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 LIBRARY 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
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 SANTA BARBARA 
 
 FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 MRS. H. RUSSELL AMORY. 
 
 GIFT OF HER CHILDREN 
 R. W. AND NINA PARTRIDGE,
 
 
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 HISTORICAL 
 
 PARALLELS. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 CHARLES KNIGHT & Co., LUDGATE STREET. 
 
 1846.
 
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONs, 
 STAMFORD STREET.
 
 D 
 
 10 
 
 V. I CONTENTS. 
 
 H2(> 
 
 Page 
 
 Introduction . . " 5 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Mythic period of Grecian history — Savage state of Greece 
 compared with that of Scandinavia — Anecdotes of 
 Northern warriors — Hercules — Theseus — State of 
 Greece in their time, illustrated by that of England 
 subsequent to the Conquest — Argonautic expedition 
 — Theban war — Story of Don Pedro of Castile — 
 Trojan war 11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Aristomenes — Hereward le Wake — Wallace ... 40 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Treatment of Prisoners of War — Croesus — Roman Tri- 
 umphs — Sapor and Valerian — Imprisonment of 
 Bajazet — His treatment of the Marshal Boucicaut 
 and his Companions — Changes produced by the- 
 advance of Civilization — Effect of Feudal Institu- 
 tions — Anecdote from Froissart — Conduct of the 
 Black Prince towards the Constable Du Gwesclin 
 and the King of France 77 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Tyranny of Cambyses, terminating in madness — of 
 Caligula— of the Emperor Paul , ... , .11
 
 IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Page 
 Early changes in the Athenian constitution — Murder 
 of Cylon — Fatalism — Usurpation of Pisistratus — 
 His policy — Hippias and Hipparchus — Conspiracy 
 of Harraodius and Aristogiton — Expulsion of Hip- 
 pias — Cosmo de* Medici, Lorenzo and Giuliano 
 de' Medici — Conspiracy of the Pazzi . . . .153 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 Invasion of Scythia by Darius — Destruction of Crassus 
 and his army by the Parthians — Retreat of An- 
 tony — Retreat and death of Julian — Retreat from 
 Moscow 190
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Works of history may be divided into two great classes : 
 those which select a single action or a detached period 
 for their subject ; and those which follow a nation 
 through the whole or a large portion of its existence ; 
 and which, embracing a number of such subjects, com- 
 pensate for giving less minute and accurate information 
 upon each, by explaining their relation, and the influence 
 which thoy have exerted upon each other. To the 
 former belong Thucydides, Xonophon, and Ceesar ; to 
 the latter Diodorus and Livy : or, in English literature, 
 we may take Clarendon and Hume respectively as the 
 representatives of these divisions. It is obvious that the 
 method of treating themes so different in character, must 
 also be essentially different ; that for an historian of the 
 latter class to aim at the particularity which we expect 
 in the former, would involve something of the same 
 absurdity as if a landscape painter were to give to an 
 extended horizon the distinctness and detail which are 
 proper lo his foregrounds or to a closely bounded scene. 
 If our curiosity is not satisfied by a comprehensive view, 
 the remedy is to be found by multiplying pictures of its 
 most striking parts, not by introducing into one canvas 
 a multitude of objects which must fatigue and confuse 
 the mind, and obscure those leading features which ought 
 to stand out in prominent relief. Any one who wished 
 to become acquainted with the nature and characteristics 
 of a country, which he could not survey personally, 
 
 VOL. I. B '
 
 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 would neither confine his inspection to bircrs-e3^e.7and 
 panoramic views, nor content himself with a series 
 of detached paintings, though representing separately 
 whatever was most worthy of observation : in the one 
 case his ideas, though perhaps correct, would neces- 
 sarily be slight and superficial ; in the other, his know- 
 ledge of the parts would never enable him to form an 
 accurate judgment of the whole. 
 
 Valuable, therefore, as is the assistance of those 
 authors who have devoted their talents and learning to 
 epitomizing and rendering accessible the story of past 
 ages, it is far from desirable that we should content our- 
 selves with a blind trust in them, without checking their 
 assertions, and filling up their sketches by a more detailed 
 knowledge than it is possible for them to communicate. 
 To apply these observations to the present work, the 
 History of Greece contained in the Librarj- of Useful 
 Knowledge necessarily gives a very short account of 
 many things v.hich deserve to be known in detail, both 
 on account of their historical notoriety and for the in- 
 trinsic value which they possess as striking examples of 
 human power, passion, and suffering. Much of the ex- 
 cessive commendation which has been bestowed upon 
 ancient virtue and patriotism ought probably to be attri- 
 buted to the eager interest naturally excited by the re- 
 vival of learning and the peculiar circumstances under 
 which it took place. The discovery of the works of the 
 most celebrated writers of antiquity, whose names at 
 least had not been forgotten, must at any time have pro- 
 duced much curiosity and excitement : and peculiarly so 
 when modern literature did not yet possess many names 
 to divide the palm of genius with them. Besides this 
 the political circumstances of the Italian states, in which 
 the new discoveries were at first most successfully and 
 generally prosecuted, would give an additional interest 
 and a peculiar bias to the study of ancient literature ; 
 for their inhabitants would naturally be disposed, as 
 Italians, to exult in the glories of ancient Italy, and as 
 republicans to look for patterns both of polity and of 
 conduct among the famous republics of Greece and Ixomc.
 
 I>TRODUCTIOX. / 
 
 A contrary cause, in a later age, and in countries subject 
 to arbitrary power, would probably conduce to the con- 
 tinuance of the same feeling, when the prevalent subjec- 
 tion of public opinion made it safer to enforce sentiments 
 of freedom and pati-iotism under the mask of an over- 
 strained admiration for actions, frecjuently of very ques- 
 tionable character, done in times long past, than openly 
 to profess the love of republican simplicity and liberty, 
 which was willingly left to be inferred. The usual 
 course of education long tended, and in an inferior 
 degree perhaps still tends, to cherish the same indis- 
 criminate enthusiasm. The first histories put into the 
 hands of children are usually those of Greece and Rome, 
 taken not from the sober and comparatively unprejudiced 
 relations of the earliest authorities, but from Plutarch, 
 and other compilers of a later age, who, living themselves 
 under despotic power, and compelled to veil their 
 philosophical aspirations after a better state of polity and 
 morals under extravagant praises of a by-gone period of 
 imaginary virtue and disinterestedness, were for the most 
 
 *o' 
 
 ly 
 
 part ready to warp truth into correspondence with their 
 own views. In such works actions are held up to admi- 
 ration because they are brilliant, without much inquiry 
 whether they were justifiable ; wanton and unjust 
 aggressions, and other crimes of still deeper dye, are 
 g-lossed over upon some false plea of patriotism ; or their 
 moral quality is never alluded to, and the young reader 
 is too much captivated by the splendour of bravery and 
 talent, to remember that the ends to wdiich these gifts 
 are directed should never be forgotten in estimating 
 their claim to applause.* But w^hatever be our opinion 
 
 * A striking instance of this occurs in Justin. Speaking 
 of Havmodius and Aristogiton (see chap, v.), he says, " One 
 of the murderers, being put to the torture to extract the 
 names of his accomplices, enumerated all the nearest friends 
 of Hippias. These were all put to death, and being asked 
 whether any others were jn-ivy to his designs, he answered, 
 that now none remained whom he wished to perish, except 
 the tyrant himself. The eit}-, admonished by his virtue, 
 expelled Hippias." — Lib. ii. 9". The virtue of this act con-
 
 8 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 touching Grecian and Roman virtue, or the moral cha- 
 racter of the most celebrated portions of their history, 
 these have obtained a degree of currency and notoriety 
 which render familiar acquaintance with them almost 
 necessary for the full understanding of much even of 
 modern literature. The object of this work is to supply, 
 in part, these details from the original historians, and to 
 compare or contrast them with other remarkable inci- 
 dents of ancient or modern times ; in hope of forming a 
 collection of narratives of some interest to those who are 
 not largely read in history. And even those who are 
 in some degree familiar with the] subjects here treated, 
 but whose knowledge is chiefly drawn from compilations 
 of modern date, may be gratified by the variety in style, 
 feelings, and opinions observable in a collection oi ex- 
 tracts from authors of various dates and nations. 
 
 We have selected from the Grecian History, in chro- 
 nological order, as furnishing the readiest principle of 
 arrangement, a series of occurrences of which some have 
 obtained remarkable notoriety ; some, being less known, 
 are either striking in themselves, or characteristic of the 
 age and people to which they belong ; and finally some, 
 with less intrinsic value, may serve to introduce curious 
 or instructive matter of comparison. To every person 
 well acquainted with the subject, many things will proba- 
 bly occur, of which the omission may be regretted. Com- 
 pleteness, however, is evidently unattainable in an under- 
 taking of this sort, and the passages taken from Grecian 
 history have necessarily been regulated in part by the cor- 
 respondences which presented themselves in the histories 
 of other nations. It has been our object to draw ex- 
 amples from a great variety of sources ; from different 
 countries, in different ages, and in different states of 
 
 sisted in sacrificing innocent lives to his revenge, by means 
 of a lying accusation : and the stern endurance of this man 
 is dignified with the praise of fortitude and patriotism, with- 
 out the slightest reference to its atrocious injustice. The 
 story itself rests upon Justin's authority, and may reasonably 
 be rejected as an improbable fiction. _;
 
 INTRODUCTION^. 9 
 
 civilization : and to show that no particular virtues or 
 vices have been inherent in any age or nation : believing 
 that human nature and human passions are everywhere 
 alike, and that the great difFerences in national character 
 are mainly to be ascribed to external circumstances and 
 training. Comparisons of contrast, therefore, are no less 
 valuable than comparisons of resemblance, when we can 
 trace the causes which have produced a difference in 
 conduct. It only remains to add, that we have not 
 always thought it necessary to require a close analogy 
 either of motives or of actions. 
 
 The instances chosen have not been very strictly con- 
 fined to what rests upon undoubted testimony. Perhaps 
 we learn little less of the habits and opinions of men, from 
 ascertaining what they have believed of others, than from 
 knowing what they have done themselves ; and, there- 
 fore, even works of fiction may be resorted to in some 
 degree, care being taken to distinguish the character of 
 the authorities. For example, we should have no hesi- 
 tation in quoting even from the Mort d'Arthur, and still 
 more from the earlier romances on which it is founded, 
 in illustration of the manners of the twelfth and thir- 
 teenth centuries, in which those romances were written ; 
 or, though on different grounds, the admirable narratives 
 of the plagues of Florence and London by Boccaccio and 
 Defoe, which probably are no less trustworthy for the 
 character of the narrative, and in a great degree for the 
 facts themselves, than Thucydides' description of the 
 plague at Athens. Again, there is a sort of debateable 
 ground, where genuine history begins to gain the as- 
 cendant over fable, as in the case of Aristomenes and 
 Wallace, where we cannot tell, nor is it important to know, 
 the exact measure of truth contained in the legends con- 
 cerning them. The outlines of their lives we have reason 
 to believe to be correct, and rejecting from their exploits 
 all that is grossly improbable, the remainder will furnish 
 us with a sufficiently clear idea of the accomplishments 
 and adventures of a warrior of their respective ages. 
 The poem of Blind Harry abounds in improbable 
 fictions, but much more information concerning Wallace
 
 10 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 and his contemporaries may be gained from it than from 
 the meagre chronicles which composed the graver 
 literature of the age. From such sources, therefore, we 
 shall not scruple to borrow, though not without adver- 
 tising the reader of their nature, and endeavouring, 
 where necessary, to draw the boundary line between 
 truth and fiction. 
 
 For reasons above stated, our extracts have usually 
 been taken from contemporary authors, or at least from 
 the earliest authorities extant. Where this rule has 
 been departed from, it is because the originals offer no 
 striking passages to select, and are too prolix to be 
 given entire. In this case, condensation becomes neces- 
 sary, and we have gladly availed ourselves of the labours 
 of others who have already performed that task, in pre- 
 ference to seeking novelty at the expense perhaps .'of 
 accuracy or elegance. For the same reason existing 
 translations have been used, M'henever a good translation 
 of the particular passage could be found. Where none 
 such occurred, we have endeavoured to adhere closely to 
 our author, and even where his narrative has been much 
 compressed, to give, as far as was possible, not only his 
 substance, but his w^ords.
 
 ( il ) 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Mythic period of Grecian history — Savage state of Greece 
 compared with that of Scandinavia — Anecdotes of North- 
 ern warriors — Hercules — Theseus — State of Greece in 
 their time, illustrated by that of England subsequent to 
 the Conquest — Argonautic expedition — Theban war — 
 Story of Don Pedro of Castile — Trojan war. 
 
 The traditions from which our knowledge of what is 
 called the mythic age of Greece, or the age of fable, 
 from the earliest notices of it to the Trojan war, is 
 almost entirely derived, furnish few materials for a 
 work like this, for where everything is misty and un- 
 defined, there can be little opportunity for comparison. 
 The wonderful poetic talent displayed in their narra- 
 tion and embellishment has, however, given them a 
 place in history, and an importance otherwise unde- 
 served, and men study the actions and genealogy of an 
 Achaian prince, as gravely as if he had been really the 
 descendant of Jupiter, and the conqueror of monsters 
 and oppressors innumei'able. It becomes the more
 
 12 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 interesting therefore to inquire into the actual condi- 
 tion of Greece in its earliest times, and ascertain, if 
 possible, whether the godlike men, sprung from the 
 Gods, of whose superhuman powers and exploits suc- 
 ceeding ages have read, until by the mere force of 
 repetition they have half believed them, had in reality 
 any advantage over barbarians of other races and re- 
 gions. To guide us in the inquiry we have two sorts of 
 information, totally distinct in their nature : the meagre 
 notices of authentic history, and a copious store ot 
 mythological and poetical legends. So far as the for- 
 mer is available, we have no reason to think that the 
 heroic age had much advantage over those dark times 
 in which the foundations of modern Europe were laid. 
 Passing over the account given by Thucydides of the 
 earliest inhabitants of Greece as being applicable to 
 any savage race, in the next stage of society, when the 
 arts had somewhat advanced, in the reign of JNIinos, the 
 first person perhaps of whom any rational and credible 
 account is given, a code of honour existed which made 
 strength not only the first but the sum-total of all vir- 
 tues, and filled the sea with pirates and the land with 
 robbers. 
 
 "Minos was the most ancient of all that by report 
 we know to have built a navy, and he made himself 
 master of the now Grecian sea, and both commanded the 
 Isles called Cyclades,* and also was the first who sent 
 colonies into most of the same, expelling thence the 
 Carians, and constituting his own sons there for go- 
 vernors, and also freed the sea from pirates as much as 
 he could, for the better coming in, as is likely, of his 
 own revenue. 
 
 " For the Grecians in old time and such barbariansf 
 as in the continent lived near unto the sea or else in- 
 habited the islands, when they began more often to 
 cross over to one another in ships, became thieves, and 
 
 * The cluster of the Archipelago nearest Attica. 
 f The Greeks called all other nations barbarians, which 
 generally means no more than people of a different stock.
 
 MYTHIC PERIOD. 13 
 
 went abroad under the conduct of their most puissant 
 men, both to enrich themselves and to fetch in main- 
 tenance for the weak : and falling upon towns unfortified, 
 and scatteringly inhabited, rifled them, and made this 
 the best means of their living- ; being at that time a mat- 
 ter nowhere in disgrace, but rather carrying with it 
 something of glory. This is manifest by some that 
 dwell on the continent, among whom, so it be per- 
 formed nobly, it is still esteemed as an ornament. The 
 same also is proved by some of the ancient poets, who 
 introduce men questioning such as sail by, on all coasts 
 alike, whether they be thieves or not ;* as a thing 
 neither scorned by such as were asked, nor upbraided 
 by those that were desirous to know. They also robbed 
 one another within the main land : and much of Greece 
 useth that old custom, as the Locrians called Ozolse 
 (or Stinkards), the Acarnanians, and those of the con- 
 tinent in that quarter unto this day. Moreover the 
 fashion of wearing iron remainoth yet with the people 
 of that continent from their old trade of thieving. 
 
 " For once they were wont throughout all Greece 
 to go armed, because their houses were unfenced and 
 travelling unsafe, and accustomed themselves like the 
 barbarians to the ordinary wearing of their armour. 
 And the nations of Greece that live so yet, do testify 
 that the same manner of life was anciently universal to 
 all the rest.'-}- 
 
 A condition of society identical with that described 
 in the latter part of this extract still exists among the 
 Curdish and Caucasian and other Asiatic mountaineers, 
 and existed till lately in the Scottish Highlands. But 
 descriptions of the latter have been multiplied, until 
 
 * So Nestor addresses Telemachus, " Strangers, who are 
 3'ou, from whence do you navigate the watery way ? Is it 
 with any settled purpose, or do you roam at liazard like rob- 
 bers over the sea, who wander wagering their o^Tn lives, 
 bearing evil to others ?" Odyss. iii. 71. 
 
 t Thucyd. book i. chap. 4, 5, 6. We use Hobbes' trans- 
 lation.
 
 14 HISTORICAL PAKALLELS. 
 
 they have become familiar in men's mouths as household 
 terms ; and we pass in preference to a less hackneyed 
 subject. In the eighth and ninth centuries the piratical 
 spirit of ancient Greece was revived among- those fierce 
 Danes and Norwegians, who led a life of constant rapine 
 and bloodshed ; of interminable warfare at home, of 
 Irightful devastation abroad. " The Sea-kings of the 
 North were a race of beings whom Europe beheld with 
 horror. Without a yard of territorial property, with 
 no wealth but their ships, no force but their crews, and 
 no hope but from their swords, they swarmed upon the 
 boisterous ocean, and plundered in every district that 
 
 they could approach It is declared to have been 
 
 a law or custom in the North, that one of the male 
 children should be selected to remain at home to inherit 
 the government. The rest were exiled to the ocean, to 
 wield their sceptres amid the turbulent waters. The 
 consent of the northern societies entitled all men of 
 royal descent, who assumed piracy as a profession, to 
 enjoy the name of kings, though they possessed no 
 territory. The sea-kings had the same honour, but they 
 w^ere only a portion of those pirates, or viking?-, who in 
 the ninth centurj^ were covering the ocean. Not only 
 the children of the kings, but every man of importance 
 equipped ships, and roamed the seas to acquire property 
 by force. Pirac}^ was not only the most honourable 
 occupation and the best harvest of wealth ; it was not 
 only consecrated to public estim.ation by the illustrious 
 who pursued it, but no one was esteemed noble, no one 
 was respected, who did not return in the winter to his 
 home with ships laden with booty."* Part of the 
 regulations of a band of pirates is preserved by Bartho- 
 linus, and may serve as a specimen of the better class, 
 though the reader may not be inclined to agree with 
 him in considering them as men " devoted to virtue, 
 bravery, and humanity, rather than to the oppression of 
 innocent persons." These regulations were called the 
 Constitutions of King Half. ''No one might wear a 
 
 * Turner, An^.-Sax.
 
 NORTHERN WARRIORS. 15 
 
 sword more than an ell in length, that they might be 
 compelled to close in battle. Each was to be equal in 
 strength to twelve ordinary men. They made prisoners 
 neither women nor boys. None was to bind his wounds 
 until the lapse of twenty hours. These men everywhere 
 infested the land, and everywhere were victorious. 
 They lay at anchor at the ends of headlands. They 
 never raised bulwarks on their ships' sides, and never- 
 lowered their sails, let the wind blow as it would. 
 Their captain never had in his ship more than sixty 
 men."' No less creditable were the ordinances of Ilial- 
 mar, the sum of which was, that his men should plunder 
 neither traders nor husbandmen ; that they should 
 neither rob women of their money, nor carry them oft' 
 against their consent : and should not eat raw flesh.* 
 The fiercer class indulged in this disgusting food, and 
 washed it down suitably with draughts of blood. Savage 
 in all things, it was an amusement to toss infants from 
 one to another, and catch them on the points of their 
 lances. Many used to work themselves literally into 
 a state of bestial ferocity. Those who were subject to 
 these paroxysms were called Berserkir : they studied to 
 resemble wild beasts ; they excited themselves to a 
 strength which has been compared to that of bears ; and 
 this unnatural power was succeeded, as we may well 
 suppose, by corresponding debility. In the French and 
 Italian romances, we frequently find a warrior endowed, 
 for a part of the day, with a double or treble share of 
 strength ; and it is not improbable that the fiction may 
 have been derived from this species of frenzy, which is 
 thus described by the Danish historian, Saxo Gram- 
 maticus. " Sivald had seven sons, so skilled in magic, 
 that, impelled by the sudden access of fury, they used 
 often to howl savagely, to gnaw their shields, to devour 
 live coals, and rush fearlessly into fire ; and this passion 
 could only be appeased by confinement in fetters, or by 
 human blood." This Sivald and Haldan were rivals 
 
 * Bartholinus, De Causis Contempt£c a Danis Mortis, lib. ii. 9.
 
 16 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 for the Swedish crown. Sivald challenged Haldan to 
 decide their quarrel by contending alone with himself 
 and his seven sons. The latter answered that the 
 legitimate form of the duel did not admit of more than 
 two. " No wonder," replied his antagonist, " that a 
 man without wife or offspring, whose mind and body are 
 alike deficient in warmth, should refuse the proffered 
 encounter. But my children, who own me as the author 
 of their existence, and myself, have one common origin, 
 and must be considered as one man," Tlie force of the 
 argument was admitted, and, in obedience to this modest 
 request, Ilaldan knocked out the brains of the eight. 
 
