absorbed in the design of making Constantinople
the seat of his empire. If he sometimes appeared to
listen to terms of accommodation, it was only that he
might lull his enemy into security, while he carried on
his military preparations with an unwearied assiduity.
Early in 1452 he built a strong fortress on the Bos-
phorus, which the Greeks beheld with dismay. As
yet the two nations were not at open war, but Constan-
tine could not shut his eyes to the danger now directly
impending over him ; and he vainly strove by flattery
and gifts to soften his implacable foe, who sought every
occasion for a rupture. Hostilities could not long be
deferred. The horses of the Turkish cavalry were
turned into the cornfields of the Greeks, and, in a tu-
20
306 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
multuous quarrel which this occasioned, several of both
nations were slain. Mahomet, with eager joy, seized
at once upon this pretext for a quarrel. A massacre
f the Greek peasantry ensued, and the two nations
were at war. Constantino saw that the last great strug-
gle had arrived ; but Mahomet, to strike the decisive
blow with more effect, deferred the siege of Constanti-
nople till the ensuing spring.
The Greeks and the Turks passed an anxious winter.
The former were kept awake by their fears, the latter
by their hopes ; both, by the preparations of defence
and attack ; and the two monarchs, who had the most
to lose or gain, were the most deeply affected by the
national sentiment. In Mahomet, that sentiment was
inflamed by the ardor of his youth and temper ; he
amused his leisure with building, at Adrianople, the
lofty palace of Jehan Numa (the watch-tower of the
world), but his serious thoughts were constantly bent
on the conquest of the city of Caesar. At the dead of
night, he started from his bed, and commanded the
instant attendance of his prime vizier. The message,
the hour, and his own situation alarmed the guilty con-
science of the officer, who had possessed the confi-
dence, and advised the restoration, of Amurath, the
father of Mahomet. On receiving the royal mandate,
he embraced, perhaps for the last time, his wife and
children, filled a cup with pieces of gold, hastened to
the palace, adored the sultan, and offered, according
to the Oriental custom, the slight tribute of his duty
and gratitude. " It is not my wish," said Mahomet,
" to resume my gifts, but rather to heap and multi-
ply them on thy head ; in my turn, I ask a present
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 307
for more valuable and important, — Constantinople."
As soon as the vizier had recovered from his sur-
prise, he replied, " The God, who has already given
thee so large a portion of the Roman empire, will not
deny the remnant and the capital. His providence
and thy power assure thy success ; and myself, with the
rest of thy faithful slaves, will sacrifice our lives and
fortunes." " Lala " (or preceptor), continued the
sultan, " do you see this pillow ? all night, in my agi-
tation, I have pulled it on the one side and on the
other ; I have risen from my bed ; again have I laid
down, yet sleep has not visited these weary eyes. Be-
ware of the gold and silver of the Romans ; in arms
we are superior ; and, with the aid of God, and the
prayers of the Prophet, we shall speedily become mas-
ters of Constantinople."
To sound the disposition of his soldiers, Mahomet
often wandered through the streets alone and in dis-
guise ; and it was fatal to discover the sultan when he
wished to escape from the .vulgar eye. His hours were
spent in delineating the plan of the hostile city ; in de-
bating, with his generals and engineers, on what spot
he should erect his batteries, on which side he should
assault the walls, where he should spring his mines,
to what place he should apply his scaling-ladders ; and
the exercise of the day repeated and proved the lucu-
brations of the night.
Among the implements of destruction, he studied
with peculiar care the recent and important discovery
of gunpowder, and his artillery surpassed whatever
had yet appeared in the world. A founder of cannon,
a Dane, or Hungarian, named Urban, who had been
3U» MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
almost starved in the Greek service, deserted to the
Moslems, and was liberally entertained by the sultan.