 The same warrior was challenged by another Ber- 
 serkir, named Ilarthben, who always had twelve chosen 
 men in attendance to prevent his doing mischief when 
 the fit was upon him. Upon hearing that Ilaldan 
 undertook to fight himself and his followers, he was 
 seized with a paroxysm which was not subdued until he 
 had killed six of them, by way of trying his hand : and 
 then he was killed by his antagonist, as he richly de- 
 served, for throwing away half his chance.* So also we 
 read that Odin could blunt the weapons of his enemies ; 
 that his soldiers went to battle without armour, biting 
 their shields, raging like wolves or dogs : like bears or 
 bulls in strength, they slaughtered their foes, and were 
 themselves invulnerable to fire and sword. f At length, 
 however, this passion changed from a distinction to 
 a reproach, and was ultimately prohibited by penal 
 laws. 
 
 Harold Harfager, or theFairhaired, who consolidated 
 Norway under his sceptre, a.d. 910, cleared the North- 
 ern Ocean I'rom the scourge of ])iracy, as did Minos the 
 Grecian seas. Still the spirit of depredation was alive. 
 The spread of Christianity moderated the excesses of 
 the Northmen, but it was long ere their fondness for 
 freebooting was extinguished ; nay, the very rites of 
 religion were employed to give a sanction to robbery. 
 Maritime expeditions seemed to the Danes pious and nc- 
 
 * Saxo, lib. vii. f Bartholinus, ii. 5.
 
 NORTHERJf WARRIORS. 17 
 
 cessary, that they might protect themselves from the 
 incursions of their Sclavonic neighbours on the continent, 
 and piracy was therefore practised under certain laws, 
 which in the 0])inion of Bartholinus breathe a spirit of 
 defence rather than of aggression. " Pirates had power 
 to take such ships as appeared suited to their purpose, 
 even without consent of the owners, upon payment of 
 one-eighth of the booty by v/ay of hire. Before a voy- 
 age they made confession to the priests, and having un- 
 dergone penance, they received the sacrament, as if at 
 the point of death, believing that things would go more 
 prosperously if they duly propitiated (iod before war. 
 Content with their food and armour, they avoided bur- 
 dening their vessels, and took nothing that could delay 
 their voyage. Their watches were frequent, their mode 
 of life sparing. Tliey slept leaning upon their oars. 
 Their battles were numerous : their victory ever easy, 
 and almost bloodless. The booty was shared equally, 
 the master receiving no larger portion than a common 
 rower. Those Christians whom they found enslaved in 
 the captured vessels, they presented with clothing, and 
 dismissed to their own homes."* 
 
 : The frantic ravages of these barbarians have been de- 
 scribed by the sutierers, and belong in part to our own 
 history ; while those committed by the unknown tribes 
 who two thousand years before occupied the other ex- 
 tremity of Europe, are long since forgotten, or remem- 
 bered only in the flattering traditions of their country- 
 men. The former, therefore, are known and execrated, 
 while the latter stand fair with the world : and in the 
 absence of evidence, we are far from wishing to impute to 
 them that bestial ferocity which so often disgraced the 
 Northmen : but who can compare the passages just given 
 with that quoted from Thucydides, without being con- 
 vinced that they refer to corresponding periods of civiliza- 
 tion, and describe similar principles, if not similar modes of 
 action ? And as the best historical accounts which we 
 can procure represent the feelings and habits of the early 
 
 * BarthoL, 1. ii. 9.
 
 18 HISTOKICAli PARALLELS. 
 
 Greeks as closely akin to those of" our own barbarous an- 
 cestors, so their traditions and fables lead us to the same 
 conclusion. The Scaldic poems bear, indeed, a more sa- 
 vage cast ; some say from the inhospitable rigour of our 
 northern sky ; but more probably because we possess 
 them in their original or nearly their original state, 
 while the earliest Greek compositions extant were writ- 
 ten in an age comparatively civilized. But the heroes of 
 both were actuated by the same spirit. Siegfrid and 
 Wolf Dietrich differ little but in external ornament from 
 Castor, or Achilles, or Diomed ; their pride was in the 
 same accomplishments, their delight in the same plea- 
 sures, their hope in an immortality of the same sensual 
 enjoyments.* 
 
 * We speak with some degree of doubt, both from the 
 fluctuatiug notions of the Greeks upon this head, and from 
 imperfect acquaintance with their opinions. The unhesitat- 
 ing belief of the Celtic nations in a happy immortality was 
 known even in the time of Lucan, and is celebrated by him 
 in a fine and well-known passage. The immortality of Ho- 
 mer's heroes was mournful and discontented. " Talk not to 
 me of death," says Achilles (Od. xi. 487), " I would rather 
 be the hired servant of some needy man, whose means of life 
 are scanty, than rule over the whole of the deceased." Other 
 passages to the same effect are collected at the beginning of 
 the third book of the Republic, by Plato, who objects seri- 
 ously to their effect as making death an object of terror. Yet, 
 in another passage, Homer speaks of the " Elysian plain, and 
 the ends of the earth, where man's life is easiest, where there 
 is no snow, nor rain, nor winter, but thither ocean ever wafts 
 the clear-toned gales of the west to refresh men." (Od. iv. 
 565.) Hesiod, on the other hand (Works and Days, v. 1()6), 
 and, some centuries after, Pindar (01. ii.), speak of a futui'e 
 life as perfectly happy, describing it in terms closely similar 
 to those of the last quotation from Homer. All these writers 
 appear to place their happiness in perfect rest : the blessed 
 are no longer compelled to till the earth, or navigate the 
 ocean ; they lead a careless life ; there is no reference to sen- 
 sual pleasures, except that the earth produces fruits sponta- 
 neously thrice a year, nor even to their continuing to take 
 delight in arms or in the chace. In later authors they are
 
 NORTHERN WARRIORS. 19 
 
 Some sketch of the life of Starchatems, a purely fictiti- 
 ous person, may serve as a specimen of these stories. 
 
 Starchaterus was born in Sweden, a few years after the 
 Christian era. He was of giant stature, and of strength 
 and courage correspondent to the magnitude of his frame, 
 so that in prowess he was held inferior to none of mortal 
 parentage ; and, as he excelled all in bodily endo\Yments, 
 so his life was protracted to three times the usual dura- 
 tion of human existence. Like his great prototype, the 
 Grecian Hercules, he traversed the neighbouring regions, 
 and went even to Ireland and Constantinople in quest 
 of adventures ; but, unlike him, he was animated by a 
 most intolerant hatred of everything approaching to lux- 
 ury, insomuch that he treated an invitation to dinner as 
 an insult, and inflicted severe punishment upon all who 
 were so imprudently hospitable as to request his company. 
 For it was the mark of a butlbon and parasite, he said, to 
 run after the smell of another man's kitchen, for the sake 
 of better fare.* In other respects the severity of his 
 
 described as retaining the habits and pleasures of life : see 
 the note on the scholium of Callistratus, chap. v. ; Ov. Met. 
 iv. 444 ; and more especially the passage in Virgil, vi. 651, 
 •which, but for wanting the personal superintendence of Odin, 
 bears much resemblance to a refined Valhalla. 
 The chief beheld their chariots from afar, 
 Their shining arms, and coursers trained to war ,* 
 Their lances fixed in earth, their steeds around, 
 Free from their harness, graze the flowery ground. 
 The love of horses, which they had alive, 
 And care of chariots, after death survive. 
 Some cheerful souls were feasting on the plain. 
 Some did the song and some the choir maintain. 
 
 Dryden. 
 Mitford, on the other hand, says, that " the drunken pai-adise 
 of the Scandinavian Odin was really a notion, as we learn 
 from Plato, of the highest antiquity among the Greeks." 
 (Chap. ii. sect. 1.) He has not, however, given references, 
 and we much regret that we have not been able to find the 
 passage. 
 
 * He had the advantage over Hercules here ; see the Al- 
 cestes, V. 763, ed. Monk.
 
 20 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 manners was more commendable ; M'hen he found any of 
 the classes who live by the lollies or vices of mankind 
 mixing with soldiers, he drove them away with the 
 scourge, esteeming them unworthy to receive death from 
 the hands of brave men. In addition to his other ac- 
 complishments, he was skilled in poetry, and persecuted 
 luxury in verse no less successfully than by corporeal in- 
 flictions, as is evident from certain of his compositions, 
 which have been translated into Latin by Saxo Gramma- 
 ticns. 
 
 lie went to Russia on purpose to fight Visin, who pos- 
 sessed the power of blunting weapons with a look, and 
 trusting in this magic power, exercised all sorts of cruelty 
 and oppression. Starchaterus rendered the charm of no 
 avail by covering his sword with thin leather, and then 
 obtained an easy victory. 
 
 Nine warriors of tried valour offered to Helgo, king 
 of Norway, the alternative of doing battle singly 
 against the nine, or losing his bride uj)on his marriage- 
 day. Ilelgo thought it best to appear by his champion, 
 and requested the assistance of Starchaterus, who was so 
 eager for the adventure, that in following Helgo to the 
 appointed ])lace, in one day, and on foot, he performed a 
 journey which had occupied the king, who travelled on 
 horseback, daring twelve days. On the morrow, which 
 w^as the appointed day, ascending a mountain, which was 
 the ]>lace of meeting, he chose a spot exposed to the 
 ■wind and snow, and then, as if it were spring, throwing 
 off his clothes, lie set himself to dislodge the fleas that 
 nestled in them. Then the nine warriors ascended the 
 mountain on the other side, and showed the difference of 
 their hardihood by lighting a fire in a sheltered spot. 
 Not perceiving their antagonist, one went to look out 
 from the mountain top, who saw at a distance an old 
 man covered with snow up to the shoulders. They 
 asked him if it were he who was to fight with them, and 
 being answered in the affirmative, inquired further, whe- 
 ther he would receive ihem singly or all together. His 
 reply was rather more churlish than the question de- 
 served : " When the dogs bark at me, I drive them off all
 
 NORTHERX WARRIORS. 21 
 
 together, and not one by one." Then, after a severe 
 battle, he slew them all. 
 
 At last, being overtaken by age, he thought it fit to 
 terminate his lil'e before iiis glory was dimmed by de- 
 crepitude'; for men used to consider it disgraceful for a 
 warrior to perish by sickness. So he hung round his 
 neck one hundred and twenty pounds of gold> the spoil 
 of one Olo, to buy the good offices of an executioner, 
 thinking it fit that the wealth which he had obtained by 
 another man's death should be spent in procuring his 
 own. And meeting Hather, whose father he had for- 
 merly slain, he exhorted him to take vengeance for that 
 injury, and pointed out what he would gain by doing so. 
 Hather willingly consented, and Starchaterus, stretching 
 out his neck, bade him strike boldly, adding, for his en- 
 couragement, that if he leaped between the severed head 
 and the trunk before the latter touched the earth, he 
 would become invincible in arms. Now, whether he said 
 this out of good will, or to be quits with his slayer, who 
 ran a good chance of being crushed by the falling giant, 
 is doubtful. The head, stricken off at a blow, bit the 
 earth, retaining its ferocity in death : but Starchaterus' 
 real meaning remained unknown, for Hather showed his 
 prudence by declining to take a leap, which had he taken, 
 he might never, have leaped again.* 
 
 This is an early and rude specimen of an errant knight ; 
 the same character which Mas afterwards expanded into 
 Roland and Launcelot, the paladins and peers of Charle- 
 magne and Arthur, worthies closely allied to the heroes 
 of Homer and Hesiod. The triple-bodied Geryon, the 
 jSemean lion and Lern^au hydra, the deliverance of 
 Andromeda by Perseus, the capture of the golden fleece, 
 and above all, perhaps, Amycus, who compelled all 
 strangers to box with him, till he was beaten by Pollux, 
 and bound by oath to renounce the practice, are entirely 
 in unison with the spirit and imagery of chivalric ro- 
 mance. Examples to this effect might easily be multi- 
 plied. But an essay on the fictions of the Greeks v.ould 
 
 * Joannes Magnus, Hist. Gotliorum.
 
 22 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 be foreign to the scope of this publication : and it would 
 be absurd to enter upon a critical investigation of a series 
 of stories, extended by some chronologers over seven 
 centuries, from the foundation of Argos to the Trojan 
 war, while Newton contracts them within a century and 
 a half, which tell of little but bloodshed, abductions, 
 and violence of all sorts, intermixed, however, with 
 notices of those who invented the useful arts and fostereil 
 the gradual progress of civilization. As we approach 
 to the Trojan war, a sort of twilight history begins to 
 dawn upon us. It is to what may seem at first the 
 strongholds of fiction, to the exploits of Hercules and 
 Theseus, that we refer. The earliest ascertained fact is 
 the establishment of a regular government by Minos, 
 who also cleared the sea from pirates. At no long 
 interval the above-named heroes made another step in 
 civilization ; they cleared the land from rapine, as Minos 
 had cleared the sea. Other men, roaming in search of 
 adventures, had carried bloodshed through the land at 
 the suggestion of their passions or for the advancement 
 of their lame ; but Hercules first traversed the earth 
 with the express design of avenging the oppressed and 
 exterminating their oppressors, and the example was 
 soon after followed by his kinsman Theseus, Their 
 exploits, of course, are chiefly fabulous : but it is worthy 
 of observation that those of Theseus approach much 
 nearer to probability than the far-famed labours of Her- 
 cules. Indeed the history of the former presents this 
 peculiarity, that the accounts of his youth are consistent, 
 and scarcely improbable, while those of his age run into 
 all the extravagance of romance. Theseus, travelling 
 from Troezen to Athens, was strongly urged to go by sea, 
 the way by land being beset with robbers and murderers. 
 He refused to do so, being inflamed with emulation of 
 Hercules' renown ; and on the journey signalized him- 
 self by slaying Sinnis, surnamed the Pine-bender, because 
 he dismembered travellers by tying them to the tops of 
 trees forcibly brought together and then allowed to start 
 asunder ; Procrustes, who exhibited a passion for uni- 
 formity worthy a German general of the old school, in
 
 HERCULES AND THESEUS. 23 
 
 reducing all men to the measure of his own bed, bj'- 
 stretching those who wTre too short, and docking those 
 who were too long ; together with others of less note, 
 and similar habits. That Plutarch believed in these 
 stories is evident, from the tone in which he recites them ; 
 a corroboration, indeed, of no great weight, for he pro- 
 ceeds with equal gravity to relate things which no one 
 will credit ; but in this instance his account of the state 
 of Greece gives warranty for his belief, and is itself 
 confirmed by our knowledge of later ages. The passage 
 has often been quoted, but it is striking and to the pur- 
 pose, and its want of novelty, therefore, shall be no bar 
 to its insertion. " The w'orld at that time brought forth 
 men, which for strongness in their arms, for swiftness of 
 their feet, and for a general strength of the whole body, 
 did far pass the common force of others, and were 
 never weary for any labour or travail they took in hand. 
 But for all this, they never employed these gifts of 
 nature to any honest or profitable thing ; but rather 
 delighted villainously to hurt and wrong others ; as if all 
 the fruit and profit of their extraordinary strength had 
 consisted in cruelty and violence only, and to be able to 
 keep others under and in subjection ; and to force, destroy, 
 and spoil all that came to their hands. Thinking that 
 the more part of those which think it a shame to do ill, 
 and commend justice, equity, and humanity, do it of 
 faint, cowardly hearts, because they dare not wrong- 
 others, for fear they should receive wrong themselves ; 
 and, therefore, that they which by might could have 
 vantage over others, had nothing to do with such quali- 
 ties."'* 
 
 The enormities ascribed to Sinnis and his fellows have 
 discredited the whole train of adventures to which they 
 belong ; but this is an untenable ground of doubt. He 
 who reads descriptions of the state of England, before 
 
 * We quote here, and in future, from Sir Thomas North's 
 translation, a.d. 1579. North translated from the French 
 of Amyot, His version has been compared with the oi'iginal, 
 and corrected.
 
 24 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 laws were strong enough to control private violence, 
 given by contemporaries who saw what they relate, and 
 whose narratives bear the impress of sincerity, will better 
 appreciate the extent of human ferocity. In the reign 
 of Stephen disorder was at its height. " The barons 
 cruelly oppressed the wretched men of the land with 
 castle-works, and when the castles were made, they 
 filled them with devils and evil men. Then took they 
 those whom they supposed to have any goods, both by 
 night and day, labouring men and women, and threw, 
 them into the prison for their gold and silver, and in- 
 flicted on them unutterable tortures : for never were any 
 martyrs so tortured as they were. Some they hanged up 
 by the feet, and smoked them with foul smoke, and some 
 by the thumbs, or the head, and hung coats of mail on 
 their feet. They tied knotted cords about their heads, 
 and twisted them until the pain wont to their brains. 
 They put them into dungeons where were adders, and 
 snakes, and toads, and so destroyed them. Some they 
 placed in a crucet house ; that is, in a chest that was 
 short and narrow, and not deep, wherein they put sharp 
 stones, and so thrust the man therein, that they broke all 
 the limbs. In many of the castles were things loathsome 
 and grim, called Sachenteges, of which two or three men 
 had enough to bear one. They were thus made : they 
 were fastened to a beam, having a sharp iron to go about 
 a man's throat, so that he could in no direction either 
 sit, or lie, or sleep, but bear all that iron. Many thou- 
 sands they wore out with hunger. I neither can, nor 
 may I tell all the wounds and pains which they inflicted 
 on wretched men in this land."* 
 
 " Some, seeing the sweetness of their country turned 
 into bitterness, went into foreign parts : others built hovels 
 about churches in hope of security, and there passed life 
 in fear and pain, subsisting for lack of food (for famine 
 was felt dreadfully over all England) upon the forbidden 
 and unused flesh of dogs and horses, or relieving hunger 
 with raw herbs and roots, until throughout the provinces 
 
 * Ingram's Saxon Chronicle.
 
 STATE OF ENGLAND. 
 
 men, wasted by famine, died in crowds, or went volun- 
 tarily with their families into a miserable exile. You 
 might see towns of famous name, standing lonely, and alto- 
 gether emptied by the death of their inliabitants of all 
 ages and sexes ; the fields whitening mider a thriving- 
 harvest, but the husbandman cut off by pestilential famine 
 ere it ripened : and all England wore the face of grief 
 and calamity, of misery and oppression. In addition to 
 these evils, the savage multitude of barbarians who re- 
 sorted to England for the gains of warfare was moved 
 neither by the bowels of piety nor by any feeling of 
 human compassion for such misery : everywhere they 
 conspired from their castles to do all wickedness, being 
 always at leisure to rob the poor, to promote quarrels, 
 and intent everywhere upon slaughter with all the malice 
 of a wicked mind." Even churchmen amused them- 
 selves with these pastimes. '* The bishops themselves, 
 as I am ashamed to say, not all indeed, but many of them, 
 clad in handsome armour, rode up and down on prancing 
 horses with these upsetters of their country ; shared in 
 their booty ; exposed to fetters, or torture, knights, or 
 any wealthy persons soever, whom they intercepted ; and 
 being themselves the head and cause of all this wicked- 
 ness, they threw the blame not on themselves, but only 
 upon their followers."* 
 
 Enough of general descriptions, which are fully borne 
 out by the particulars related. " In the reign of Stephen, 
 Robert, the son of Hubert, had gotten possession of the 
 castle of Devizes. He v/as a man exceeding all within 
 memory in barbarity and blasphemy, who used freely to 
 make boast, that he had been present when twenty-lour 
 monks wove burnt together with their church, and profess 
 that he would do as much in England, and ruin utterly 
 the abbey of Malmesbury. If he ever dismissed a prisoner 
 unransomed, and without the torture, which very seldom 
 happened, at such times, when they thanked him in God's 
 name, I have with these ears heard him answer, ' God 
 will never own the obligation to me.' He would expose 
 
 * Gesta Stephani, ap. Duchesne, Script. Nermann, p. 9G1, 2.
 
 26 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 his captives naked to the burning sun, anointed with 
 honey, to attract flies, and such other tormenting in- 
 sects."* This worthy met with a fit end, being taken 
 and hanged ; but this act of retribution was one of illegal 
 violence, being done by a knight who held Marlborough 
 Castle, without a shadow of authority, and apparently on 
 the principle that any one had aright to abate a nuisance. 
 '' In these times (the reign of William Rufus) men 
 come not to great name but by the highest wickedness. 
 Thomas, a great baron near Laudun in France, was 
 great in name, because he was extreme in wickedness. At 
 enmity with the surrounding churches, he had brought 
 all their wealth into his own exchequer. If any one by 
 force or guile were holden in his keeping, truly might 
 that man say, ' the pains of hell got hold ujion me.' 
 Murder was his glory and delight. Against all usage, 
 he placed a countess in a dungeon, whom the foul ruf- 
 fian harassed with fetters and torments to extort money. 
 He w^ould speak words of peace to his neighbour, and 
 stab him to the heart with a smile, and hence, under his 
 cloak, he more often wore his sword naked than sheathed. 
 Therefore, men feared, respected, worshipped him. All 
 through France was he spoken of. Daily did his estate, 
 his treasure, his vassalage increase. AVouldst thou hear 
 the end of this villain ? Being stricken with a sword unto 
 death, refusing to repent, and turning away his head 
 from the Lord's body, in such manner he perished : so 
 that it might well be said, ' Befitting to joiw life was 
 that death.' You have seen Robert de Belesme, a 
 Norman baron, who when established in his castle was 
 Pluto, Megaera, Cerberus, or anything that can be named 
 more dreadful. He took pains not to dismiss, but to dis- 
 patch his captives. Pretending to be in play, he put out 
 his son's eyes with his thumbs, while he was muffled up 
 in a cloak ; he impaled persons of both sexes. Horrid 
 slaughter was as a meat pleasant to his soul : therefore 
 was he found in all men's mouths, so that the wonderful 
 doings of Robert de Belesme passed into proverbs. Let 
 
 * William of Malmesbuvy, Hist. Novell, lib. ii.
 
 STATE OF ENGLAND. 2/ 
 
 US come at length to the end. He \vho had afflicted 
 others in prison, being at last thrown into prison by 
 King Henry, ended his wicked life by an enduring 
 punishment."* 
 
 It was this state of disorder which produced knight- 
 errantry, and there is nothing absurd in believing that 
 equal lawlessness in another country was checked by the 
 same sort of interference. The reality of knight-errantry 
 has, indeed, been questioned ; it has been pronounced 
 a fiction, suited to the wants of the period in which it was 
 supposed to exist. If this were so, and the tales of 
 Hercules and Theseus equally groundless, it would still 
 be curious to see that men had been led to imagine the 
 same means of making amends for the Mant of an ex- 
 ecutive power : but we do not believe this to be the 
 case. The romances gave system and consistency to the 
 scattered acts of individuals ; they described the better 
 qualities of knighthood in their own days, and filled up 
 the picture with imaginary virtues and preter-human 
 prowess, attributes which men are always ready to con- 
 fer on their ancestors, as Nestor makes the heroes with 
 whom he fought in youth far superior to those M'hom he 
 lectured in old age, and Homer endows those who fought 
 under Troy M'ith the strength of three or four men, 
 ^•'such as mortals now are." But their productions bear 
 the stamp of copies, not originals, and it is not very easy 
 to believe that they would have invented, or their audi- 
 ence and readers relished, characters and rules of action 
 for which their own experience gave no ^^'arrant. 
 
 There is, however, a double Theseus, of historic as 
 well as legendary fame. In his latter capacity, both for 
 the degree of reality and the nature of his exploits, he 
 may be compared to Arthur ; in his former, still to draw 
 an illustration from British history, he is not unworthy 
 to be placed by the side of Alfred. The union of these 
 two, discordant as it may appear, is not more so than 
 that of the poetic and the historical Theseus. Alfred, 
 indeed, signalised his military talents in many hard- 
 
 * Henry of Huntingdon, De Episcopis sui temporis.
 
 28 illSTOElCAL. TAEAJLLELS. 
 
 fought fields, but his victories were those of a general : 
 the exploits of Theseus were those of a knight. But 
 among- the mass of stories of questionable truth or un- 
 questioned falsehood relating to him, it is generally ac- 
 knowledged that this man, whose very existence we 
 might else have doubted, was the author of extensive 
 and judicious reforms in government, such as proved 
 the foundation of Attic greatness: ;reforms which he 
 efl'ectod by the rarest and most virtuous of all sacrifices, 
 the resignation of his own power.* Attica was divided 
 into twelve districts, shires v\e might call them, except 
 that, taken all together, they were less than one of the 
 larger English counties. Professedly forming one body, 
 and owning a precarious obedience to one prince, they 
 had still their petty and contlicting interests, and could 
 with difficulty be induced to concur in any measures for 
 the benefit of the whole. Theseus, encouraged by the 
 popularity which he had gained by delivering Athens 
 from its subjection to Crete, f undertook to substitute a 
 better polity. " He went through the several towns, 
 and persuaded the inhabitants to give up their separate 
 councils and magistrates, and submit to a common juris- 
 diction. Every man was to retain his dwelling and his 
 property as before ; but justice was to be administered 
 and all public business transacted at Athens. The 
 mass of the people came into his measures, and to 
 subdue the reluctance of the powerful, who were loath to 
 resign the importance accruing from the local magis- 
 tracies, he gave up much of his own authority, reserving- 
 only the command of the army, and the care of watching 
 over the execution of the laws. Opposition was silenced 
 by his liberality, together with the fear of his power, 
 ability, and courage, and the union of Attica was eflected 
 
 * Perhaps this is too positively asserted. No doubt exists 
 as to the political operation, but it has been questioned 
 whether Theseus had a more real existence than the other 
 heroes who gave their names to, or were named after, the 
 several Athenian tribes. See Arnold's Thucyd., Appendix 
 11. 
 
 t History of Greece, p. 5.
 
 STATE or EXGLA>D. 29 
 
 by him and made lasting-. To bind it closer, without 
 disturbing the religious observances of the several towns, 
 he instituted a common festival in honour of Minerva, 
 which was called the feast of union, and {Panatliencea^ 
 the feast of all the Athenians."* 
 
 This process bears some resemblance to the consoli- 
 dation of the Saxon Heptarchy, nominally effected by 
 Egbert, but completed and made truly beneficial by 
 Alfred. The evils which were to be reformed were 
 very different in the two cases : at Athens civil dissen- 
 sion was to be remedied ; in England a rude people, 
 intermixed with foreign barbarians more ferocious than 
 themselves, and reduced to poverty by a series of de- 
 structive invasions, required a strong curb for the re-es- 
 tablishment of order and security. We must not expect, 
 therefore, to find any resemblance between their insti- 
 tutions : the Saxons required no measures to prevent 
 civil war, and inspire a spirit of nationality ; the Athe- 
 nians, though well inclined to civil broils, respected, 
 from the earliest dawn of history, the security of pro- 
 perty, and in consecj[uence far outstripped the rest of 
 Greece in wealth and refinement. Nevertheless the 
 names of these princes may fairly be selected to adorn 
 the same page : both advanced beyond their age in 
 legislative and political science ; both directed their 
 wisdom, power, and popularity to truly noble ends ; and 
 therefore merit the respect of all who believe rank and 
 office to have been instituted for other ends than for the 
 advantage of those who possess them. 
 
 We have spoken of Hercules and Theseus as indicating 
 the commencement of Grecian histor3^ Previous to 
 them, facts are mentioned which we have no ground to 
 disbelieve, as the various settlements by Phoenician or 
 Egyptian :emigrants ; but all further particulars of these 
 persons, with the exception of Minos, are of such a na- 
 ture, that where we find no internal evidence to pronounce 
 them fabulous we can yet assign but scanty reasons for re- 
 lying confidently upon their truth. But about this era our 
 
 * History of Greece, p. 6.
 
 30 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 knowledge begins to increase. We must refer to it an 
 event of which it is not easy to fix the date with certainty ; 
 namely, the celebrated Argonautic expedition, in which 
 both these heroes are said to have joined : a statement, 
 however, irreconcileablc with the .accounts of Theseus' 
 introduction to iEgeus, and the plot formed against him 
 by Medea.* Without troubling ourselves to account 
 for these discrepancies, it is evident that the expedition, 
 if it ever took place, wdiich there seems reason to believe 
 in spite of Bryant's opposition, who would ascribe this, 
 and almost all other legends, to some faint traditions 
 of the deluge and preservation of Noah, must have 
 borne a close resemblance to the Danish piratical ex- 
 cursions which we have already described. Not long 
 after occurs the first confederate war mentioned in 
 Grecian history, that of the Seven against Thebes ;t an 
 event so closely connected with mythology that its reality 
 might reasonably be questioned, but for the testimony of 
 Homer and Hesiod. The revolting nature of the 
 struggle between two brothers, for the kingdom of a 
 banished, miserable, and neglected father, would incline 
 us indeed to give as little credit to the concluding tragedy 
 of the house of Lai us, as to the series of crimes and 
 misery by which that house had been polluted : but all 
 arguments founded upon the horrors of such fratricidal 
 warfare fall to the ground, Vvhen in the brightest j)eriod 
 of chivalry we find it revived with no less rancour, and 
 
 * The arrival of Theseus at Athens roused Medea's jea- 
 lousy, and she proposed to poison him. She did not arrive 
 at Atlaens until some time after she had reached Greece with 
 Jason and the Argonauts; while the journey of Theseus 
 from Troezen to Athens appears to have been his first ex- 
 ploit. Either, therefore, Theseus was not an Argonaut, or 
 this charge against Medea is ungrounded. 
 
 t Eteocles and Polynices, the sons of CEdipus, agreed, 
 after the expulsion of their father, to reign alternate years 
 in Thebes. Eteocles, however, at the end of the first year, 
 refused to surrender his power, upon which Polynices laid 
 siege to the city, assisted by six other princes. The brothers 
 met in battle, and fell by eacli other's hands.
 
 PEDRO OF CASTILE. ol 
 
 a no less fatal end, and the flower of French knighthood 
 a calm spectator, nay, almost an actor in the scene. 
 The strife between Don Pedro of Castile, and his 
 brother Henry of Transtamara, the deadly struggle in 
 which Pedro, who had already slain one brother, fell, 
 when defeated and a prisoner, by the dagger of another 
 against whom his own hand was armed, involve circum- 
 stances of horror scarce less adapted to dramatic effect 
 than those legends which have so often employed the 
 Greek tragedians. 
 
 Don Pedro was the legitimate heir to the crown of 
 Castile. Don Henry and Don Fadrique (or Frederick) 
 were his half-brothers by Donna Leonora de Guzman, 
 whom their father had entertained as his mistress, and 
 even proclaimed queen, during the life-time of his lawful 
 wife. When Pedro succeeded to the throne, at his 
 mother's instigation he put her rival to death : his bro- 
 thers, Henry and Fadrique, escaped, and the former re- 
 nounced his allegiance : the latter fled into Portugal ; 
 but after some time he made his peace, returned, and 
 was appointed master of the order of St. lago. When 
 several months had elapsed, he was invited to join the 
 court at Seville, and take his share in the amusements 
 of an approaching tournament. He accepted the invita- 
 tion, but was sternly and ominously received, and imme- 
 diately executed within the palace. The friends of Pedro 
 asserted, that the king had, that ver}^ day, detected 
 Don Fadrique in a correspondence with his brother 
 Henry and the Arragonese ; while popular belief at- 
 tributed the slaughter of the master to the influence of 
 Pedro's mistress, Maria de Padilla. The circumstances 
 of this event are powerfully described in one of the 
 Spanish ballads, so admirably translated by Mr. Lock- 
 hart. There is a peculiarity of construction in the ballad , 
 the person of the narrator being changed in the course of 
 it. It is commenced by the victim himself, who de- 
 scribes the alacrity with which he obeyed his brother's 
 summons. 
 
 c 2
 
 32 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 I sat alone in Coimbra— the town myself had ta'en, — 
 When came into my chamber a messenger from Spain : 
 There was no treason in his look, an honest look he wore, 
 I from his hand the letter took — my brother's seal it bore. 
 
 *' Come, brother dear, the day draws near ('twas thus bespoke 
 
 the king) 
 For plenar court and nightly sport, within the listed ring." 
 Alas, unhappy master, I easy credence lent : 
 Alas, for fast and faster I at his bidding went. 
 
 When I set out from Coimbra, and passed the bounds of 
 
 Spain, 
 I had a goodly company of spearmen in my train ; 
 A gallant force, a score of horse, and sturdy mules thirteen ; 
 With joyful heart I held my course, my years were young 
 
 and green. 
 
 A journey of good fifteen days within the week was done, 
 I halted not, though signs I got, dark tokens many a one ; 
 A strong stream mastered horse and mule, I lost a poniard 
 
 fine, 
 And left a page within the pool, a faithful page of mine. 
 
 Yet on to proud Seville T rode — when to the gate I came, 
 Before it stood a man of God to warn me from the same : 
 The words he spake I would not hear, his grief I would 
 
 not see ; 
 <' I seek," I said, " my brother dear — I will not stop for thee." 
 
 No lists were'closed upon the sand, for royal tourney dight. 
 No pawing horse was seen to stand, I saw no armed knight : 
 Yet aye I gave my mule the spur, and hasted through the 
 
 town, 
 I stopt before his palace-door, then gaily leapt I down. 
 
 They shut the door — my trusty score of friends were left 
 behind ; 
 
 I would not hear their whispered fear, no harm was in my 
 mind ; 
 
 I greeted Pedro, but he turned — I wot his look was cold ; 
 
 His brother from his knee he spixrned — " Stand ofr, thou mas- 
 ter bold. 
 
 " Stand ofP, stand off, thou traitor strong !" 'twas thus he sai 
 to me, 
 
 " Thy time on earth shall not be long — what brings thee to 
 my knee ?
 
 PEDRO or CASTILE. 33 
 
 My lady craves a new year's gift, and I will keep my word ; 
 Thy head methiuks may serve the shift — good yeoman, draw 
 
 thy sword — " 
 The master lay upon the floor, ere well that word was said, 
 Then in a charger off they bore his pale and bloody head. 
 They brought it to Padilla's chair, they bowed them on the 
 
 knee — 
 " King Pedro greets thee, lady fair, his gift he sends to thee." 
 
 She gazed upon the master's head, her scorn it could not 
 
 scare. 
 And cruel were the words she spoke, and proud her glances 
 
 were. 
 " Thou now shalt pay, thou traitor base, the debt of many a 
 
 year. 
 My dog shall lick that haughty face, no' more that lip shall 
 
 sneer.' 
 She seized it by the clotted hair, and o'er the window flung : 
 The mastiff" smelt it in his lair, forth at her cry he sprung ; 
 The mastiff that had crouched so low, to lick the master's 
 
 hand. 
 He tossed the morsel to and fro, and licked it on the sand. 
 
 And ever as the mastiff tore, his bloody teeth were shown. 
 With growl and snort he made his sport, and picked it to the 
 
 bone ! 
 The baying of the beast was loud ; and swiftly on the street 
 There gathered round a gaping crowd to see the mastiff eat. 
 
 Then out and spake King Pedro — " What governance is this ? 
 
 The rabble rout the gate without torment my dogs, I wiss." 
 
 Then out and spake King Pedro's page — " It is the master's 
 head, 
 
 The mastiff tears it in his rage, therewith they have him 
 fed." 
 
 Then out and spake the ancient nurse, that nursed the bro- 
 thers twain — 
 
 " On thee. King Pedro, lies the curse ; thy brother thou hast 
 slain ; 
 
 A thousand harlots there may be within the realms of Spain, 
 
 But where is she can give to thee thy brother back again ?" 
 
 Came darkness o'er King Pedro's brow, when thus he heard 
 
 her say ; 
 He sorely rued the accursed vow he had fulfilled that day ;
 
 o4 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 He passed unto his paramour, where on her couch she 
 
 lay. 
 Leaning from out her painted bower, to see the mastiff's 
 
 play. 
 
 He drew her to a dungeon dark, a dungeon strong and deep ; 
 " My father's sou lies stiif and stark, aud^there are few to 
 
 weep. 
 Fadrique's blood for vengeance calls, his cry is in mine 
 
 ear; 
 Tliou art the cause, thou harlot false ; in darkness lie thou 
 
 here." 
 
 After Pedro had alienated his people's hearts by his 
 cruelty, Don Henry returned with a formidable body of 
 French auxiliaries. At first the fortune of the rightful 
 owner of the throne, who was supported by Edward the 
 Black Prince, prevailed, and the invader was obliged to 
 retire back to France : but suddenly renewing the attack, 
 assisted by Du Guesclin, the flower of French knight- 
 hood, after the English auxiliaries had quitted Spain, he 
 defeated and took prisoner his brother. Upon entering 
 the chamber where he was confined, Henry exclaimed, 
 " Where is that whoreson and Jew, who calls himself 
 King of Castile ?" Pedro, as proud and fearless as he 
 was cruel, stepped instantly forward, and replied, " Here 
 I stand, the lawful son and heir of Don Alphonso, and 
 it is thou that art^but a false bastard." The rival bro- 
 thers instantly grappled like lions ; the French knights, 
 and Du Guesclin himself, looking on. Henry drew his 
 poniard, and wounded Pedro in the face, but his body 
 was protected by a coat of mail. A violent struggle 
 ensued. Henry I'ell across a bench, and his brother, 
 being uppermost, had Mell nigh mastered him, when^one 
 of Henry's followers seizing Don Pedro by the leg, 
 turned him over, and his master thus at length gaining 
 the upper hand, instantly stabbed the king to the heart. 
 Menard, in his history of Du Guesclin, says that, while 
 nil around gazed like statues on the furious struggle of 
 the brothers, Du Guesclin exclaimed to this attendant 
 of Henry, " What! will you stand by, and see your
 
 PEDRO or CASTILE. 35 
 
 master i:)laced at such a pass by a false renegade ? Make 
 forward and help him, for well you may."* 
 
 At Athens, the poets who contended for the tragic 
 prize, were expected to exhibit three pieces, which, from 
 their number, were called collectively a trilogy, together 
 with a fourth, satirical, drama, which came last in the 
 order of representation, like our farces now. Often they 
 chose for the argument of these tragedies different events 
 in the same story, so that the three formed a connected 
 whole: of which an instance, the only instance extant, 
 j'emains in the Agamemnon, Choephoroi, and Eumenides 
 of iEsehylus. The tale which has just been narrated is 
 well fitted for this kind of representation, and would fur- 
 nish materials not unworthy even of that poet's genius. 
 In the first play we may imagine an insulted queen and 
 deserted wife, brooding over past injuries, rejoicing in 
 the prospect of revenge, and urging the savage temper 
 of her son to seek it in the blood of those who should 
 have been dearest to him ; the play terminating with the 
 death of Leonora de Guzman, and the escape of her sons, 
 preserved, like Orestes, to be at once the ministers of 
 vengeance and the instruments of further crime. For 
 the second the unsuspecting confidence of Don Fadrique, 
 his rejection of the signs and warnings, which were 
 offered in vain, and the successful machinations of a 
 wicked, perhaps a rejected woman, acting upon the proud 
 and cruel Pedro, are well suited ; while the chorus would 
 find a fitting part, at first, in dark and indistinct presages 
 of evil, and lamentations over the blindness with which 
 the fated victim rushed into the snare ; and at the end, 
 in indignant description of the circumstances of horror 
 narrated in the ballad, and in joining the aged nurse ^to 
 bewail the death of her foster son, and denouncing ven- 
 geance upon the murderer's head. The third would 
 contain the capture of Pedro, the mutual defiance and 
 death-struggle of the brothers, and the barbarous ex- 
 posure by Henry of his brother's corpse : while at the 
 end the impression of these horrors might be relieved by 
 
 * Lockhart's Spanish Ballads.
 
 36 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 the constant love of Maria de Padilla, who, now neglected 
 and despised, still watched over the forsaken body other 
 monarch and lover, with a fidelity worthy of a purer 
 bosom.* 
 
 We reach at length the Trojan war, the point assumed 
 * See a subsequent ballad in the same collection : — 
 
 In her hot cheek the blood mounts high, as she stands 
 
 gazing down 
 Now on proud Henry's royal state, his robe and golden 
 
 crown, 
 And now upon the trampled cloak, that hides not from 
 
 her view 
 The slaughtered Pedro's marble brow, and lips of livid 
 hue. 
 
 Away she flings her garments, her broidered veil and 
 vest. 
 
 As if they should behold her love within her lovely 
 breast — 
 
 As if to call upon her foes the constant heart to see 
 
 Where Pedro's form is still enshrined, and evermore 
 shall be. 
 
 But none on fair Maria looks, by none her breast is seen, 
 
 Save angry heaven, remembering well the murder of the 
 Queen ; 
 
 The wounds of jealous harlot rage, which virgin blood 
 must staimch. 
 
 And all the scorn that mingled in the bitter cup of Blanch. 
 
 The utter coldness of neglect that haughty spirit stings, 
 
 As if ten thousand fiends were there, with all their 
 flapping wings. 
 
 She wraps the veil about her head, as if 'twere all a 
 dream. 
 
 The love — the murder — and the wrath — and that rebel- 
 lious scream. 
 
 For still there's shouting on the plain, and spurring far 
 and nigh ; 
 
 " God save the King — Amen ! Amen ! King ll^enry ! " 
 is the cry, 
 
 While Pedro all alone is left upon his bloody bier — 
 
 Not one remains to cry to God, " Our Lord lies mur- 
 dered here."
 
 TEOJAX WAK. 37 
 
 by Thucydidcs for the commencement of his sketch of 
 Grecian history : a circumstance alone sufficient to discre- 
 dit the scepticism of those who beheve it to be a mere fabu- 
 lous legend. The universal voice of antiquity testifies to 
 its reality, and we know not of any arguments strong 
 enough to shake this testimony. Herodotus, on the 
 authority of the Persians, mentions the Rape of Helen as 
 one of a series of reprisals consequent upon the aggression 
 of the Phoenicians, who carried off lo ; the cause and 
 commencement of hostility between the Greeks and the 
 Asiatic nations. The former were clearly in the wrong, 
 in the opinion of the Persians, both because the rape of 
 Helen only balanced accounts, and because the Greeks 
 made such injuries a ground ibr war. " Up to that time 
 they confined themselves to mutual depredations ; but the 
 Greeks set the example of carrying war from one conti- 
 nent to the other. Now, to carry off" women is the act 
 of rogues ; but to be over eager to avenge their loss is 
 the part of fools ; and wise men will take no thought for 
 them after they are gone : ior it is plain that they would 
 not have been run away with, except with their own good 
 w^ill. And in truth, say the Persians, the Asiatics made 
 no account of the carrying oif their women : but the 
 Greeks collected a mighty armament on account of a 
 Laceda?monian female, and then came to Asia, to pull 
 down the empire of Priam ! "* So thought the Persians. 
 Herodotus confesses that he is not prepared to say how 
 these things took place, and sets us the example of hast- 
 ening to ground which he can tread with some certainty. 
 That there is no intrinsic improbability in the story, has 
 already been asserted by Mitford, on the giound of its 
 close analogy to an incident in the history of the British 
 islands. 
 