Mahomet was satisfied with the answer to his first
question, which he eagerly pressed on the artist, " Am
I able to cast a cannon capable of throwing a ball or
stone of sufficient size to batter the walls of Constanti-
nople ? " " I am not ignorant," the artist replied, " of
their strength, but, were they more solid than those of
Babylon, I could oppose an engine of superior power;
the position and management of that engine must be
left to your engineers." On this assurance a foundery
was established at Adrianople, the metal was prepared,
and, at the end of three months, Urban produced a
piece of brass ordnance of stupendous and almost in-
credible magnitude ; it being capable of throwing a
stone bullet weighing above six hundred pounds. A
vacant place before the new palace was chosen for the
first experiment ; but, to prevent the sudden and mis-
chievous effects of astonishment and fear, a proclama-
tion was issued, that the cannon would be discharged
the ensuing day. The explosion was felt or heard in
the circuit of a hundred furlongs ; the ball was driven
above a mile, and on the spot where it fell it buried it-
self a fathom deep in the ground. For the conveyance
of this destructive engine, a frame or carriage of thirty
wagons was linked together, and drawn by a team of
sixty oxen ; two hundred men on both sides were
stationed to poise and support the rolling weight ; two
hundred and fifty workmen marched before to smooth
the way and prepare the bridges ; and near two months
were employed in a laborious journey of one hundred
and fifty miles. This enormous engine was flanked
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 309
by two cannon of almost equal magnitude ; the long
order of the Turkish artillery was pointed against the
walls ; fourteen batteries thundered at once on the
most accessible places, and of one of these it is stated
that it discharged one hundred and thirty balls. Yet,
in the power and activity of the sultan, we may dis-
cern the infancy of the new science. Under a master
who counted the moments, the great cannon could be
loaded and fired no more than seven times in one day.
The heated metal unfortunately burst, several work-
men were destroyed, and the skill of an artist was ad-
mired, who found a way to prevent the danger of a
recurrence of the accident, by pouring oil, after each
discharge, into the mouth of the cannon.
The first random shots were productive of more
sound than execution, and it was by the advice of a
Christian, that the engineers were taught to level their
aim against the two opposite sides of the salient angles
of a bastion. The weight and repetition of the fire
made some impression on the walls, and the Turks,
pushing their approaches to the edge of the ditch, at-
tempted to fill the enormous chasm, and to build a road
to the assault. Innumerable fascines, and hogsheads,
and trunks of trees, were heaped on each other, and
such was the impetuosity of the throng, that the fore-
most and the weakest were pushed headlong down the
precipice, and instantly buried under the accumulated
mass. To fill the ditch was the toil of the besiegers ;
to clear away the rubbish was the safety of the be-
sieged, and, after a long and bloody conflict, the work
that had been performed in the day was demolished in
the night.
310 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
Mahomet's next resource was the expedient of min-
ing ; but the soil was rocky ; in every attempt he was
stopped and undermined by the Christian engineers;
nor had the art been yet invented, of replenishing those
subterraneous passages with gunpowder, and blowing
whole towns and cities into the air. A circumstance
that distinguished the siege of Constantinople is the
union of the ancient and modern artillery. The can-
non were intermingled with the mechanical engines for
casting stones and darts ; the bullet and the battering-
ram were directed against the same walls ; nor had the
discovery of gunpowder superseded the use of the
Greek fire. A wooden turret of the largest size was
advanced on rollers ; this portable magazine of am-
munition and fascines was protected by a threefold cov-
ering of bull's hides ; and incessant volleys were se-
curely discharged from the loop-holes. In the front,
three doors were contrived for the alternate sally and
retreat of the soldiers and workmen. They ascended
by a staircase to the upper platform, and as high as the
level of that platform a scaling-ladder could be raised
by pulleys, to form a bridge and grapple with the ad-
verse rampart. By these various arts of annoyance,
some as new as they were fatal to the Greeks, the tow-
er of St. Romanus was at length overturned. After a
severe struggle, the Turks were repulsed from the
breach, and interrupted by darkness ; but they trusted,
that, with the return of light, they should renew the
attack with fresh vigor and decisive success. Of this
pause of action, this interval of hope, each moment
was improved by the activity of the emperor, and
Giustiniani, the commander of a body of Genoese,
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 311
who passed the night on the spot, and urged the labors
which involved the safety of the city. At the dawn
of day, the impatient sultan perceived, with astonish-
ment and grief, that his wooden turret had been re-
duced to ashes ; the ditch was cleared and restored,
and the tower of St. Romanus was again strong and
entire. He deplored the failure of his design, and
uttered a profane exclamation, that the word of the
thirty -seven thousand prophets should not have com-
pelled him to believe that such a work, in so short a
time, could have been accomplished by the infidels.
The reduction of the city appeared to be hopeless,
unless a double attack could be made, from the har-
bour as well as from the land ; but the harbour was
closed by a strong chain, and defended by eight large
ships, more than twenty of a smaller size, and several
galleys and sloops. In this perplexity, the genius of
Mahomet conceived and executed a plan of a bold and
marvellous cast, of transporting by land his lighter
vessels and military stores from the Bosphorus into the
higher part of the harbour. The distance was about
ten miles ; the ground was uneven, and overspread
with thickets. A level way was covered with a broad
platform of strong and solid planks, and, to render them
more slippery, they were anointed with the fat of
sheep and oxen. Eighty light galleys and brigantines
of fifty and thirty oars were drawn upon the shore of
the Bosphorus, arranged successively on rollers, and
transported upon this railroad by the power of men
and pulleys. Two guides or pilots were stationed at
the helm and the prow of each vessel ; the sails were
unfurled to the winds, and the labor was cheered by
312 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
song and acclamation. In the course of a single night,
this Turkish fleet painfully climbed the hill, steered
over the plain, and was launched from the declivity
into the shallow waters of the harbour, far above the
molestation of the deeper vessels of the Greeks. The
real importance of this operation was magnified by the
consternation and confidence which it inspired ; but the
notorious, unquestionable fact was displayed before
the eyes, and is recorded by the pens, of the two na-
tions.
As soon as Mahomet had occupied the upper har-
bour with a fleet and army, he constructed, in the nar-
rowest part, a bridge, or rather mole, of fifty cubits in
breadth, and one hundred in length ; it was formed of
casks and hogsheads joined with rafters linked with
iron, and covered with a solid floor. On this floating
battery he planted one of his largest cannon, while the
galleys, with troops and scaling-ladders, approached
the most accessible side, which had formerly been
stormed by the Latin conquerors. The Christians have
been accused of indolence for not destroying these
unfinished works, but their fire was controlled and
silenced by the superior fire of the enemy ; nor were
they wanting in a nocturnal attempt to burn the vessels,
as well as the bridge of the sultan. His vigilance
prevented their approach ; their foremost galleys were
sunk or taken ; forty youths, the bravest of Italy and
Greece, were inhumanly massacred at his command ;
nor could the emperor's grief be assuaged by the just
though cruel retaliation of exposing from the walls
the heads of two hundred and sixty Mussulman cap-
tives. After a siege of forty days, the fate of Constan-
tinople could no longer be averted.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 313
In the great and general attack, the military judg-
ment and astrological knowledge of Mahomet advised
him to wait till the morning, the memorable twenty-
ninth of May, in the fourteen hundred and fifty-third
year of the Christian era. The preceding night had
been actively employed ; the troops, the cannon, and
the fascines were advanced to the edge of the ditch,
which, in many parts, presented a smooth and level
passage to the breach, and his fourscore galleys almost
touched, with their prows and their scaling-ladders, the
less defensible walls of the harbour. Under pain of
death, silence was enjoined, but the physical laws of
motion and sound are not obediem to discipline or fear.
Each individual might suppress his voice, and measure
his footsteps, but the march and labor of thousands
must inevitably produce a strange confusion of disso-
nant clamors, which reached the ears of the watch-
men on the towers. At daybreak, without the custom-
ary signal of the morning gun, the Turks assaulted the
city by sea and land ; and the similitude of a twined
or twisted thread has been applied to the closeness and
continuity of their line of attack. The foremost ranks
consisted of the refuse of the host, a voluntary crowd,
who fought without order or command ; of the feeble-
ness of age or childhood, of peasants and vagrants, and
of all who had joined the camp in the blind hope of
plunder and martyrdom. The common impulse drove
them onwards to the wall ; the most audacious to climb
were instantly precipitated ; and not a dart or bullet
of the Christians was idly wasted on the accumulating
throng. But their strength and ammunition were ex-
hausted in this laborious defence ; the ditch was filled
314 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
with the bodies of the slain ; they supported the U i
steps of their companions, and of this devoted va
guard the death was more serviceable than the life.
Under their respective bashaws and sanjaks, the troops
of Anatolia and Romania were successively led to the
charge ; their progress was various and doubtful, but,
after a conflict of two hours, the Greeks still maintain-
ed and improved their advantage ; and the voice of
the emperor was heard encouraging his soldiers to
achieve, by a last effort, the deliverance of their coun-
try. At that fatal moment, the janizaries arose, fresh,
vigorous, and invincible. The sultan himself, on
horseback, with an Won mace in his hand, was the
spectator and judge of their valor ; he was surrounded
by ten thousand of his domestic troops, whom he re-
served for the decisive occasion ; and the tide of bat-
tle was directed and impelled by his voice and eye.