 Dermod Mac Morough (or Mac Murchad), prince of 
 
 * Herod, i. 4. It may be inferred from hence that the 
 high estimation of female chastity, and implacable resentment 
 consequent upon injuries in that respect, which now charac- 
 terise Eastern manners, did not prevail in the age of Hero- 
 dotus. That these feelings did prevail at a very remote period, 
 appears from the story of Darius and Alexander. 
 
 c 3
 
 38 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 Leinster, was attached to Dervorghal, wife of Tiernan 
 O'Ruark, another Irish chief, who held the county of 
 Leitrim, with some adjacent districts, — a lady of great 
 beauty, but small virtue, who took advantage of her 
 husband's being driven into hiding by O'Connor, who 
 was then predominant in Ireland, to elope with her lover. 
 " An outrage of this kind was not always regarded with 
 abhorrence by the Irish ; they considered it rather as an 
 act of pardonable gallantry, or such an offence as a reason- 
 able pecuniary compensation might atone for. But the 
 sullen and haughty prince, provoked more by the inso- 
 lence and treachery of his ravisher than the infidelity of 
 his wife, conceived the most determined animosity against 
 Dermod. He practised secretly with O'Connor, promised 
 the most inviolable attachment to his interest, and pre- 
 vailed on him, not onl}' to reinstate him in his possessions, 
 but to revenge the insult of IMac Morough, whom he 
 represented, and justly, as a faithless vassal, really devoted 
 to the service of his rival. The King of Connaught led 
 his forces into Leinster, rescued Dervorghal from her 
 paramour, and restored her to her friends ; with whom 
 she lived, if not in a state of reconciliation with her 
 husband, at least in that opulence and splendour which 
 enabled her to atone for the crime of infidelity, by the 
 usual method of magnificent donations to the church."* 
 This domestic squabble led to more than usually import- 
 ant results, for the expelled Dermod applied to our 
 Henry II. for assistance, and the conquest of Ireland 
 followed. 
 
 The ambition of Agamemnon, however, is regarded by 
 Thucydides as the cause of the war ; the abduction of 
 Helen served only as the pretext. "To me it seemeth 
 that Agamemnon got together that fleet, not so much for 
 that he had with him the suitors of Helena, bound thereto 
 by oath to Tyndareus, as for that he exceeded the rest 
 in power. For Atreus, after that Eurystheus was slain 
 by the IIeraclidi3e, obtained the kingdom of Mycenae, and 
 whatever else had been under him, for himself. To which 
 greatness Agameuinon succeeding-, and also far excelling 
 * Leland's Hist. Ireland.
 
 TKOJAN WAE. 39 
 
 the rest in shipping-, took that war in hand, as I conceive 
 it, and assembled the said forces, not so much on favour 
 as by fear. For it is clear, that he himself both conferred 
 most ships to that action, and that some also he lent to 
 the Arcadians. And this is likewise confirmed by 
 Homer[(if any think his testimony sufficient), who, at the 
 delivery of the sceptre unto him, calleth him, ' Of many 
 isles, and of all Argos king.' "* Argos here signifies the 
 %vhole peninsula, called afterwards Peloponnesus. It is 
 plain, however, from Homer, that the sovereignty here 
 ascribed to him was of a most uncertain and insecure 
 tenure ; that his subordinate princes were in fact inde- 
 pendent within their own dominions, and were too high 
 spirited and powerful to be maltreated with impunity. 
 Altogether, without the elaborate machinery of the feudal 
 system, the power and influence of Agamemnon seem to 
 have resembled that possessed by the kings of France, 
 and emperors of Germany, over those great vassals who 
 held whole provinces, and singly or united often proved 
 an overmatch for their sovereign. 
 
 Here ends the Mythic age. We shall pass over the 
 next three, or according to most chronologers the next 
 five centuries, which are but partially filled up by notices 
 of events, such as the return of the Ileraclidse, the 
 gradual subversion of monar(;hy throughout Greece, and 
 the great emigrations which peopled the Asiatic coast 
 with a Hellenic race. About the sixth century b.c. we 
 begin to reap the benefit of contemporary authorities ; 
 and thenceforward history, if not free from an admixture 
 of fiction, at least runs with a copious and uninterrupted 
 stream. 
 
 * Thucyd. i. 9.
 
 40 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Avistomenes.* — Hereward le Wake. — Wallace. 
 
 Sparta had not long acquired strength under the insti- 
 tutions of Lycurgus, before she discovered that thirst of 
 dominion which distinguished her after-history. The 
 neighbouring state of Messenia was the first to suffer. 
 As usual, it is hard to say which party gave the first 
 provocation ; but if the Lacedaemonians were ever in the 
 right, they lost that advantage when, in time of peace, 
 with studied secrecy they bound themselves never to 
 return home until Messenia was conquered ; and when, 
 without the formality of a declaration of war, they 
 stormed by night Ami)heia, a frontier town, and put the 
 unprepared inhabitants to the sword. Their enterprise 
 succeeded better than its iniquity merited ; for after a 
 vigorous and protracted defence Messenia was subdued, 
 and continued in servitude for fortj' years. At the end 
 of that time a new race had grown up, ignorant of the 
 evils of war, and too high-spirited to bear their degrada- 
 tion tamely. A gallant leader is seldom wanting to gal- 
 lant men engaged in a good cause ; and Aristomenes 
 might serve as a type for all later heroes, whose exploits 
 
 * Pausanias evidently founded his account of Aristomenes 
 upon the traditions and legendary ballads of the Messenians ; 
 which, probably, were about as historical as Chevy Chase, 
 or the Spanish ballads of the Cid, and other celebrated war- 
 riors. The reader will be on his guard, therefore, against 
 taking all that is here told for veracious history : but we 
 have not attempted to discriminate accurately between truth 
 and fiction, which would entirely destroy the spirit and 
 romance of the narrative, very probably without coming 
 nearer to the reality.
 
 ARISTOMEXES. 41 
 
 belong' to the debateable ground which lies between 
 truth and fiction. He was a young Messenian of the 
 royal line, according to the report of his countrymen ; 
 but other Greeks, with a more unbounded admiration, 
 related that the hero Pyrrhus,"son of Achilles, was his 
 father. His valour, at least, did not disgrace his reputed 
 parentage ; and, though daring in extremity even to des- 
 peration, was not of that blind and foolish kind which 
 hurries unprepared into action, and sacrifices a good 
 cause to the vanity and temerity of its sui)porters. Before 
 taking the field, he secured the co-operation of Argos 
 and Arcadia, to support and strengthen the eager spirit 
 of his countrymen, and then, with a force entirely Mes- 
 senian, attacked the Lacedaemonians at a place called 
 Derae. The event was doubtful ; but that a conquered 
 people should meet its masters in battle, and part from 
 them on equal terms, was in itself equivalent to a victory. 
 Aristomenes is said to have performed deeds beyond 
 human prowess, and was rewarded by his grateful coun- 
 trymen with a summons to the vacant throne. He de- 
 clined the dignity, but accepted of the power under the 
 title of commander-in-chief. 
 
 His next exploit was of a singular and romantic cast, 
 such as would befit a knight of the court of Arthur, or 
 
 * Pausanias merely says tliat the Greeks in general be- 
 lieved Pyrrhus to be his father. We have no doubt, from 
 the context, that the hero is the person meant, though the 
 passage has been otherwise interpreted. The practice of 
 deifying eminent men prevailed in Gi'eece at an early period, 
 though apparently not in the age of Hesiod and Homer. 
 Homer is fond indeed of dweUing on the superiority of the 
 past ; a superiority referred to the celestial descent of the 
 heroes who then flourished ; but he gives us no reason to 
 think that divine honours were paid them. In later times, 
 a patron hero was as necessary to a Grecian, as a patron 
 saint formerly to a European city : and there are few names 
 of eminence in the heroic age, in honour of which temples 
 have not been built, and sacred rites instituted. The twelve 
 Athenian tribes had each its protecting hero : ^acus and his 
 descendants were believed to preside over ^gina and Salamis, 
 It is needless to multiply examples.
 
 42 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 Charlemagne, or the less fabulous, but scarce less romantic 
 era of Froissart, better than it assorts with modern notions 
 of a general's or a sovereign's duties. Considering it 
 important to alarm the Spartans, and im.press them with 
 a formidable idea of his personal qualities, he traversed 
 Laconia, and entered Sparta by night, which, in obedience 
 to Lycurgus' precepts, was unwalled and unguarded, to 
 suspend from the temple of Pallas a shield, inscribed 
 " Aristomenes from the Spartan spoils dedicates this to 
 the goddess."* Violence was not offered, and his object, 
 
 _ * Probably this story is founded on the theft of the Palla- 
 dium by night from Troy, by Ulysses and Diomed. A 
 similar spirit of chivalrous daring, mingled with supei-stition, 
 suggested a similar enterprise to Fernando Perez del Pulgar, 
 surnamed 'of the Exploits,' when serving at the siege of 
 <jtranada under Ferdinand of Castile. " Who Avill stand by 
 isme," said he, " in an enterprise of desperate peril ? " The 
 ^Christian cavaliers well knew the hair-brained valour of del 
 ^Pulgar, yet not one hesitated to step forward. He chose fif- 
 teen companions, all men of powerful arm and dauntless 
 vheart. In the dead of the night he led them forth from the 
 camp, and approached the city cautiously, until he arrived 
 at a postern gate, which opened upon the Darro, and was 
 guarded by foot soldiers. The guards, little thinking of 
 such an unwonted and partial attack, were for the most part 
 fast asleep. The gate was forced, and a confused and chance 
 medley skirmish ensued. Fernando stopped not to take part 
 an the affray. Putting spurs to his horse, he galloped 
 ;furiousiy through the streets, striking fire out of the stones at 
 -every bound. Arrived at the principal mosque, he sprang 
 -from his horse, and kneeling at the portal, took possession of 
 ■the edifice as a Christian chapel, dedicating it to the blessed 
 Virgin. In testimony of the ceremony, he took a tablet, 
 ^hich he had brought with him, on which was inscribed, in 
 large letters, Ave Maria, and nailed it to the door of the 
 mosque with his dagger. This done, he remounted his steed, 
 and galloped back to the gate. The alarm had been given, 
 the city was in an uproar ; soldiers were gathering from 
 every direction. They were astonished at seeing a Christian 
 warrior speeding from the interior of the city. Fernando, 
 overturning some and cutting down others/rejoined his com- 
 panions, who still maintained possession of the gate by dint
 
 ARISTOMENES. 43 
 
 therefore, must have been to win her favour, or at least 
 to alarm the Spartans, lest their protecting deity should 
 be wiled away. It is to be wished that we knew the 
 result of this exploit, of which, unfortunately, no account 
 remains. The year after the battle at Derai, he again 
 led his countrymen, supported by their allies, into battle, 
 at a place called the Boar's Tomb; and if upon this occa- 
 sion fortune favoured the rightful cause, it was again 
 mainly owing to his personal exertions. Supported by 
 a chosen band of eighty men, who gloried in the privi- 
 lege of risking their lives by the side of Aristomenes, he 
 attacked and broke in detail the choice infantry of Sparta, 
 committing to others the task of routing a disordered 
 enemy, himself ever present where they showed the 
 firmest front : till the Laceduemonians forgot the precepts 
 of their lawgiver in a hasty flight. Their disorder was 
 complete, but the pursuit was early stopj)ed, either by 
 the prudence of Aristomenes, or the promptitude with 
 which the Spartans availed themselves of local advantages. 
 The latter is probably the real meaning of the following" 
 legend. There lay a wild pear-tree in the track of the 
 retreating army ; Theoclus, the Messenian seer, warned 
 Aristomenes not to urge the pursuit beyond this tree, for 
 that Castor and Pollux, the tutelary deities of Lacedsemon, 
 were perched upon it. But Aristomenes thought as little 
 of his friend's advice, as Hector of Polydamas's warning 
 not to attack the Grecian camp, and was still hard jness- 
 ing upon the enemy, when suddenly his shield disap- 
 peared. The loss of this weapon Mas esteemed disgrace- 
 ful, and therefore we can scarcely wonder that even 
 
 of hard fighting, and they all made good their retreat to the 
 camp. The INIoors were at a loss to conjecture the meaniug 
 of this vfikl and apparently fruitless assault, but gi*eat was 
 their exasperation when, on the following day, they disco- 
 vered the trophy of hardihood and prowess, the Ave Maria, 
 thus elevated in the very centre of the city. The mosque, 
 thus boldly sanctified by Fernando Perez del Pulgar, vras 
 eventually, after the capture of Granada, converted into a 
 cathedral. — Wasllngton Irving, Chronicle of the Conquest cf 
 Grenada, chap. 91.
 
 44 HISTORICAL rAEALLELS. 
 
 Aristomenes, whose character stood above detraction, 
 should have lost time in a fruitless search, which, if im- 
 proved to the full, might have broken for ever the power 
 of his country's oppressor. So great was the loss and 
 dismay of Sparta, that the war was kept alive with diffi- 
 culty, and that only through the influence acquired by 
 Tyrtaeus, who devoted his poetical talents to recruiting 
 the courage and exasperating the hatred of the Lacedae- 
 monians.* 
 
 The history of this man is somewhat singular. At 
 the beginning of the war, the Lacedtemonians had been 
 directed by the Delphic oracle to send to Athens for an 
 adviser : they did so, and the city, unwilling either to 
 aid in the aggrandizement of a rival, or to disobey the 
 god, thought to extricate itself from the dilemma by 
 making choice of one Tyrtaeus, an obscure schoolmaster, 
 halt of one leg, and esteemed to be of mean ability. 
 From the event, a Grecian would have argued in support 
 of the favourite doctrine, that the decrees of fate were 
 inevitable ; for to the unknown talents of one so lightly 
 valued did Sparta, upon this and other occasions, owe 
 the favourable issue of the war. 
 
 But the reader may be curious to know the fate of 
 Aristomenes' shield. Applying at Delphi, he was 
 informed that he would find it in the cave of Trophonius,t 
 at Lebadeia, in Bceotia, where he afterwards dedicated it, 
 
 * The spirit-stirring strains, which are said to have pro- 
 duced so vronderful an effect, are the dullest longs and shorts 
 that ever were coupled together, if they are the same which 
 have reached us under Tyrtoeus's name. 
 
 t A celebrated oracle; those who entered the cave are 
 commonly said never to have smiled again. It appears, 
 however, from Pausanias, that this loss of the important 
 faculty which is said to distinguish men from brutes was 
 only temporar}'. The method of consulting the oracle was 
 singular. The aspirant descended into a cave, where was a 
 small crevice, into which he proceeded to insinuate himself 
 feet foremost. So soon as he had got his knees in, the whole 
 body was sucked forwards by an overpoweriug force, and 
 after passing through the circuit of the mysteries, he was 
 ejected, feet foremost, at the place where he had entered.
 
 ARISTOMENES. 45 
 
 ''and I mj^self have seen it there,"* adds Pausanias, lest 
 any doubt should attach to a story which seems to border 
 somewhat on the marvellous. How it came there, we 
 are left to conjecture : and in these days of scepticism 
 and ]-esearch, may well envy the historian whose readers' 
 incredulity was so easil}'- overcome. But, with one or 
 two brilliant exceptions, it was sufficient for the Greeks 
 that a story passed current ; they cared little to investi- 
 gate probabilities, or enter upon long and intricate 
 inquiries, which in modern times have been so success- 
 full}^ employed in disentangling the mingled web of 
 truth and fiction. It is curious to mark the importance 
 attached to this miraculous loss. Aristomenes thought 
 it of sufficient consequence to render necessary an im- 
 mediate journey to Delphi ; for we find that, returning 
 from Lebadeia, he renewed the w'ar with his recovered 
 shield, which therefore must have been dedicated at a 
 later period. At first he confined himself to predatory 
 incursions. Returning from "driving a creagh," in 
 Laconia, he was attacked and wounded, but repelled the 
 assailants ; and, on his recovery, projected an attack 
 upon Sparta, which, under such a leader, might have 
 beer fatal to an unfortified and unwatched city ; but was 
 deterred a second time by the interposition of Castor and 
 Pollux, Turning aside, therefore, to Carya, he carried 
 off a band of Spartan maidens while engaged in a religious 
 ceremony ; and on this occasion he showed that a life of 
 warfare had not deadened the kindlier feelings of his 
 heart, by protecting them from the drunken intemperance 
 of his soldiers, even to the death of some who persisted 
 
 * Cade. The elder of them, being put to nurse, 
 Was by a beggar-woman stolen away : 
 And, ignorant of his birth and parentage, 
 Became a bricklayer, when he came to age. 
 His son am I ; deny it if you can. 
 Smith. Sir, he made a chinmey in my father's house, 
 and the bricks are alive to this day to testify it ; therefore deny 
 it not. 
 
 Hefiry VL Part 2, Act iv,, sc. 2.
 
 46 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 in their disobedience. The captives, according to the 
 custom of the age, were released upon ransom. 
 
 Another adventure terminated less happily, in which 
 he attacked a quantity of matrons employed in celebrating 
 the rites of Ceres, with similar views, but with a very 
 different result. Ai-med only with spits and the imple- 
 ments of sacrifice, they showed the value of their Spartan 
 breeding, animated by religious enthusiasm, in the entire 
 defeat of the marauding party. Aristomenes, beaten 
 down with their torches, was taken prisoner. This 
 might have been an awkward and ill-sounding termination 
 to a life of lofty adventure : many a hero has fallen 
 victim to female wiles ; but to be overcome and captured 
 in open war by women armed with spits and staves, is an 
 event not to be matched since the days of the Amazons, 
 either in history or romance. The usual course of events, 
 indeed, was inverted; for love was his deliverer from 
 the dangers in which valour had involved him. Ar- 
 chidamia, the priestess of the goddess, who had been 
 previously enamoured of him, forgot her patriotism, and 
 set him free. 
 
 The Arcadians were zealous in the Messenian cause. 
 Unhappily their prince, Aristocrates, proved treacherous, 
 and took bribes from Sparta to betray his trust. " For 
 the Lacedaemonians gave the first example of setting 
 warlike prowess up to sale : prior to the transgression 
 of Lacedaemon, and the treason of Aristocrates, com- 
 batants referred their cause to the arbitration of valour, 
 find the fortune which Providence should allot to them. 
 So also did they bribe the Athenian generals at JEgos- 
 Potami :* but in the end the poisoned shaft recoiled upon 
 themselves. It was through Persian gold, distributed at 
 Corinth, fArgos, Athens, Thebes, that the victorious 
 career of ^Lacedaemon was stopped at its height, when, 
 the Athenian fleet being destroyed, and a large part of 
 Asia delivered, Agesilaus was compelled by the disturb- 
 ances of Greece to lead home his victorious army. Thus 
 
 * We by no means pledge ourselves to the truth of this 
 piece of secret history, which is not supported by the testi- 
 mony of earlier authoi's.
 
 ARISTOME^'ES. 47 
 
 did the gotis turn to their own ruin the fraud which tlie 
 Lacedaemonians had devised."* Aristocrates kept his 
 own counsel, luitil the eve of the battle of Megaletaphrus 
 (the great ditch), and then disseminated an opinion 
 among his countrymen that their position was bad, and 
 ofiered no means of retreat if they were worsted ; and, 
 moreover, that the omens were unfavourable : finally, he 
 advised all to betake themselves to flight, so soon as he 
 should give the word. The Arcadians were steady 
 friends to the Messenians, yet, strange to say, they 
 became the abettors of their prince's baseness, without 
 sharing his reward. They formed the centre and left 
 M'ing, and the consternation of the Messenians may be 
 imagined, M'hen two-thirds of their army at once deserted 
 them. To complete his treachery, Aristocrates led the 
 flying troops through the Messenians, and threw them 
 into irretrievable confusion ; forgetful of the battle, they 
 betook themselves to expostulation and upbraiding of their 
 treacherous allies ; and the Lacedaemonians readily sur- 
 rounded and defeated them with such slaughter, that 
 from the hope of becoming lords of their former masters, 
 they were reduced even to despair of safety. Aristomenes 
 collected from all quarters the scattered remnant of his 
 countrymen, into one new city which he founded on 
 Mount Eira. 
 
 By this step they gave up all their territory, except 
 a strip along the coast held by the Pylians and Metho- 
 naeans. But they were not men to starve peaceably in 
 the neighbourhood of full garners, 
 
 For why, the good old rule 
 Contented them ; the simple plan 
 That they should take, who have the power, 
 And they should keep, who can : 
 
 ?md in truth circumstances fully justified them in adopting 
 this simple and compendious rule of action, which they 
 Ibllowed with no ordinary success, carrying off corn, 
 wine, and cattle, equally from their own country, now 
 occupied by Lacedaemonians, and from Laconia ; and 
 
 * Pausanias, iv. 17.
 