His numerous ministers of justice were posted behind
the line, to urge, to restrain, and to punish ; and if
danger was in the front, shame and inevitable death
were in the rear of the fugitives. The cries of fear
and of pain were drowned in the martial music of
drums, trumpets, and atabals ; and experience has
proved that the mechanical operation of sounds, by
quickening the circulation of the blood and spirits, will
act on the human machine more forcibly than the elo-
quence of reason and honor. From the lines, the
galleys, and the bridge, the Ottoman artillery thunder-
ed on all sides ; and the camp and city, the Greeks
and Turks, were involved in a cloud of smoke, which
could only be dispelled by the final deliverance or de-
struction of the empire.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 315
The immediate loss of Constantinople may be as-
cribed to the bullet or arrow which pierced the gaunt-
let of John Giustiniani. The sight of his blood, and
the exquisite pain, appalled the courage of the chief,
whose arms and counsels were the firmest rampart of
the city. As he withdrew from his station in quest of
a surgeon, his flight was perceived and stopped by the
indefatigable emperor. " Your wound," exclaimed
Palseologus, " is slight ; the danger is pressing ; your
presence is necessary ; and whither will you retire ? "
" I will retire," said the trembling Genoese, " by the
same road which God has opened to the Turks " ; and
with these words he hastily passed through one of the
breaches of the inner wall. By this pusillanimous act
he stained the honors of a military life ; and the few
days which he survived in Galata, or the isle of Chios,
were embittered by his own and the public reproach.
His example was imitated by the greater part of the
Latin auxiliaries ; and the defence began to slacken,
when the attack was pressed with redoubled vigor.
The number of the Ottomans was fifty, perhaps a
hundred, times superior to that of the Christians ; the
double walls were reduced by the cannon to a heap of
ruins ; in a circuit of several miles, some place must
be found more easy of access, or more feebly guarded ;
and, if the besiegers could penetrate at a single point,
the whole city was irrecoverably lost. The first who
deserved the Sultan's reward, was Hassan, the jani-
zary, of gigantic stature and strength. With his
scimitar in one hand, and his buckler in the other, he
ascended the outer fortification. Of the thirty jan-
izaries who were emulous of his valor, eighteen per-
316 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
ished in the bold adventure. Hassan and his twelve
companions had reached the summit ; the giant was
precipitated from the rampart ; he rose on one knee,
and was again overwhelmed by a shower of darts and
stones. But his success had proved that the achieve-
ment was possible ; the walls and towers were instantly
covered with a swarm of Turks ; and the Greeks, now
driven from their vantage ground, were overwhelmed
by increasing multitudes. Amidst these multitudes, the
emperor, who accomplished all the duties of a gen-
eral and a soldier, was long seen, and finally lost. The
nobles, who fought round his person, sustained till their
last breath the honorable names of Palseologus and
Cantacuzene. His mournful exclamation was heard,
" Cannot there be found a Christian to cut off my
head ? " and his last fear was that of falling alive into
the hands of the infidels. In prudent despair, Constan-
tine cast away the purple ; amidst the tumult, he fell
by an unknown hand, and his body was buried under a
mountain of the slain. After his death, resistance and
order were no more ; the Greeks fled towards the city,
and many were pressed and stifled in the narrow pass
of the gate of St. Romanus. The victorious Turks
rushed through the breaches of the inner wall, and, as
they advanced into the streets, they were soon joined
by their brethren, who had forced the gate Phenar, on
the side of the harbour. It was thus, after a siege of
fifty-three days, that Constantinople, which had defied
the power of Chosroes, the Chagan, and the Caliphs,
was irretrievably subdued by the arms of Mahomet the
Second. Her empire only had been subverted by the
Latins ; her religion was trampled in the dust by the
Moslem conquerors.
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 317
The tidings of misfortune fly with a rapid wing, yet
such was the extent of Constantinople, that the more
distant quarters might prolong some moments the happy
ignorance of their ruin. On receiving assurance of
the public calamity, the houses and convents were in-
stantly deserted, and the trembling inhabitants flocked
together in the streets like a herd of timid animals ;
as if accumulated weakness could be productive of
strength, or in the vain hope, that, amid the crowd, each
individual might be safe and invisible. From every part
of the capital, they thronged into the church of St.
Sophia ; in the space of an hour, the sanctuary, the
choir, the nave, the upper and lower galleries, were
filled with the multitude of fathers and husbands, of
women and children, of priests, monks, and religious
virgins. The doors were barred on the inside, and
they sought protection from the sacred dome. Their
confidence was founded on the prophecy of an enthu-
siast or impostor, that one day the Turks would enter
Constantinople, and pursue the Romans as far as the
column of Constantine, in the square before St. So-
phia, but that this would be the term of their calami-
ties ; that an angel would descend from heaven with a
sword in his hand, and would deliver the empire with
that celestial weapon to a poor man seated at the foot
of the column. " Take this sword," he would say,
" and avenge the people of the Lord ! " at these words
the Turks would instantly fly.