 48 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 providing for their other wants with the ransoms paid 
 for men and moveables captured in their predatory ex- 
 cursions. At last the Spartans found out that it was 
 worse than lost labour to sow, where an enemy was to 
 reap ; and forbade the cultivation, not only of Messenia, 
 but even of the borders of Laconia. So great a sacrifice 
 bespeaks the formidable nature of the enemy, and pro- 
 duced disturbances, in appeasing which the value of 
 Tyrtagus w^as again displayed. The measure was highly 
 politic, for it compelled the Messenians to gain their 
 livelihood by long and dangerous excursions. In one of 
 these Aristomenes, being surprised by a superior force, 
 was stunned by a blow, and taken, with fifty of his 
 comrades. Cruelty is almost the necessary consequence 
 of injustice ; and though the Messenians, and especially 
 Aristomenes, seem always to have treated their prisoners 
 with humanit}^, it was resolved to insure future quiet by 
 sacrificing a man whose only crime was perseverance in 
 his country's cause. The Spartans executed criminals 
 by throwing them into a deep pit, called Ceadk : into 
 this Aristomenes and his companions were precipitated. 
 All, except the hero, were killed by the fall, and he, 
 reserved apparently for a more dreadful fate, retired to 
 the extremity of the cavern, and for three days sat, his 
 head wrapped in his cloak, in patient expectation of a 
 lingering and painful death. At the end of that time 
 he heard a slight noise, and raising his head (his eyes 
 by this time had become accustomed to the gloom) per- 
 ceived a fox gnawing the dead bodies. It might have 
 occurred to a less ready wit, that where there is an 
 entrance there may also be a way out ; he caught the 
 fox, and allowing it to follow its own path without suf- 
 fering it to escape, was led along a dark passage, ter- 
 minating in a crevice ju^t large enough to admit the 
 animal, through which a glimmering of light appeared. 
 Dismissing his guide uninjured, he enlarged the opening 
 with his hands, and against hope even, as well as 
 probability, stood once more free to vindicate his country. 
 It was of course supposed that a special providence, on 
 this as on other occasions, guarded his safety ; and many.
 
 ARISTOMEXES. 49 
 
 to magnify the wonder, asserted that an eagle interposed 
 itself in the fall, and bore him down secure from all 
 harm . 
 
 The whole event was considered marvellous : first, 
 such was his lofty spirit, and renown in arms, that none 
 believed Aristomenes would be taken alive ; but his return 
 from the bowels of the earth was still more amazing, 
 and was held to be a manifest interposition of the Deity. 
 The Lacedaemonians, indeed, refused to believe it, until 
 the total destruction of a body of Corinthians marching 
 to assist in the siege of Eira, " convinced them that 
 Aristomenes, and no other of the Messenians, had done 
 this." 
 
 After this occurrence he performed a second time a 
 rite peculiar to the Messenians, called Hecatomphonia ; 
 a sacrifice offered to the Ithomasan* Jupiter, by such as 
 had slain a hundred men in battle. He had celebrated 
 it for the first time after the battle at the Boar's Tomb ; 
 the slaughter of the Corinthians gave him a second op- 
 portunity ; and he is said to have offered it yet a third 
 time. The Lacedsemonians now concluded a truce for 
 forty days, that they might go home, to celebrate one 
 of their great annual festivals. Aristomenes v.andering 
 abroad without suspicion during its continuance, was 
 seized by seven Cretan bowmen, who, while the Spar- 
 tans were feasting, amused themselves by traversing the 
 country. Two of them set off to bear the news to 
 Sparta : the others carried him to a neighbouring village, 
 in which a girl dwelt, who, in a dream in the preceding- 
 night, had seen a lion brought thither in bonds, and de- 
 prived of claws, by wolves. She loosed it, the claws 
 returned, and it destroyed its captors. When Aristo- 
 menes was brought in, and she heard his name, the in- 
 terpretation of the dream flashed across her mind. She 
 intoxicated the soldiers, and set him free ; the treach- 
 erous Cretans fell an easy prey. In recom pence for his 
 life, he gave his preserver in marriage to his son Gorgus. 
 
 "• Ithome was a strong town on Mount Ithome, now Vour- 
 kan, in which the Messenians made their last stand in the 
 first war.
 
 50 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 Such was the fortune of the war for ten years. After 
 the destructive battle at Meg-aletaphrus, in the third year, 
 when their cause was ruined by the defection of the Ar- 
 cadians, Aristomenes and the seer Theoclus consulted the 
 Delphic oracle concerning- the late of their country. The 
 answer ran thus — 
 
 "When the he-goat shall bend to drink where dimpling 
 
 Neda flows, 
 Messene"s fate draws nigh ; no more can I avert her woes. 
 
 In the eleventh year of the siege of Eira, the four- 
 teenth of the war, Theoclus, while walking along the 
 bank of the river Neda, observed a wild fig-tree, which 
 in the Messenian tongue was called by the same word 
 which signifies a he-goat, that had grown slanting out of 
 the bank, and then just swept the water with its branches. 
 He brought Aristomenes to the place, and they agreed 
 that the prophecy had received its fulfilment, and the hope 
 of the nation was at an end. There were certain objects 
 preserved in secret, and invested with peculiar sanctity, 
 such as the Palladium enjoyed in Troy. If these were 
 lost, the fortune of Messenia sunk witli them for ever ; 
 if not, ancient oracles foretold that the Mcssenians should 
 again enjoy their own. Believing that the fated time had 
 arrived, Aristomenes buried secretly the mystic treasure 
 in the wildest and most desolate part of Mount Ithomo ; 
 in the persuasion that the deities, who had till then 
 supported them in a righteous struggle, would still watch 
 over the mysterious pledge of their safety.* 
 
 Pausanias seems to take a malicious pleasure in ob- 
 serving that Eira, no less than Troy, owed its ruin to a 
 woman. A herdsman, belonging to Eniperamus, a 
 Spartan of distinction, had fled from his master, and 
 
 * When the Messeniaus were restored by Epaminondas, 
 the locality of this deposit Avas indicated by a dream. It 
 was found to consist of a tin plate beaten thin, and folded 
 into the shape of a book, upon which were engraved the 
 rites and doctrines of the Eleusiuian mysteries. — Pausanias, 
 iv. 26.
 
 AFvISTOMENES. 51 
 
 lived near the river Neda. He gained the aftections of 
 a Messenian woman, who dwelt without the walls of 
 Eira, and used to visit her when her husband was on 
 guard. One night, the husband's sudden return com- 
 pelled him to conceal himself: a storm of extraordinary 
 violence had caused the guard to disperse, trusting that 
 the inclement season would keep the Lacedaemonians 
 quiet, and aware that Aristomenes could not go the 
 rounds, according to his custom, since he was lying ill 
 of a recent wound. The herdsman listened .to this ac- 
 count, and perceived that it was a favourable opportunity 
 for making his peace, and even securing reward. He 
 hastened to Emperamus, his master, who was in command 
 at the camp, narrated what had happened, and conducted 
 the army to the assault. The way was difficult, and the 
 night terrible, but they surmounted these impediments, 
 and entered the town before the alarm was given. Taken 
 by surprise, its devoted inhal)itants still acted up to the 
 reputation they had so deservedly acquired. x\ristomenes 
 and Theoclus, aware that Messenia at length must fall, 
 yet concealed the fulfilment of the oracle, and roused the 
 courage of their comrades to desperation : even the wo- 
 men showed that they preferred death to captivity, and 
 excited the men to higher daring by the participation ot 
 their danger. The night })assed without advantage to 
 either party, but at day-break the rain poured down in 
 still greater fury, and drove in the faces of the Messe- 
 nians ; and the lightning flashing from the left, an evil 
 omen, at once blinded them and depressed their spirits, 
 while to the Spartans it came from the right, and was 
 welcomed as the harbinger of success. The latter too 
 were far superior in number ; but since they could not 
 avail themselves of this advantage in the narrow streets, 
 their general sent back a part to the camp to rest and re- 
 fresh themselves, with orders to return in the evening, to 
 relieve that division which remained. Pressed thus con- 
 tinually by fresh foes, the wretched Messenians yet pro- 
 tracted the struggle. Three days and three nights they 
 maintained an unceasing fight ; at the end of these, 
 watching, and cold, and wet, and thirst, and hunger, had
 
 52 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 exhausted their strength. Then Theoclus addressed 
 Aristomenes: '' Why do we still maintain this fruitless 
 labour ? The decree has gone forth that Messene must 
 fall : that which we now see was foretold to us long since 
 by the priestess of Apollo, and the fig-tree lately warned 
 us that the time was at hand. God grants to me a com- 
 mon end with my country : it is your part to preserve 
 the Messenians and yourself." He rushed among the 
 enemy, exclaiming, " Ye shall not rejoice in the pos- 
 sessions of the Messenians for ever ! " and, sated with 
 slaughter, fell surrounded by the victims of his despair. 
 Aristomenes collected the survivors into a close column, 
 in the centre of which he placed their wives and children, 
 and stationing himself with his chosen band at their head, 
 motioned with his spear to the enemy to allow them a 
 free passage ; which the Spartans granted, rather than 
 exasperate their well-tried intrepidity to frenzy. They 
 found a hospitable and friendly reception in Arcadia, the 
 inhabitants of which supplied their wants, and would wil- 
 lingly have assigned to them a portion of their lands ; 
 but the ardent spirit of Aristomenes could not brook a 
 quiet submission. Selecting five hundred men, the 
 flower of his army, he asked if they w^ere prepared to die 
 with him in their country's behalf; and having received 
 their hearty concurrence, proposed a scheme for sur- 
 prising Sparta, and holding it as a pledge for their own 
 restoration. Three hundred Arcadians volunteered to 
 join him ; but their hopes were frustrated a second time 
 )3y the traitor Aristocrates. On this occasion, hoAvever, 
 he was detected, and his former villany being at the 
 same time revealed, the Arcadians, in just anger, stoned 
 him to death. The Messenians, exhorted to join in the 
 punishment, looked to Aristomenes, who sat weeping, 
 and in imitation of their beloved leader, abstained from 
 sharing in a merited revenge. Tender by nature must 
 have been the heart of one, who, after having slain three 
 hundred men with his own hand, could yet weep over 
 the deserved punishment of an old companion in arms ; 
 and it is pleasing to contrast the staunch patriotism of 
 the Messenians, still tempered by moderation and mercy.
 
 ARISTOMEXES. 53 
 
 with the savage and wanton cruelties acted by the po- 
 lished Greeks of later ages. 
 
 The Pylians and Methonasans, who had preserved 
 their navy, invited their countrymen in Arcadia to join 
 them, and seek a settlement in some foreign land. Aris- 
 tomenes refused to accept the proffered command ; he 
 would never cease, he said, to war against the Lacedas- 
 monians, and well knew that he should ever be the cause 
 of some evil to them. His son Gorgus, and Manticlus, 
 son of Theoclus, supplied his place. Ere they had re- 
 solved on their course, Anaxilas, prince of Rhegium, 
 sent to invite their co-operation in a war against the 
 Zanclaeans, promising, in case of success, to assign to 
 them that wealthy city. Zancle soon fell before their 
 joint efforts. Anaxilas wished to slay the male citizens, 
 and reduce their families to slavery ; but the Messenians 
 had learnt pity in the school of adversity, and deprecated 
 being made the instruments of inflicting upon others the 
 miseries which they themselves deplored. Interchang- 
 ing oaths of fidelity with the inhabitants, they dwelt in 
 union with them in the city, to which, in memory of 
 their beloved country, they gave the name of Messene, 
 which it bears to this day, under the slightly altered 
 form of Messina.* 
 
 Shortly after their departure, Damagetus, king of 
 lalysus, in Rhodes, inquiring at Delphi where he should 
 seek a wife, was directed to choose the daughter of the 
 best of the Grecians. He hesitated not to fix on Aristo- 
 menes, and took his youngest and only unmarried child. 
 The warrior passed with her into Rhodes, and died soon 
 
 * We have retained this story in the text for its intrinsic 
 beauty, and regret being obliged to say that it is entirely 
 false. It has been shown by Bentley to be inconsistent with 
 Herodotus and Thucydides, and is tacitly rejected by Clin- 
 ton. Zancle was taken by the Samians, b.c. 494, at the 
 suggestion of Anaxilas, tyrant of Rhegium ; who afterwards 
 expelled the Samians, and filling the city with men of va- 
 rious nations, called it Messene, being himself of Messeniuu 
 descent. 
 
 VOL. I. D-
 
 54 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 after, ungratified in his wish of striking another blow at 
 Lacedaemon. He was honoured with a splendid monu- 
 ment, and worshipped as a hero in Rhodes, and by his 
 grateful countrymen. 
 
 Such of the Messenians as remained on the land were 
 consigned to the miserable class of Helots. But even in 
 this degraded state they were still a source of trouble to 
 their masters ; and at last revolting, made so obstinate a 
 defence, that they obtained permission to depart unarmed, 
 and were settled by the Athenians at Naupactus, on the 
 Corinthian gulf. Two centuries after their subjection, 
 Epaminondas collected the scattered remnants of the 
 people, and re-established them in possession] of their 
 country, in a new city, named Messene, built under his 
 patronage, on Mount Ithome. Thus ancient oracles 
 were fulfilled, the tutelary deities preserved their trust, 
 and the dying prophecy of Theoclus was accomplished. 
 
 The annals of the Norman conquest of England intro- 
 duce us to a fit companion for Aristomenes, in respect of 
 similarity of fortunes, as well as character. Hereward 
 Ic Wake, a youth of noble Saxon family, while yet a boy 
 was distinguished for strength and turbulence of character : 
 so rough was he in play, that his hand was against every 
 one, and every one's hand against him ; and so impatient 
 of superiority, that if the prize of wrestling, or their other 
 games, was awarded to another, he would assert his own 
 title by the cogent argument of an appeal to the sword. 
 His father's love of quiet seems to have been greater than 
 his parental affection, for he took upon himself the task 
 of ridding the neighbourhood of his troublesome son, and 
 set forth so ably his violences against others, and certain 
 boyish impertinences committed against himself, that he 
 obtained from Edward the Confessor an order for his 
 banishment. Hereward went to Northumberland, and 
 thence travelling to Cornwall, Ireland, and Flanders, he 
 distinguished himself everywhere so highly, for daring, 
 skill in arms, and success in extricating himself from the 
 greatest dangers, that it was a doubt whether his courage 
 or his good fortune were the more admirable. His fame, 
 won in many a conflict, and confirmed even by the report
 
 WAKD LE WAK-iC. 55 
 
 of his enemies, was not long in reaching England ; and 
 so entirely changed the temper of father, mother, rela- 
 tions, and friends, that the worthy abbot of Croyland, 
 from whom our narrative is taken, can only account for 
 the sudden conversion of so much ill will into such vio- 
 lent affection, by attributing it to the special interposition 
 of Providence. 
 
 During his abode in Flanders, he received news of the 
 Norman invasion, of his father's death, and the bestowal 
 of his inheritance upon a Norman, who insulted and op- 
 pressed his widowed mother. Hastening to avenge her, 
 he quickly expelled the spoiler ; and then remembering 
 that he was no knight himself, though knights were now 
 under his command, he received the order from his uncle 
 the Abbot of Peterborough. For the English consi- 
 dered the investiture as a religious ceremony, and who- 
 ever underwent it confessed himself, received absolution, 
 and spent the eve of his consecration in prayer in the 
 church. In the morning, after hearing mass, he offered 
 his sword upon the altar ; and after the gospel had been 
 read the. priest blessed the weapon, and completed the 
 ceremony by laying it upon his shoulder. But the Nor- 
 mans, who looked upon the order as exclusively military, 
 held in abomination this method of receiving it.* 
 
 A body of noble Saxons, who, like Hereward, had been 
 expelled from their inheritances, or driven by maltreat- 
 ment into rebellion, occupied the Isle of Ely, a tract 
 then environed by morasses, which now have almost dis- 
 appeared, and admirably fitted to be a place of refuge 
 from a more powerful but less active enemy. They 
 chose Hereward for their leader, and he justified their 
 preference and his own reputation by a series of exploits, 
 
 * Ingulph, Hist. Croyland. In later times the ceremony 
 seems to have been universally religious : — see, for example, 
 the dubbing of Don Quixote. We cannot doubt, however, 
 but that Ingulph knew the practice of his own times. Pro- 
 bably the Normans, whose conversion to Christianity was 
 not of very old standing, still retained a flavour of hea- 
 thenism, 
 
 D 2
 
 56 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 which continued long after to be favourite subjects of the 
 popular ballads ; for the preservation of some of which 
 posterity would have owned a much greater obligation to 
 Ingulph, than for the minute details connected with the 
 monastery of Croyland, which he has thought it more 
 important to preserve. 
 
 Upon his uncle's death the abbey of Peterborough was 
 bestowed by the Conqueror upon a Norman, by name 
 Thorold, to Hereward's great displeasure. In conjunc- 
 tion with the Danes, who then infested the eastern coast, 
 he resolved to disturb the temporal enjoyments at least of 
 the intruder. Let the Monk of Peterborough tell his 
 own melancholy history. 
 
 '' Early in the morning of the above-mentioned day, 
 came the aforesaid evil doers, with many ships ;* but the 
 monks and their men shut the gates, and bestirred them- 
 selves manfully in their defence from above, so that the 
 battle waxed very sore at the gate called Bulehithe.f 
 Then Hereward and his comrades, seeing they could by 
 no means gain the mastery, and force entrance, set fire 
 to the houses near the gate, and so made passage by 
 burning ; also, they consumed all the offices of the monks, 
 save the church and one house. Yet the monks met them, 
 and besought that they would not do this evil ; but they 
 listened not, and went armed into the church, and would 
 have carried away the great crucifix, but they could not. 
 Nevertheless they took from its head a golden crown set 
 with jewels, and a stool, also made of pure gold and 
 jewels, from under its feet ; also two golden reliquaries, 
 and nine made of silver, fashioned with gold and jewels, 
 and twelve crosses, some made of gold, others of sil- 
 ver, gold, and jewels. Nor did this content them, 
 
 * It is interesting to trace the physical changes of the 
 island ; the formidable swamps above mentioned are now 
 converted into the richest land in England, and we doubt 
 whether Peterborough, or Lincoln, then a centre of trade 
 and commerce, be now accessible to any vessel more dignified 
 than a coal-barge or an eight-oared cutter. 
 
 t " Now (a.d. 1692) Bulldyke Gate, on the south side of 
 the monastery." — Gibsoiis Saxon Chronicle.
 
 HEREWARD LE WAKE. 67 
 
 but they went up into the tower, and took thence a great 
 table made cntu'ely of gold and gems and silver, which 
 the monks had hidden there, which used to stand before 
 the altar ; and they took such a quantity of gold and sil- 
 ver in articles of all sorts, books, and ornaments, as can 
 neither be told nor valued. All these were of the best 
 quality, nor did the like of them remain in England. 
 Yet they said that out of fealty to the church they did 
 thus, and that the Danes would preserve those valuables 
 for the use of the church, better than the Normans. And, 
 indeed, Hereward himself was of a monastic order, and 
 therefore they put some trust in him, and he afterwards 
 made oath that he had done this from good motives, because 
 he thought they should conquer King William, and them- 
 selves possess the land. 
 
 "So it came to pass that nothing that was taken away 
 was ever restored, and the monastery, which had been so 
 rich, was now reduced to poverty. And from that day 
 nothing was ever added or restored to it, but its wealth 
 continually diminished. Since Abbot Thorold himself 
 not only added nothing, but dispersed its compact estates 
 among his kinsmen and the knights that came with 
 him."* 
 
 The Abbot gave away sixty-two knights' fees (feoda) 
 upon tenure of military service. Not long after, being 
 naturally anxious to dislodge so formidable an enemy, he 
 summoned his friends and vassals to drive Hereward from 
 the vicinity. Ivo Tailboys, a Norman baron, to whom 
 the Conqueror had granted the district of Hoyland, or 
 Holland, in Lincolnshire, still known by the latter name, 
 entered the woods at the head of his troops : the Abbot, 
 with other dignitaries, kept warily on the outside ; but 
 while Ivo entered upon the right, Hereward darted round 
 upon the left, carried off the Abbot and his companions, 
 and made them pay a ransom of three thousand marks. 
 At length William in person brought a powerful army 
 against him, beleaguered the island closely by land and 
 water, and, at vast expense, proceeded to make causeways 
 
 * Ku2:o Candidas.
 
 58 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 across the marshes, by which his position was defended. 
 Ivo Tailboys was a great believer in witchcraft, and he 
 prevailed upon the king to try its efficacy. As the 
 causeway proceeded, therefore, a witch was kept in ad- 
 vance, in a wooden turret, to fulminate her incantations 
 against the enemy : but the farce soon met with a tragical 
 conclusion, for Hereward, watching his time when the sol- 
 diers and workmen had gone somewhat forward, made a 
 circuit, and by setting fire to the reeds upon their flank, 
 involved soldiers, witch, and works, in one common ruin. 
 But the odds were overwhelming, and at last the Saxons 
 were compelled to submit. The other chiefs, including 
 some of the most noble of the land, surrendered to the 
 conqueror's mercy, and suffered death, mutilation, or fine, 
 according to the sense entertained by him of their guilt. 
 Hereward alone, by his superior gallantry and conduct, 
 provided for the escape of his followers and himself, and 
 was ultimately rewarded for his valour and perseverance, 
 by being admitted to favour, and reinstated in his pater- 
 nal estates. He finished his days in peace, and was bu- 
 ried in Croyland Abbey. 
 