"While they expected the descent of the tardy angel,
the doors were broken with axes, and, as the Turks
encountered no resistance, their bloodless hands were
employed in selecting and securing the multitude of
318 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
their prisoners. Youth, beauty, and the appearance
of wealth, attracted their choice ; and the right of
property was decided among themselves by a prior
seizure, by personal strength, and by the authority of
command. In the space of an hour, the male captives
were bound with cords, the females with their veils
and girdles. The senators were linked with their
slaves ; the prelates with the porters of the church ;
and young men of a plebeian class with noble maids
whose faces had been invisible to the sun and their
nearest kindred. Of these unfortunate Greeks, of
these domestic animals, whole strings were rudely
driven through the streets; and, as the conquerors
were eager to return for more prey, their trembling
pace was quickened with menaces and blows. At the
same hour, a similar rapine was exercised in all the
churches and monasteries, in all the palaces and habi-
tations of the capital ; nor could any place, however
sacred or sequestered, protect the persons or the
property of the Greeks. Above sixty thousand of this
devoted people wen- transported from the city to the
camp and fleet, exchanged or sold according to the
caprice or interest of their masters, and dispersed in
remote servitude, through the provinces of the Ottoman
empire.
From the first hour of the memorable twenty-ninth
of May, disorder and rapine prevailed in Constantino-
ple, till the eighth hour of the same day, when the sul-
tan himself passed in triumph through the gate of St.
Romanus. He was attended by his viziers, bashaws,
and guards, each of whom (says a Byzantine historian)
was robust as Hercules, dexterous as Apollo, and
MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES. 319
equal in battle to any ten of the ordinary race of mor-
tals. The conqueror gazed with satisfaction and won-
der on the strange though splendid appearance of the
domes and palaces, so dissimilar to the style of Orien-
tal architecture. In the hippodrome or atmeidan,
his eye was attracted by the famous twisted column
of the three serpents ; and, as a trial of his strength,
he shattered with his iron mace, or battle-axe, the under
jaw of one of these monsters, which, in the eyes of
the Turks, were the idols or talismans of the city. At
the principal door of St. Sophia, he alighted from his
horse and entered the dome ; and, such was his jealous
regard for that monument of his glory, that, on ob-
serving a zealous Mussulman in the act of breaking
the marble pavement, he admonished him, with his
scimitar, that, if the spoil and captives were granted to
the soldiers, the public and private buildings had been
reserved for the prince. By his command, the me-
tropolitan church of the East was transformed into a
mosque ; the rich and portable instruments of super-
stition had been removed ; the crosses were thrown
down ; and the walls, which were covered with images
and mosaics, were washed and purified, and restored to
a state of naked simplicity. On the same day, or on
the ensuing Friday, the muezzin or crier ascended the
most lofty turret and proclaimed the ezan, or public
invitation, in the name of God and his Prophet ; the
imam preached, and Mahomet the Second performed
the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving on the great
altat where the Christian mysteries had so lately been
celebrated before the last of the Csesars. From St.
Sophia, he proceeded to the august but desolate man-
320 MISCELLANEOUS SKETCHES.
sion of a hundred successors of the great Constan-
tine, but which, in a few hours, had been stripped of
the pomp of royalty. A melancholy reflection on
the vicissitudes of human greatness forced itself on
his mind, and he repeated an elegant distich of Per-
sian poetry : " The spider has wove his web in the
imperial palace ; and the owl hath sung her watch-
song on the towers of Afrasiab."
Sanguinary as Mahomet was, the manner in which
he treated the vanquished did him honor. He left the
Greeks in possession of several churches, restrained
the fury of the soldiery, gave the emperor a magnifi-
cent funeral, and rendered Constantinople flourishing.
The capture of the city filled Europe with alarm.
Yet no serious attempt was made for the expulsion of
the Turks. Mahomet subjugated Trebizond, where the
name of a Greek empire still subsisted, carried his
arms as far as Trieste, and threatened Venice. His
lieutenants took Otranto, and penetrated into Calabria.
Universal consternation prevailed in Europe, when his
career of victory was cut short by a sudden death.
He died in 1481, at an age when he was yet capable
of executing the greatest enterprises.
END.
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