 But British history offers another character to our no- 
 tice, who bears perhaps a nearer personal resemblance to 
 Aristomenes, although both his own fate and the issue of 
 the struggle in which he engaged were different, — Wal- 
 lace, the earliest, the stoutest, and the most fondly re- 
 membered champion of Scottish independence : whose 
 name has been preserved and magnified in the recollec- 
 tion of his countrymen, with an affection not inferior to 
 that which led the Messenians to pay divine honours to 
 their departed hero. The fame of both rests chiefly 
 upon tradition, for the earliest Scottish author who gives 
 the history of Wallace wrote more than a century after 
 his death, and the notices of his exploits in the English 
 chroniclers are meagre and unsatisfactory. It is impos- 
 sible therefore accurately to depict his character, or to 
 draw the line minutely between truth and fiction. We 
 see a form of commanding and colossal proportions, but 
 we see it dimly, and the features must be filled up h'om 
 our own imaginations : but we may at least trace indom-
 
 AVILLIAM WALLACE. 59 
 
 i table courage, constancy, and patriotism ; and if these 
 lofty qualities were sometimes sullied by ferocity, yet, in 
 justification of the sympathy and interest which his ca- 
 reer excites, we may plead not only the character of the 
 age, and the sufferings endured by Scotland under the 
 English yoke, but the exacerbation of temper which must 
 necessarily arise from a life of constant hardship and dan- 
 ger. Hunted continually from morass to forest, denied 
 the enjoyment of domestic happiness, dependent upon his 
 own right hand for the security which was to be found 
 only in the death of his pursuers, it is rather matter for re- 
 gret, than for stem censure, if in the hour of victory the 
 call of mercy was unheeded. And in further extenua- 
 tion we may add, that to control the excesses of his fol- 
 lowers does not seem always to have been in the power 
 even when it was in the wish of their chief; and that it 
 is reasonable and consistent with the bitter spirit of na- 
 tional enmity which long prevailed, to conjecture that 
 the blind minstrel, who is his principal biographer, con- 
 sulted the passions and prejudices of his hearers no less 
 by exaggerating the deeds of vengeance acted by his 
 hero, than his hair-breadth escapes, and almost super- 
 human might. 
 
 It is amusing to note how party spirit has biassed the 
 view taken of his origin and motives. The English wri- 
 ters speak of him slightingly, without notice of the ex- 
 traordinary qualities ascribed to him, as a common robber, 
 who having by degi'ees collected round him a large band 
 of desperate men, was emboldened to attack and plunder 
 the suite of Ormesby, chief justiciary of Scotland. Com- 
 pare this with the account given by Bower,* in whose 
 eyes, it is but fair to say, the having fought stoutly in 
 defence of Scotland was cloak enough to cover a multi- 
 tude of offences. 
 
 " In the same year (1297) that famous warrior Wil- 
 liam Wallace, the hammer and the scourge of the Eng- 
 lish, son of a noble knight of the same name, lifted up 
 
 * Bower continued the Scotichronicou of Fordun. The 
 whole work is usually quoted under the latter name.
 
 60 HISTORICAL PAKALLELS. 
 
 his head ; and when he saw the affliction of his nation, 
 and the goods of the Scots delivered into the hands of 
 their enemies, his heart pined and was sore afflicted. 
 For he was tall of stature, gigantic in body, of calm as- 
 pect, and cheerful countenance, broad shouldered, big 
 boned, proportionately corpulent, pleasant, yet stern to 
 behold, thick loined, powerful of limb, a most stout 
 champion, and very strong, and well knit in all his joints. 
 Moreover the Most High had so distinguished him by a 
 certain prepossessing mirthfulness, had so graced with some 
 heavenly gift both his deeds and words, that by his mere 
 aspect he disposed the hearts of all true Scots to love 
 him. And no wonder, for he was most generous, in 
 judgment most just, in ministering comfort most patient, 
 in council most wise, in suiferance most enduring, in 
 speech most eloquent : above all things hostile to lies and 
 falsehood, and abhorrent of treachery : wherefore the 
 Lord was with him, through whom he was in all things 
 prosperous, venerating the church, revering churchmen, 
 supporting the poor and widowed, cherishing orphans, 
 raising the oppressed, lying in wait for thieves and rob- 
 bers, and without reward inflicting deserved punishment 
 upon them." 
 
 The following extract comprises such particulars of his 
 early career as seem entitled to historical credit. " At 
 this time (1297), and out of this middle class of the lesser 
 barons, arose an extraordinary individual, who was at first 
 driven into the field by intolerable injury and despair, and 
 who in a short period of time, in the reconquest of his native 
 country, developed a character which may without ex- 
 aggeration be termed heroic. This was William Wal- 
 lace, or Walays, the second son of Sir Malcolm Wallace, 
 of EUersley, near Paisley, a simple knight, whose family 
 was ancient, but neither rich nor noble. In those days 
 bodily strength and knightly prowess were of the highest 
 consequence in commanding respect and ensuring success. 
 Wallace had an iron frame. His make, as he grew up to 
 manhood, approached almost to the gigantic, and his per- 
 sonal strength was superior to the common run of even 
 the strongest men. His passions were hasty and violent ;
 
 WILLIAM WALLACE. 61 
 
 a strong hatred to the English, who now insolently lorded 
 it over Scotland, began to show itself at a very early pe- 
 riod of his life ; and this aversion was fostered in the 
 youth by an uncle, a priest, Mho, deploring the calami- 
 ties of his country, was never weary of extolling the 
 sweets of liberty and the miseries of dependence. 
 
 " The intrepid temper of Wallace appears first to have 
 shown itself in a quarrel with one of the English officers, 
 who insulted him. Provoked by his taunts, Wallace, 
 reckless of the consequences, stabbed him with his dagger, 
 and slew him on the spot. The consequence of this was 
 to him the same as to many others, who at this time pre« 
 ferred a life of dangerous freedom to the indulgence and 
 security of submission. He was proclaimed a traitor, 
 banished his home, and driven to seek his safety in the 
 wilds and fastnesses of his country. It was here that he 
 collected by degrees a little band, composed at first of a 
 few brave men of desperate fortunes who had forsworn 
 their vassalage to their lords, and refused submission to 
 Edward, and who at first carried on that predatory war- 
 fare against the English, to which they were impelled 
 as well by the desire of plunder, and the necessity of 
 subsistence, as by the love of liberty. These men chose 
 Wallace for their chief. Superior rank, for as yet none 
 of the nobility or barons had joined them, his uncommon 
 courage and personal strength, and his unconquerable 
 thirst of vengeance against the English, naturally in- 
 fluenced their choice, and the result proved how well it 
 had fallen. His plans were laid with so much judg- 
 ment, that in his first attacks against straggling parties 
 of the English, he was generally successful ; and if sur- 
 prised by unexpected numbers, his superior strength and 
 bravery, and the noble ardour with which he inspired his 
 followers, enabled them to overpower every effort which 
 was made against them. 
 
 '' To him these early and desultory excursions against 
 the enemy were highly useful ; as he became acquainted 
 with the strongest passes of his country, and acquired 
 habits of command over men of fierce and turbulent 
 spirits. To them the advantasre was reciprocal, forthev 
 
 D 3
 
 62 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 began gradually to feel an imdoubting confidence in their 
 leader ; they were accustomed to rapid marches, to en- 
 dure fatigue and privation, to be on their guard against 
 surprise, to feel the effects of discipline and obedience, 
 and by the successes which these ensured, to regard with 
 contempt the nation by whom they had allowed them- 
 selves to be overcome. 
 
 ' ' The consequences of these partial advantages over 
 the enemy were soon seen. At first few had dared to 
 unite themselves to so desperate a band. But confidence 
 came with success, and numbers flocked to the standard 
 of revolt. The continued oppressions of the English, 
 the desire of revenge, and even the romantic and perilous 
 nature of the undertaking recruited the ranks of Wallace, 
 and he was soon at the head of a great body of Scottish 
 exiles."* 
 
 About this time he was joined by Sir William Douglas 
 at the head of all his vassals. A series of brilliant 
 successes followed the union of their little armies : and 
 such was the effect produced on the public mind, that 
 when their united strength broke in upon the West of 
 Scotland, they were joined by some of the most powerful 
 of the Scottish nobles, among whom we find the Steward of 
 Scotland, Sir Andrew Moray of Bothwell, his brother, 
 and Wishart, Bishop of Glasgow. 
 
 Such is the outset of Wallace's career, so far as it is 
 matter of authentic history. His biographer, Blind 
 Harry, carries him through a great number of adventures 
 before this period ; but they possess so little of interest 
 or poetical merit, and are written in such antiquated 
 language, that the reader would probably derive little 
 pleasure from them. They consist chiefly of rencontres 
 with the English soldiery ; enterprising attacks upon the 
 strongholds scattered 'throughout Scotland, and the 
 various events of a desultory and almost predatory war- 
 fare, in all which his knightly prowess and sagacity are 
 represented as compensating for inferiority in numbers, 
 and as extricating his followers and himself even in the 
 
 * Tytler, History of Scotland, vol. i.
 
 WILLIAM WALLACE. 63 
 
 extremity of danger. The following specimens will 
 probably be sufficient. 
 
 The first relates to the surprisal of Dimbarton Castle. 
 Wallace, entering the town, found the captain and part 
 of his garrison drinking, and bragging of what they would 
 do if the rebel leader and his men were within reach. 
 
 When Wallace heard the Southron made sic din, 
 
 He garred all bide, and him alane went in ; 
 
 The lave* remained, to hear of their tithans,^ 
 
 He saluit them with sturdy countenance. 
 
 *' Fellows," he said, " sen I come last fra hame 
 
 In travail I was our land, and uncouth fame. 
 
 Fra south Ireland I come in this countree. 
 
 The new conquest of Scotland for to see. 
 
 Part of your drink, or some good would I have." 
 
 The captain then a shrewish answer him gave ; 
 
 " Thou seemest a Scot unlikely, us to spy ; 
 
 Thou may be ane of Wallace company. 
 
 Contrar our king he is risen again. 
 
 The land of Fife he has rademyt in playne.^' 
 
 Thou sail here bide, while we wit how it be ; 
 
 Be thou of his, thou sail be hanged on high." 
 
 Wallace then thought it was no time to stand. 
 
 His noble sword he grippit soon in hand ; 
 
 Athwart his face drew that captain in tene,^ 
 
 Strake all away that stood abowne his eyne ; 
 
 Ane othir braithly in the breast he bare, 
 
 Baith brawn and bayn,e the burly blade through share ; 
 
 The lave rushed up to Wallace in great ire ; 
 
 The third he felled full fiercely in the fire. 
 
 Stenyn of Ireland and Kerle, in that thrang, 
 
 Kepyt na cherge, but entred them amang ; 
 
 And othir more that to the door can press : 
 
 While they saw him, there could no man them cess,^ 
 
 The Southron men full soon were brought to dead. 
 
 The following extract is of a more romantic character. 
 Wallace, being closely pursued by the English, had, in a 
 mingled fit of anger and suspicion, struck off the head of 
 
 a Remainder. ^ Tidings. '^ Recovered entirely. 
 '^ In anger. ^ Bone. ' Stop.
 
 64 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 one of his followers, by name Fawdoun. At night, when 
 he and his men had taken refuge in a tower, they heard 
 a horn bio wo at hand. Two of them went out to see 
 what the cause might be ; they did not return, and the 
 horn was again heard louder than before. Two more 
 were sent, and so, till Wallace was left alone. 
 
 When he alane Wallace was leavit there, 
 
 Tlie awfull blast abounded mickle mair. 
 
 Then trowed he they had his lodging seen ; 
 
 His sword he drew, of noble metal keen, 
 
 Synes forth he went whereat he heard the horn. 
 
 Without the door Fawdoun was them beforn. 
 
 As till his sight, his awn head in his hand. 
 
 A cross he made, when he saw him so stand. 
 
 At Wallace in the head he swaket'^ there ; 
 
 And he in haste soon hynt' it by the hair, 
 
 Syne out again at him he couth J it cast; 
 
 Intil his heart he greatly was aghast. 
 
 Right well he trowed that was no sprite of man. 
 
 It was some devil, that sic malice began. 
 
 He wist no waill'' there longer for to byde. 
 
 Up through the hall thus wight Wallace can glide, 
 
 Till a close stair : the boards rave in twain. 
 
 Fifteen foot large he lap out of that inn.i 
 
 Up the water suddenly he couth fare ; 
 
 Again he blent™ what perance he saw there. 
 
 Him thought he saw Fawdoun, that hugly sir ; 
 
 That haill hall he had set in a fire ; 
 
 A great rafter he had intill his hand. 
 
 Wallace as then no longer would he stand. 
 
 Of his gude men full great merveill had he, 
 
 How tliey were lost through his fell fantasy. 
 
 In the spring of 1297 his career of victory was checked 
 at Irvine, by the dissensions and desertion of his army ; 
 but the cloud soon passed away, lor in the autumn we find 
 him engaged in the siege of Dundee, from which he was 
 recalled by the approach of the English, under the com- 
 
 s Then. '> Cast forcibly. * Caught. 
 
 J Could. ^ Knew of no advantage. 
 
 ' Abiding place. '" Glanced.
 
 WILLIAM WALLACE. 65 
 
 niand of Warenne, Earl of Surrey. Wallace determined 
 to await the enemy on the banks of the Forth, near 
 Stirling, where the river could be crossed only by a 
 narrow and inconvenient bridge, that scarce admitted the 
 passage of two horsemen together. The Scottish army 
 consisted of forty thousand foot, and one hundred and 
 eighty horse ; the English, of fifty thousand foot, and one 
 thousand horse. 
 
 Surrey was probably aware of the strong position oc- 
 cupied by the Scots, and the danger of passing the bridge 
 in face of the enemy, for he despatched two friars to pro- 
 pose terms to Wallace. " That robber," says Heming- 
 ford, " replied, ' Tell your fellows, that we come not 
 hither for the benefit of peace, but are prejmred for battle, 
 to avenge and to free our kingdom. Let them, there- 
 fore, come up when they will, and they shall find us 
 ready to meet them beard to beard.' And when these 
 tidings came to our men, they that were hot-headed said, 
 ' Let us go up against them, for these are but threats.' 
 But the wiser part added, ' We may not yet advance, 
 until we have well reflected what counsel to pursue.' 
 Then said that stout knight, Sir Richard Lundy, who had 
 surrendered to us at Lwine,* ' My lords, if it shall be that 
 we ascend the bridge, we are dead men. For we can 
 only pass by two and two, and the enemy are on our 
 flank, and when they please, will form in line and charge 
 us. But not far ofl:' there is a ford where sixty men can 
 cross at once. Now then give me five hundred horse 
 and a small body of foot ; and we will make a circuit in 
 the enemy's rear and overthrow him : and meanwhile 
 you. Lord Earl, and your company will pass the bridge 
 in safety.' But they would not abide by his good counsel, 
 saying that it was unsafe to separate. So being divided in 
 opinion, some cried out to pass the bridge, others the 
 contrary. Among whom Cressingham, the king's 
 treasurer, a proud man and a child of perdition, said, ' It 
 is not well, my Lord Earl, to put off this matter farther, 
 
 * A town in Ayrshire, where many of the insurgents had 
 submitted a short time before.
 
 66 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 and to spend the king's money in vain. Rather let us 
 march up, and do our devoir as we are bound.' The earl, 
 therefore, being moved by his words, gave orders that 
 they should pass the bridge. A strange thing was it, 
 and very direful in its issue, that so many, and such wise 
 men, who knew the enemy to be at hand, should venture 
 on a narrow bridge, which two horsemen could hardly 
 pass abreast. So that, as some said, who were in that 
 battle, if they had filed over without bar or hindrance 
 from break of day till eleven o'clock, still a large part of 
 the rear would have remained behind. Neither was 
 there a fitter place in all Scotland to deliver over the 
 English to the Scots, or the many into the hands of the 
 fe\\\ The banners of the king and earl passed over, and 
 among the first that most valiant knight, Sir Marmaduke 
 Twenge. And when the enemy saw that as many as 
 they thought to overthrow had crossed, they ran down 
 the hill, and blocked up the bridge end with their spear- 
 men ; so that from thenceforth there was neither passage 
 nor return, but in the attempt many were cast over the 
 bridge and drowned. As the Scots came down from the 
 mountain, Sir Marmaduke said, ' Is it not time, my 
 brethren, to charge them ? ' And they assented, and 
 spurred their horses : and in the shock some of the Scots 
 horsemen fell, and the others, to a man, ran a^ay. As 
 our men pursued the fugitives, one said to Sir Marmaduke, 
 ' Sir, we are betraj^ed, for our comrades do not follow, and 
 the banners of the king and earl are not to be seen.' 
 Then looking back, they saw that many of our men, and 
 among them the standard-bearers, had fallen, and said, 
 * Our way to the bridge is cut off, and we are barred from 
 our friends : it is better to make trial of the water, if it 
 be that we may pass it, than to plunge into the columns 
 of the enemy, and fall to no purpose. It is difficult, yea, 
 impossible, for us to pass through the midst of the Scots.' 
 Then replied that valiant knight. Sir Marmaduke, ' Surely, 
 my dear friends, it shall never be said of me, that I 
 drowned myself for nothing. Do not ye so either, but 
 follow me, and I will clear a passage through them even 
 to the bridge.' Then spurring his charger, he plunged
 
 AVILLIAM WALLACE. 67 
 
 among the enemy, and dealing blows on either side, 
 passed unhurt through the throng, and laid open a wide 
 path for his followers. For he was tall, and stout of body. 
 And as he fought thus valiantly, his nephew, who was 
 wounded, his horse being slain, shouted after him, ' Sir, 
 save me.' He replied, ' Get up behind me.' — ' I cannot,' 
 he answered, ' for my strength is gone.' Presently his 
 comrade, an esquire of the same Sir Marmaduke, came 
 up, and descending from his horse, he placed the young 
 man on it, and said to his master, ' Sir, go where you 
 will, I follow ;' and he followed him to the bridge, so that 
 both were preserved. All who remained, to the number 
 of one hundred horsemen, and five thousand foot, 
 perished, except a few who sv/am the river. One knight, 
 also,' with much difficulty, passed the water upon his 
 barded horse." * 
 
 The Earl of Surrey quitted the field as soon as he was 
 rejoined by Twenge, giving orders for the dest]'uction 
 of the bridge. The Scots, therefore, did not cross 
 to pursue their success : but notwithstanding, quantities 
 of plunder fell into their hands, and the decisive nature 
 of the defeat is evident from the consequences which 
 attended it. In the words of Knighton, ^'This awful 
 beginning of hostilities roused the spirit of Scotland, and 
 sunk the hearts of the English." In a short time not v. 
 fortress of Scotland remained in Edward's possession. 
 The castles of Edinburgh and Roxburgh were dismantled, 
 and Berwick, being abandoned by the English upon the 
 advance of the Scots, was occupied by Wallace, who 
 resolved on an immediate expedition into England, with 
 the view of providing sustenance for his troops, and 
 lightening the horrors of famine, which now fell severely 
 upon Scotland. 
 
 '' After that ill-omened beginning," Hemingford con- 
 tinues, " the Scots were animated, and the heai'ts of 
 the English troubled. Wallace overran and devastated 
 the whole of Northumberland. In that time the praise 
 
 * Hemingford, Hist. Edw. I., ed. Hearne, p. 126-9. Barded, 
 clad in armour as well as his rider.
 
 68 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 of God ceased to be heard in all monasteries and churches 
 from Newcastle-upon-Tjne to Carlisle. For all monks, 
 canons, and other priests, with all the commons, fled 
 before the face of the Scots." Turning then westward, 
 he passed Carlisle, which refused to surrender, ravaged 
 Cumberland, and was advancing into Durham, when his 
 progress was stopped by the winter's setting in with 
 unusual severity : a deliverance ascribed to the miracu- 
 lous assistance of Cuthbert, the patron saint of the dio- 
 cese. '' Returning to Hexham, where stood a wealthy 
 monastery, which the Scots had plundered on their ad- 
 vance, three canons of that house, who, having no fear 
 of death, had just returned, fled into an oratory which 
 they had rebuilt, that, if it were the Divine will, they 
 might there be offered as a sacrifice of sweet savour. 
 Presently the spearmen came in and shook their lances 
 over them, saying, ' Show us the treasures of your church, 
 or ye shall instantly die.' One of them replied, ' It is 
 not long since you and your people carried off our pro- 
 perty, as if it had been your own, and you know where 
 you have placed it. Since then we have sought out a 
 few things, as you now see.' Meanwhile Wallace ap- 
 peared and rebuked his men, and bid them give way, 
 and asked one of the monks to celebrate mass, which 
 was done. And at the moment of elevating the host, 
 Wallace went forth to lay aside his armour ; and then, 
 when the priest was about to take the holy sacrament, 
 the Scots gathered round him, to snatch away the cup. 
 And after Wallace had washed his hands, and returned 
 from the sacristy to the altar, he found the chalice and 
 the napkins, and other ornaments of the altar, carried 
 off; even the book in which the mass had been begun, 
 was gone. And while the priest was hesitating what 
 he should do, Wallace returned, and seeing what had 
 passed, he gave order that those sacrilegious men should 
 be sought out, and put to death. But they were not 
 found, inasmuch as they were not sought for in earnest. 
 And he said to the canons, ' Go not away from me, but 
 keep near me, as you value your safety. For this
 
 WILLIAM WALLACE. 69 
 
 people is ill-disposed, and may neither be excused nor 
 punished.' "* 
 
 Soon after his return from this expedition, he was 
 elected governor of Scotland, and his measures in this 
 high office appear to have been judicious and temperate. 
 But the haughty barons could not bear the superiority 
 of one whose only claim was in his merit, and thus 
 division was sown in the Scottish councils at the time 
 when unanimity was more than ever needed. In the 
 summer of 1298 Edward himself invaded Scotland at 
 the head of a powerful army. The plan adopted by 
 Wallace upon this occasion was the same as that which 
 was afterwards so successfully executed by Bruce. He 
 avoided a general battle, which with an army far inferior 
 to the English must have been fought to a disadvantage, 
 — he fell back slowly before the enemy, leaving some 
 garrisons in the most important castles, driving off all sup- 
 plies, wasting the country through which the English 
 were to march, and waiting till the scarcity of provisions 
 compelled them to retreat, and gave him a favourable 
 opportunity of breaking down upon them with full effect.f 
 
 * Hemingford, Hist. Edw. I,, ed. Hearne, p. 134. 
 
 f His system of war is embodied in some monkish Latin 
 verses called ' The Bruce's Testament,' of which the fol- 
 lowing is an old Scottish translation : — 
 
 On fut suld be all Scottis weire, 
 
 Be hyll and moss thaimself to weire, 
 
 Lat wod for wallis be ; bow, and spier, 
 
 And battle-axe, their fechting gear. 
 
 That ennymeis do thaim na dreire 
 
 In strait placis gar keip all stoire. 
 
 And biruen the planen land thaim befoire. 
 
 Thanan sail they pass away in haist 
 
 Quhen that thai find nothing bot waist ; 
 
 "With wyles and wakenen of the nycht. 
 
 And mekil noyse maid on hycht ; 
 
 Thanen shall thai turnen with gret affrai 
 
 As thai were cliasit with swerd away. 
 
 This is the counsall and intent 
 
 Of <^ud King Robert's testament.
 
 70 HISTOEICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 They advanced unopposed, therefore, but found an 
 inhospitable desert ; and Edward, unable to replace his 
 exhausted stores, was at length compelled to issue orders 
 for a retreat to Edinburgh, hoping to meet his fleet at 
 Leith, and then to recommence oiFensive warfare. At 
 this critical juncture, when the military skill and wdsdom 
 of the dispositions made by Wallace became apparent, 
 and w^hen the moment to harass and destroy the invading 
 army in its retreat had arrived, the treachery of her nobles 
 again betrayed Scotland to the enemy. Two Scottish 
 lords, Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, and the Earl of Angus, 
 at day-break privately sought the quarters of the Bishop 
 of Durham, and informed him that the Scots w^ere en- 
 camped not far off in the forest of Falkirk. The Scot- 
 tish earls, who dreaded the resentment of Edward on 
 account of their late renunciation of allegiance, did not 
 venture to seek the king in person. They sent their 
 intelligence by a page, and added, that having heard of 
 his projected retreat, it was the intention of Wallace to 
 surprise him by a night attack. Edward, on hearing 
 this welcome news, could not conceal his joy. " Thanks 
 be to God," he exclaimed, " who hitherto hath extri- 
 cated me from every danger. They shall not need to fol- 
 low me, since I shall forthwith go and meet them."* 
 
 The consequence of this treachery was the fatal bat- 
 tle of Falkirk, in which the Scots were totally defeated, 
 with vast slaughter, owing to the jealousy and dissensions 
 of the nobility ; and Wallace, finding his own exertions 
 thwarted, resigned his otRce. 
 
 " Beside the watyre of Forth, he 
 Forsook Wardane ever to be. 
 For lever^ he had to lyve simply. 
 Na under sic doubt in Seigniory. 
 Na the leal comonys of Scotland 
 He wold not had peryst under his hand. 
 
 " Of his good deeds, and manhood 
 Gret Gestis, I hard say, are made. 
 
 * Tytler, vol. i. ^ Eather.
 
 WILLIAM WALLACE. 7 1 
 
 But sa mony I trow not 
 
 As he intil hys dayis wroucht. 
 
 Wha all his Dedis of price wald dyte 
 
 Him worthyd a gret Book to wryte 
 
 And all thae to wryte in here 
 
 I want both wyt and good lay sere."* 
 
 For several years after this, we do not meet with his 
 name in the records of authentic history. The blind 
 minstrel transports him to France during this period, 
 where he goes through many adventures, and, among 
 others, kills a lion in single combat. But we must 
 hasten to the closing scene of his life. After Edward 
 had overrun and subjected the whole country in 1303, 
 all others who had distinguished themselves in the war 
 were admitted to pardon upon terms more or less hard. 
 " As for William Wallace," says the deed, " it is 
 covenanted, that if he thinks proper to surrender him- 
 self, it must be unconditionally to the will and mercy of our 
 lord the king." To accept such ' terms was to deliver 
 himself over to death ; he therefore,betook himself to the 
 woods and mountains, and lived upon plunder. 
 
 It is amusing to trace the effects of national partialitj'- 
 in the contradictory accounts of the Scottish and Eng- 
 lish historians. Bower tells us that Wallace's friends 
 endeavoured to induce him to submit, upon the same 
 terms as themselves ; and that Edward was so anxious 
 upon this head, that he offered, not only personal se- 
 curity, but an earldom, with ample domains, to be 
 selected, by himself, either in Scotland or England, as 
 the price of his allegiance. But Wallace answered, that 
 if every other Scot should submit, still he and his com- 
 panions would stand up for the freedom of the kingdom ; 
 and never, as they hoped for God's favour, obey any one 
 except their monarch or his deputy. Langtoft, on the 
 other hand, says that the Scottish hero offered ;;to sur- 
 render upon assurance of safety in life, limb, and estate ; 
 but Edward's anger was so hot against him, that he 
 burst into a fury at the bare proposition. 
 
 " Wyntown, VIII, xv. v. 65.
 
 72 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 When they brought that tiding, Edward was full grim. 
 And betaught him the fende,^ als his traytoure in lond. 
 And ever-ilkon his frende, that him susteyned, or fond. 
 Three hundred marke he hette unto his warisoun,^ 
 That with him so met, or bring his hede to toun. 
 Now flies William Wallis, of pes nought he spedis,^ 
 In mores and in mareis with robberie him fedis. 
 
 Ah Jhesu whan thou will, how rightwis is thy mede : 
 
 That of the wrong has gilt, the endyng may he drede. 
 
 William Waleis is nomen,"^ that maister was of theves. 
 
 Tiding to the kyng is comen, that robberie mischeves.« 
 
 Sir Jon of Menetest sewed William so nehi,* 
 
 He took him whan he wend lest,? on nyglit his lemman by, 
 
 That was thought treson of Jak Short his man. 
 
 He was the encheson,i' that Sir Jon so him nam.' 
 
 Jak's brother had he slayn, the Waleis that is said, 
 
 The more Jak was fayn to do^ William that braid.J 
 
 Selcouthlyt he endis, the man'that is fals, 
 
 If he trest on his frends, they begile him als. 
 
 Begiled is William, taken is, and bondon. 
 
 To Inglond with him thei came, and led him to London. 
 
 The first dome he fanged,' for treson was he drawen. 
 
 For robberie was he hanged, and for he had men slawen, 
 
 And for he had brent abbeis, and men of religion, 
 
 Eft'" from the galweis quick" thei let him doun, 
 
 And bouweld him all bote," and brent them in the fire. 
 
 His hede than of smote, swilk^ was William's hire ; 
 
 And for he had raayntend the werre at his niyght. 
 
 On lordship lended thorei he had no right, 
 
 And stroied thore he knew, in fele stede sers."" 
 
 His body thei hewed on four quarters, 
 
 * Consigned him to the devil as a traitor. 
 Promised for his reward. '^ Fails in obtaining peace. 
 
 d Taken. ° Has ill luck. 
 
 *' Menteith followed so nigh. s Least expected. 
 
 ^ Occasion. ' JNimmed, taken. J Office. 
 
 ^ Strangely. ^ Sentence he received. 
 
 "' Afterwards. " Alive. 
 
 " Embowelled him while warm. p Such. 
 
 1 Seized there. 
 
 •■ Destroyed where. In many different places.
 
 WILLIAM V/ALLACE. 7o 
 
 To hang in four tonnes, to mene^ of his maners, 
 
 In stede of Gonfaynounes*^ and of his baners. 
 
 At London is his heved, his quarters ere leved," in Scotland 
 
 spred, 
 To wirschip ther isles/ and lere of his wiles, how well 
 
 that he sped. 
 It is not to drede, traytour sail spede,"' als he is worthi, 
 His lif sail he tyne, and die thorgh pyne, withouten merci. ' 
 Thus may men here, a lad for to lere, to biggen in pays." 
 It fallis in his eye, that hewes over high, with the Walays. 
 LangtofVs Chronicle of Edw. I. 
 
 " The day after his arrival at London, he vi'as brought 
 on horseback to Westminster, the mayor, sheriffs, and 
 aldermen, and many others, both on foot and horseback, 
 accompanying him ; and in the greate hall at West- 
 minster, he being placed upon the south bench, crov^'ned 
 with laurel, for that he had said in times past, that he 
 ought to bear a crowne in that Hall (as it was com-, 
 monly reported), and being appeached for a tray tor by 
 Sir Peter Mallorie, the king's justice, hee answered, 
 that he never was tray tor to the king of England, but 
 for other things whereof he was accused, he confessed 
 them, and was after headed and quartered."* 
 
 His head was set up*at London, his quarters were sent 
 to Newcastle, Berwick, Perth, and Aberdeen. But 
 Edward reaped no advantage from this act of cruelty and 
 injustice, except the gratification of his implacable tem- 
 per. If intimidation was his object, it failed, as was to 
 be expected in the case of a high-spirited people : and 
 the only effect of raising these ghastly trophies was to 
 inspire a deeper hatred of the tyrant who commanded 
 them, and of the treacherous minister of his revenge. 
 The latter long continued to be an object of especial 
 hatred to the Scottish nation ; and is condemned to shame 
 
 * In memory. * Standards. 
 
 " Head. Were left (?) ' ? 
 
 "*'' It is not to be feared a traitor shall succeed. 
 
 '^ A lad learn (?) to build in peace. 
 
 * Stow, Edw. I.
 
 74 IIISTOHICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 in its traditional literature under the fitting title of the 
 " false Menteith." 
 
 Here, it might be supposed, history must end, and the 
 ultimate destiny of the . oppressor and oppressed, the 
 tyrant and his victim, remain a mystery until the time 
 when all things shall be brought to light. But the pa- 
 triotic chronicler before quoted, who probably could not 
 bear that the last scene of his hero should be one of 
 suffering and degradation, undertakes to enlighten our 
 curiosity on this subject. We read in the continuation 
 of Fordun by Bower, that, according to the testimony of 
 many credible Englishmen, " an holy hermit, being rapt 
 in the spirit, saw innumerable souls delivered from pur- 
 gatory marshalling the way, while the spirit of Wallace 
 was conducted to heaven by angels, in reward of his in- 
 flexible patriotism. To whom the proverb may be 
 applied, ' The memory of the just with praise, and the 
 name of the wicked stinketh.' " 
 
 Soon after, he proceeds' to illustrate the latter clause 
 of the proverb. When Edward died upon his march to 
 Scotland, an English knight, Bannister by name, upon 
 the night of his decease, saw in a trance his lord the 
 king, surrounded by a multitude of devils, who were 
 mocking him with much laughter, and saying, 
 
 En rex Edwardus, debacchans ut leopardus ! 
 Olim dum -visit populum Dei maleflixit. 
 Nobis viae talis comes ibis, care sodalis, 
 Quo condemneris, ut dsemonibus socieris. 
 Te sequimur voto prorsus torpore remoto.* 
 
 Meanwhile they drove him on with whips and scorpions. 
 
 * It is impossible in English to give the odd effect of the 
 leouine rhymes. The meaning of these rude lines may be 
 as rudely given thus ; 
 
 Behold the proud and cruel king, who like a leopard 
 
 dread 
 In life the' people of the Lord did put in woeful stead : 
 For which, good friend, along with us unto that place of 
 
 woe, 
 Where friends and devils company, right merrily you go.
 
 \YlLLIAM WALLACE. 75 
 
 " Let us sing," they said, '' the canticle of death, beseem- 
 ing this wicked soul ; because she is the daughter of death, 
 and food of fire unquenchable ; the friend of darkness, 
 and enemy .'of light." And then they repeated En rex, 
 &c. _ 
 
 While thus tormented by the evil spirits, he turned, 
 said the knight, his trembling and bloodless visage 
 towards me, as if to implore the aid which I was used 
 to minister to him. But when voice and sense both 
 deserted me, he cast upon me such a dreadful look, that 
 while I live and remember it I can never more be cheer- 
 ful. With that, he was in a moment swallowed up into 
 the infernal pit, exclaiming in a doleful voice, 
 
 Heu cur peccavi ? fallor quia non bene cavi. 
 Heu cur peccavi ? perit et nihil est quod amavi. 
 Heu cur peccavi ? video, quia littus aravi, 
 Cum sudore gravi mihimet tormenta paravi.* 
 
 Bannister was so terrified by this 'vision, that he for- 
 sook the world and its vanities, and, for the improvement 
 of his life and conversation, spent his latter days in 
 solitude, t 
 
 Scotland did not long languish in want of a' deliverer. 
 The place of Wallace was quickly filled up by one 
 scarce his inferior in knightly renown, or in the affections 
 of his countrymen. Were it not for the length of this 
 article, we should willingly narrate some of the exploits 
 and hair-breadth escapes which procured for Robert 
 Bruce, even among the English, the reputation of being 
 the^third best knight in Europe ; but we must hasten to 
 conclude with the panegyric of the affectionate Bower. 
 
 * Why did I sin, woe, woe is me ? and took no heed or 
 thought. 
 Why did I sin, woe, woe is me? all that I loved is 
 
 nought. 
 Why did I sin, woe, woe is me? my seed upon the 
 
 shore 
 I sowed with toil and sweat, to reap of pains an endless 
 store. 
 
 t Lib. xii. 13.
 
 76 HisToracAL takallels. 
 
 " There is no living man who is able to narrate the 
 story of those complicated misfortunes which befell him 
 in the commencement of this war ; his frequent perils, 
 his retreats, the care and weariness, the hunger and 
 thirst, the watching and fasting, the cold and nakedness, 
 to which he exposed his person, the exile into which he 
 was driven, the snares and ambushes which he escaped, 
 the seizure, imprisonment, execution, and utter destruc- 
 tion of his dearest friends and relatives. And if, in 
 addition to these almost innumerable and untoward events, 
 which he ever bore with a cheerful and unconquered 
 spirit, any man should undertake to describe his indivi- 
 dual conflicts, and personal successes, those courageous 
 and single-handed combats in which, by the favour of 
 God, and his own great strength and courage, he would 
 often penetrate into the thickest of the enemy, — now 
 becoming the assailant, and cutting down all who opposed 
 him ; at another time acting on the defensive, and 
 evincing equal talents in escaping from what seemed 
 inevitable death ; — if any writer shall do this, he will 
 prove, if I am not mistaken, that he had no equal in his 
 own time, either in knightly prowess, or in strength and 
 vigour of body."* 
 
 * Lib. xii. 9.
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Treatment of Prisoners of War— Croesus— Eoman Triumphs 
 — Sapor and Valerian — Imprisonment of Bajazet— His 
 treatment of the Marshal Boucicaut and his Companions — 
 Changes produced by the advance of Civilization — Effect 
 of Feudal Institutions — Anecdote from Froissart — Conduct 
 of the Black Prince towards the Constable Du Guesclin 
 and the King of France. 
 
 The wealth of Croesus is proverbial, and the vicissitudes 
 of his fortune have been a favourite subject for moralists 
 in all ages. In Mitford's History of Greece, as well as 
 in that published in the Library of Useful Knowledge, 
 all notice of them is confined to the simple statement, 
 that he was conquered by Cyrus. The circumstances of 
 his treatment, however, as they are related by Herodotus, 
 are curious ; and we propose, therefore, to translate them 
 literally from that author, leaving it to the reader's dis- 
 cretion to reject whatever is evidently fabulous. 
 
 It is well known that he was induced to- make war 
 upon Cyrus by an ambiguous response of the Delphic 
 oracle, w^hich predicted to him, " that if he made war 
 upon the Persians, he M'ould destroy a great empire." 
 The oracle was a very safe one. Croesus understood it, 
 that the Persian empire would be destroyed ; but the 
 credit of the god was equally supported by the event 
 which really took place, the defeat of Croesus and the 
 destruction of his kingdom. Upon his defeat he took 
 refuge in Sardis, which was besieged and ultimately 
 stormed. "So the Persians captured Sardis and took 
 Croesus alive, after he had reigned fourteen years ; and 
 led him before Cyrus, who caused a mighty funeral pile
 
 78 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 to be built, upon which he set Croesus in fetters, and 
 with him fourteen Lydian youths ; whether it were in 
 his mind to offer them to some deity as the first-fruits 
 of his conquest, or with intention to perform some vow, 
 or because he had heard of Croesus's piety and therefore 
 set him upon the pile, that he might know whether any 
 god would deliver him from being burnt alive. Howbeit, 
 he did so : but while Croesus stood upon the pile, it 
 struck him, even in this extremity of evil, that Solon 
 was inspired when he said that no man ought to be 
 called happy while he M'as yet alive.* And when this 
 thought occurred to him, after being long silent, he 
 thrice repeated with groans the name of Solon. Cyrus 
 heard him, and bade the interpreters ask who this Solon, 
 whom he invoked, might be ; and they drew near, and 
 did so. But Croesus spoke not for some time, and 
 replied at length, when he was compelled, ' One whom 
 I would rather than much wealth, were introduced to 
 the conversation of all monarchs.' But as he spoke 
 unintelligibly to them, they again asked what he meant ,- 
 and when they became urgent and troublesome, he 
 related at length how Solon, an Athenian, came to him, 
 and having beheld all his treasures, set them at nought, 
 having spoken to such purpose, that all things had hap- 
 pened according to his words, which yet bore no especial 
 reference to himself more than to the rest of mankind, 
 particularly to those who trusted in their own good 
 fortune. So by the time Croesus had given this account,, 
 the pile being lighted, the outside of it was in flames-. 
 And when Cyrus heard from the interpreters what 
 Croesus'said, he repented, and reflected that he, being but 
 a man himself, was casting another alive into the flames 
 who formerly had been no whit inferior to himself in 
 
 ' * In the celebrated interview between Solon and Croesus, 
 the sage first offended the king by questioning the power 
 of wealth to produce happiness, and concluded by reading 
 him a long moral lesson, to the purport, that since no man 
 knew what the morrow might produce, no man could be 
 called happy until present prosperity was crowned by a happy 
 death.
 
 CEOESUS. 79 
 
 prosperity : and being also in dread of divine vengeance, 
 and considering that nothing human is unchangeable, he 
 ordered the fire to be forthwith extinguished, and Croesus, 
 with his companions, to be taken down ; but his officers, 
 with all their endeavours, were unable to master it. Then 
 Croesus, as the Lydians say, discovering that Cyrus had 
 changed his purpose, when he saw that all were endea- 
 vouring, and yet were unable to quench the fire, called 
 loudly upon^Apollo, entreating the god, if that he ever 
 had offered any acceptable gifts, now to stand by, and 
 deliver him from the present evil. And as he called 
 upon the god in tears, suddenly clouds collected in the 
 serene sky, and the storm broke down, and a torrent of 
 rain fell, and extinguished the fire. Cyrus, therefore, 
 being by these means instructed that Croesus was a good 
 man, and beloved by the gods, inquired of him, when he 
 was come down from the pile, ' Croesus, who persuaded 
 you to invade my kingdom, and thus become an enemy 
 instead of a friend?* And he said, 'O king, I have 
 done thus to further your good, and my own evil fate : 
 but the god of the Grecians, who puffed me up to war, 
 has been the author of these events. For no man is so 
 witless as to choose war instead of peace, when, in the 
 one, fathers bury their sons, and in the other, sons their 
 fathers. But it was the pleasure of the gods that these 
 things should turn out thus.' 
 
 ^' Thus spoke Croesus, and Cyrus released him, and 
 kept him near his person, and thenceforth treated him 
 with much respect."* 
 
 The evident intermixture of fable with this tale is 
 calculated to throw doubt upon the whole of it, and 
 indeed it seems at variance with the character of Cyrus. 
 That Xenophon omits all mention of the circumstances 
 related would be a strong argument in disproof of them, 
 if they were calculated to advance his hero's reputation ; 
 but in the present case his silence is of little weight. 
 The close resemblance, however, between the preserva- 
 tion of Croesus, and the miraculous deliverance of the 
 
 Herod, i. 8G— 8S.
 
 80 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 Jewish youths condemned by Nebuchadnezzar to the 
 furnace, might warrant us in suspecting that some account 
 of so impressive a display of Divine power had reached 
 the western coast of Asia, and that the careless or un- 
 faithful annalists of those early times transferred the 
 scene from Babylon to Lydia, and substituted the names 
 best known in their own history for the barbarian ap- 
 pellations of the Assyrian monarch and his prisoners. 
 This idea may be supported by the expression of Hero- 
 dotus, that Cyras condemned Croesus to be burnt 
 " because of his piety, that he might know whether any 
 god would deliver him from being burnt alive." Cyrus 
 was neither cruel nor a scoffer, so that we cannot sup- 
 pose it to have been an impious jest, and can as little 
 imagine that it was a serious experiment on the part of 
 the Persian to try the power of the Grecian deities. It 
 is not very likely, therefore, that such a reason was in- 
 vented to account for the action ; but the recorded 
 preservation of the Jews, and the decree of Nebuchad- 
 nezzar *' that there is no other god that can deliver after 
 this sort," may well enough have led to the inference that 
 the monarch's object was to prove the power which in 
 the end he was obliged to confess. 
 
 No extraordinary quantity either of humanity or 
 reflection was necessary to have impressed on Cyrus's 
 mind, in the first instance, the truths contained in Solon's 
 warning to his rival. But humanity towards prisoners 
 was no virtue of antiquity ; and in this respect the prac- 
 tice of European nations of modern times offers a striking- 
 contrast to that of heathenism in all ages and regions. 
 Our Scandinavian ancestors and the North American 
 Indians put prisoners to death for revenge, or for the 
 mere pleasure of inflicting pain : the rude Druids and 
 the comparatively polished priests of Mexico alike es- 
 teemed an enemy's blood the most grateful offering to 
 their savage deities. The histories of Greece and Rome 
 abound also with acts of atrocious cruelty ; while the 
 East is notorious alike for the frequent changes of 
 her dynasties, and for the unsparing ])olicy which 
 has prompted successive conquerors to establish their
 
 TREATMENT OF TRISONERS. 81 
 
 own thrones by the extermination of all possible claim- 
 ants. 
 
 It is not fair, however, to select none but unfavourable 
 examples ; and of favourable ones, few or none are more 
 celebrated than the generosity of Alexander and the 
 virtue of Scipio. After Alexander had, gained the im- 
 portant battle of Issus (b.c. 333), in the Persian war, 
 Darius's family fell into the victor's hands.* They were 
 treated with the respect due to their rank and their 
 misfortunes. '' Not long after, one of his queen's 
 eunuchs escaped to Darius, who, when he saw him, 
 first asked whether his children and his wife and 
 mother were alive. And hearing that they w^ere so, 
 that they were addressed as queens, and enjoyed all the 
 respect and attention which they had possessed at his 
 own court, he inquired in addition, whether his wife 
 had preserved her faith ; and being satisfied on this 
 point also, he again inquired whether any insult or vio- 
 lence had been offered to her. The eunuch affirmed 
 with an oath, ' O king, your wife remains even as you 
 left her, and Alexander is the best and most temperate 
 of men.' Upon which Darius lifted up his hands towards 
 heaven, and prayed, ' O sovereign Jupiter, in whose 
 hands are placed the fortunes of kings upon earth, above 
 all things do thou maintain the kingdom of the Medes 
 and Persians, which thou hast given to me ! But if thou 
 wilt that I be king of Asia no longer, then intrust my 
 power to none but Alexander.'"! 
 
 Closely akin to this in all its circumstances is the 
 celebrated story of the continence of Scipio, who has 
 
 * " Ci doivent prendre garde cils qui leur fames mainent 
 avec euls en os, et en batailles, car Daires li rois de Perse, 
 & Antoines, et autre prince terrien manerent leur fames en 
 lor compaignie en os quant il i aloient, & en batailles : et 
 pour ce furent desconfit et oecis, Daires par le grant Alex- 
 andre, et Antoines par Octavien. Pour ce meismement ne 
 devroient mener nus princes fames en tex besoignes : car 
 elles ne sont fors empecchement." The language is that of 
 the thirteenth century. Croniques de S. Denys, liv. v. 1. 
 
 t Arrian, iv. 20.
 
 82 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 obtained immortal praise by surrendering untouched to 
 her lover a beautiful Spanish lad}^ who had been selected 
 from the other prisoners and presented to him ; and 
 from the admiration testified by all antiquity for^ the 
 virtue displayed alike by the Grecian and the Roman 
 hero, we may form an opinion of the treatment which 
 captives generally endured. We have no wish to 
 detract from the praise which is justly due to them, or 
 to undervalue the merit of those who precede their age 
 in humanity and refinement ; but it is worthy of observ- 
 ation that in modern times, far from such conduct being- 
 regarded as an effort of virtue almost super-human, in- 
 famy or death would be the portion of a general who 
 acted otherwise. These exceptions therefore do really 
 serve to confirm the rule ; and the extravagant com- 
 mendation which has been bestowed upon such self- 
 denial bears incontrovertible evidence to the general 
 want of generosity in conquerors, and to the unhappy 
 condition of the conquered. 
 
 Few foreigners of regal dignity or exalted fortune 
 fell into the power of the Grecian commonwealths : of 
 their treatment of each other's citizens we shall have 
 occasion to speak hereafter. But the gigantic grasp of 
 Roman ambition comprehended the most powerful of 
 the earth, and made them drink deep of degradation. 
 The usual lot of prisoners of war was slavery ; a practice 
 bad enough, but common to the rest of antiquity with 
 Rome : the institution of triumphs is her peculiar glory 
 and distinction. Something may be said in palliation of 
 a victor, who, having possession of his enemy, obviates 
 the danger of further resistance or revolt by committing 
 him to that narrow prison from which alone there is no 
 chance of escape. But when a Roman general's arms 
 were crowned with success, the prisoners of highest 
 estimation were carefully reserved ; and when all danger 
 from their life was at an end, and their degradation, as 
 far as external circumstances can degrade, was complete, 
 after they had been led in chains before their conqueror's 
 car, to swell his vanity and satiate the pride of Rome, 
 they were sent to perish unheeded and unlamented by
 
 ROMAN TKIUMPIIS. 83 
 
 the hands of the executioner, and the thanksgiving due 
 to the gods and the triumphal banquet were delayed 
 until the savage ritual -was duly performed, " Those 
 even who triumph, and therefore grant longer life to the 
 hostile chiefs, that from their presence in the procession 
 the Roman people may derive its fairest spectacle and 
 fruit of victory, yet bid them to be led to prison when 
 they begin to turn their chariots from the Forum to the 
 Capitol ; and the same day puts an end to the conqueror's 
 command and to the life of the conquered."* They led 
 the prisoners to execution at the moment when the 
 triumphal chariot began to ascend the Capitoline hill, in 
 order, they said, that their moment of highest exultation 
 might be that of their enemies' extreraest agony. There 
 is a needless barbarity and insolence in the whole pro- 
 ceeding which is peculiarly disgusting ; and which was 
 aggravated by the solemn hypocrisy of placing in the 
 triumphal chariot a slave to whisper in the victor's ear, 
 " Remember that thou art a man," when in the same 
 instant they displayed so signal a disregard for the re- 
 verses to which humanity is exposed, and such con- 
 tempt for the lessons which that vvarning ought to have 
 taught. 
 
 We may "take as an example the treatment of Jugur- 
 tha, king of Numidia; for whom, indeed, so far as his 
 own merits are concerned, no treatment could have been 
 too severe. " Marius, bringing home his army againe 
 out of Lybia into Italy, took possession of his consulship 
 the first day of January, and therewithall made his tri- 
 umph into the city of Rome, shewing that to the Romans 
 which they thought never to have seen ; and that was, 
 king Jugurth prisoner, who was so subtill a man, and. 
 could so well frame himself unto his fortune, and with his 
 craft and subtilty was of so [great courage besides, 
 that none of his enemies ever hoped to have had 
 him alive. But it is said that after he was led in this 
 triumph, he fell mad straight upon it ; and the pompe of 
 triumph being ended, he was carried unto prison, where 
 the Serjeants, for hast to have the spoil of him, tore hi? 
 * In Verrem. Act. ii. lib. v. 30.
 
 84 HISTORICAL PAHALLELS. 
 
 apparel by force from off his back : ' and because they 
 would take away his rich gold earrings, that hung on hicj 
 eares, they pulled away with them the tippe of his eare, 
 and then cast him naked to the bottome of a deep dun- 
 geon, his wits being altogether troubled. Yet when they 
 did throw him downe, laughing he said, ' O Hercules, 
 how cold are your baths !' He lived there yet six days, 
 fighting with hunger, and desiring alwaies to prolong his 
 miserable life to the last hour : the which was a just de- 
 served punishment for his wicked life."* 
 
 Marius, however, with all his military talents was but 
 a rude and blood-thirsty soldier. From Cassar, on the 
 contrary, who throughout the civil wars displayed signal 
 generosity and mildness of temper, we might have ex- 
 pected a fairer estimate of the treatment due ,to a noble 
 enemy. But in his treatment of Vercingetorix those 
 noble qualities are exchanged for the haughty and selfish 
 cruelty which the foreign policy of Rome was most 
 admirably calculated to produce. That prince, after a 
 most gallant and almost successful stand in defence of 
 the liberties of Gaul, being shut up in Alesia, and re- 
 duced to extremity by Caesar, surrendered himself to 
 the victor's mercy in hope of obtaining better terms for 
 his comrades. The scene is thus described by Dion 
 Cassius : — 
 
 " Vercingetorix being still at liberty, and un wounded, 
 might have escaped ; but hoping, for the sake of their 
 previous friendship, to obtain forgiveness from Caesar, he 
 went out to him without notice of his coming. And while 
 the Roman general was seated on the tribunal, he ap- 
 peared suddenly, so as to alarm some persons, for he was 
 tall of stature, and made a gallant appearance in his ar- 
 mour. All around being hushed, he said nothing, but 
 fell on his knee, stretching out his hand in gesture of 
 supplication. All others were struck with compassion, 
 both by the recollection of his former high state, and by 
 the exceeding piteousness of the spectacle before them. 
 But Caesar made that from_ which he chiefly expected 
 
 * Plut. in Mar.
 
 VALERIA X. 85 
 
 to derive safety, the heaviest charge against him ; for, 
 dwelling on the return for his friendship, he made the 
 injmy appear the heavier. And therefore he pitied him 
 not in that conjuncture, but for the present cast him into 
 bonds, reserving him until his triumph, after which he 
 slew him."* 
 
 But Rome, which had so often insulted the majesty of 
 fallen royalty, endured in the person of one of her em- 
 perors a greater degradation than any which she had in- 
 flicted. When the emperor Valerian was taken prisoner 
 by Sapor, king of Pers'a, his life was spared, but spared 
 that his age might waste in the most humiliating slavery ; 
 and when the haughty monarch mounted his horse, he 
 used the prostrate body of his royal captive for a footstool. 
 That, said the haughty Sapor, was a real triumph ; not 
 painting imaginary processions upon walls, as the Romans 
 did. To gratify the victor's pride still more, he was com- 
 pelled to wear the imperial purple and decorations, and 
 in this attire, laden with chains, he followed in the train 
 of Sapor, and exhibited to the whole Persian empire a 
 striking picture of the fallen pride of Rome. This system 
 of insult extended even beyond the grave : his skin is re- 
 lated to have been dyed scarlet, and stuffed, and then 
 placed in a temple as an enduring monument of the shame 
 of Rome. The Christian writers, who alone relate all 
 the particulars of Valerian's humiliation,! see in it the 
 just vengeance of God for his persecution of our faith : 
 the reason, probably, that Gibbon seems inclined to 
 consider the story as a pious fiction. If so, however, it 
 soon obtained currency, for the Emperor Constantine, 
 who flourished not much more than half a century after 
 
 * Dion, lib. xl. — Caesar, iu his Commentaries, slurs this 
 transaction over with the mere notice that Vercingetorix was 
 surrendered (viii. 89). 
 
 t " Valerian for his persecutions was exposed to insult and 
 reproaches, according to what was spoken to Isaiah, saying, 
 ' They have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth 
 in their abominations. I also will choose their delusions, and 
 recompense their sins upon them.' " — Dionysius of Alexandria, 
 ap. Euseb.i lib. vii. 10. 
 
 E 3
 
 86 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 the event, alludes to it in a letter to the king of Persia : 
 " All these emperors (the persecutors of Christianity) 
 have been destroyed by such a dreadful and avenging 
 end, that since their times all mankind doth usually wish 
 their calamities may fall as a curse and punishment upon 
 those who shall study to imitate them. One of which 
 persons I judge him to have been (him, I mean, whom 
 divine vengeance like a thunderbolt drove out of our 
 regions, and conveyed unto your country) who by his 
 own disgrace and ignominy erected that trophy so much 
 boasted of among you."* 
 
 Somewhat similar to the indignities offered to Valerian 
 was the treatment which the Sultan Bajazet is said to 
 have experienced from Tamerlane after his defeat and 
 capture. 
 
 Closed in a cage, like some destructive beast, 
 I'll have thee borne about in public view ; 
 A great example of the righteous vengeance 
 That waits on cruelty and pride like thine.f 
 
 Voltaire and other modern writers have discredited 
 this story, chiefly on the authority of D'Herbelot. It 
 has been shown, however, by Sir W. Jones, that the 
 premises of that distinguished orientalist are false, and 
 his authority therefore falls to the ground. On the other 
 hand, Leunclavius, in his History of the Turks, professes 
 to have heard from an old man, who was in Bajazet's 
 service at the time of his defeat, " that an iron cage was 
 made by Timour's command, composed on every side of 
 iron gratings, through which he could be seen in any 
 direction. He travelled in this den slung between two 
 horses. Whenever Timour and his retinue, on moving 
 his camp, made ready for a journey, he was usually 
 carried before ; and after the march, when they dis- 
 
 * Euseb., Life of Constantine, lib. iv. 1 1 .' 
 
 t Tamerlane — a tragedy worth reading, to see the notion 
 which Eowe had of a Tartar chief, and the absurdity pro- 
 duced by treating such subjects with the sentimental bombast 
 of the heroic romance.
 
 cou^'T>:ss of bucha>'. 87 
 
 mounted, he was placed upon the ground in his cage, 
 before Timour's tent." Poggio also, himself a contem- 
 porary, mentions this strange imprisonment as an un- 
 doubted fact.* 
 
 The English reader will find some countenance for 
 the story in Edward the First's inhuman treatment of 
 the Countess of Buchan. That lady having dared, it 
 is said, in virtue of hereditary privileges, to place the 
 crown of Scotland on the Bruce's head, and afterwards 
 falling into the English monarch's hands, was confined 
 in a cage built upon one of the towers of Berwick Castle, 
 exposed, as it should seem, to the rigour of the elements 
 and the gaze of passers by. One of Bruce's sisters w^as 
 similarly dealt with. So much for the devoted respect 
 paid to women in the age of chivalry, and that by a 
 prince who, when young, was inferior to none in knightly 
 renown. But the demoralizing effects of absolute power 
 found a fitting subject to work upon in Edward's stern 
 and unforgiving temper. The original order for the 
 Countess's confinement is to this effect : — 
 
 " Ordered and commanded, by letters under the privy 
 seal, to the Chamberlain of Scotland, or his deputy at 
 Berwick-upon-Tweed, that in one of the turrets, upon 
 the castle of that place, in such place as he shall chuse, 
 and shall be most convenient, he do make a cage of 
 
 ^ * M. de Masson asserts (it is to be taken on his authority, 
 not on ours) that he knew a lady of the Russian Jcourt, in 
 the reign of Catherine II., .who kept a slave who was ,her 
 perruquier shut up in a cage in her own chamber. She let 
 him out every day to arrange her head-dress, and locked him 
 up again with her own hands after the business of the toilet 
 was over. His box was placed at her bed-liead, and in this 
 fashion he attended lier wlierever she w^eut. His fare was 
 bread and water. He passed three years in this captivity, 
 the object of which was to conceal from all the Avorld that 
 the lady wore a wig. The close confinement was a punish- 
 ment for running away from her service ; the meagi-e diet 
 a, measure of revenge, because he could not prevent her 
 growing older and uglier every day. — Memoires Secrets sur 
 la JRiissie.
 
 00 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 strong lattice-work and bars, and well strengthened with 
 iron-work, in the which he shall place the Countess of 
 Buchan. 
 
 " And that he shall so well and surely guard her in 
 the same cage, that in no manner shall she pass out 
 from it. 
 
 " And that he do appoint one or two English women 
 of the said town of Berwick who shall be in no wise 
 suspected, who understand to serve the said Countess with 
 meat and drink, and all things pertaining to her. 
 
 " And that he do so well and strictly guard her in 
 the cage, that she speak to none, and that no man 
 or woman of the Scotch nation, nor any other appear 
 before her, but only the woman or women who shall 
 be assigned her, and those who shall have guard of 
 her. 
 
 " And that the cage be so made, that the Countess 
 may have there the convenience of a fair chamber, but 
 that it be so well and surely ordered, that no danger 
 may betide in respect of the custody of the said Countess. 
 
 " And that he who has care of her be charged to 
 answer for her, body for body, and that he be allowed 
 her expenses. 
 
 '* In like manner it is ordered that Mary, sister of 
 Robert Bruce, sometime Earl of Carrick, be sent to 
 Roxburgh, to be kept there in the castle, in a cage."* 
 
 The reader will not sympathise much with the harsh- 
 ness of Bajazet's durance, if he knows the character of 
 that redoubtable conqueror. The following passage will 
 convey a fair idea of it, and presents a good specimen of 
 the style of the I5th century; — 
 
 " In the year 1396, Sigismond, King of Hungry, sent 
 sweet and amyable letters to the French king by a notable 
 ambassador, a bysshop and two knights of Hungry. In 
 the same letters was contayned a greate parte of the 
 state and doyng of the greate Turke (Bajazet), and how 
 that he had sent worde to the King of Hungry, that he 
 would come and fight with him in the middes of his 
 
 * Eymer, Fcsdera, vol. ii.
 
 CRUELTY OF BAJAZET. 89 
 
 realnie, and would go fro thens to the cytie of Rome, 
 and would make his horse to eate otes upon the high altar 
 of Saynt Peter, and there to hold his see imperiale. 
 Thus the King of Hungry in his letters prayed the 
 French king to ayde and succour him."* In consequence 
 of this application, a strong body of French and other 
 knights marched into Hungary, under command of John 
 of Burgundy, Earl of Nevers. They crossed the Danube, 
 and after a successful campaign were besieging Nicopolis 
 in union with the Hungarian forces, when Bajazet marched 
 to the relief of that city. The loss of the battle which 
 ensued is attributed by Froissart to the precipitance ol 
 the French knights, who led the van, and rushed madly 
 into combat, against the order of the King of Hungary, 
 and without waiting for his support. The biographer of 
 the Marshal Boucicaut, on the other hand, throws the 
 whole blame upon the cowardly desertion of the Hunga- 
 rians. However this may be, the French charged in a 
 body not exceeding 700 men,f routed the first body of 
 Bajazet's cavalry, and penetrated through a line of stakes, 
 behind which the infantry were formed. '' Then the 
 noble Frenchmen, like men already enraged at the loss 
 which they had endured, ran upon them with such valour 
 and hardihood that they frightened all. I may not say 
 how they laid upon them. For never did foaming boar, 
 or angry wolf, shew a fiercer recklessness of life. There 
 the valiant Marshal of France, Boucicaut, among other 
 brave men, thrust himself into the thickest press, and 
 well proved whether he were grieved or no. For there 
 without fail did he so many acts of arms, that all mar- 
 velled, and there bore himself so knightly, that whoso 
 saw him still avers there never was any man, knight or 
 other, seen to do in one day more brave and valiant acts 
 than he did then."f The Earl of Nevers, the Lord of 
 Coucy, and the other French nobility well approved 
 their valour; but Boucicaut, if we may trust his bio- 
 grapher, was the hero of the day. Mounted on a power- 
 
 * Lord Berners's Froissart, vol. ii. chap. 203. 
 t Froissart. J Hist, de M. Boucicaut.
 
 90 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 iul war-horse, he spurred forwards, and struck so fiercely 
 to the right and to the left that he overthrew everything 
 before him. " And ever doing thus, he advanced so far, 
 which is a marvellous thing to relate, and yet true, as all 
 who saw it can bear witness, that he cut through the 
 whole Saracen array, and then returned back through 
 them to his comrades. Heaven, what a knight ! God 
 protect his valour ! Pity will it be when life shall fail 
 him ! But it will not be so yet, for God will protect 
 him. Thus fought our countrymen as long as their 
 strength lasted. Ah, what pity for so noble a company, 
 approved so gentle, so chivalrous, so excellent in arms, 
 which could have succour from no quarter, so ran they in 
 to their enemies' throats, so as is the iron on the anvil !* 
 For they were surrounded and oppressed so fatally on all 
 sides that they could no longer resist. And what won- 
 der ? for there were more than twenty Saracens against 
 one Christian! And yet our people "^ killed more than 
 20,000 of them, but at last they could exert themselves 
 no more. Ah, what a misfortune, what pity ! Ought not 
 those disloyal Christians to have been hanged who thus 
 falsely abandoned them ? Shame fall upon them, for had 
 they helped the valiant French and their comrades with 
 good will, not Bajazet nor one of his Turks would have 
 escaped death or captivity, which^ w'ould have been a 
 mighty good to all Christendom. 
 
 " Great pity was there again the morrow of this dolorous 
 battle. For Bajazet, sitting within a tent in the midst 
 of the field, caused to be led before him the Earl of Nevers 
 and those of his lineage, with all the French barons, 
 knights, and esquires who remained after the slaughter 
 of that field. Sad w^as it to see these noble youths, in 
 the prime of life, of blood so lofty as that of the royal 
 line of France, fast bound with ropes, disarmed, in their 
 under doublets, conducted by these ugly, frightful dogs 
 
 " Ains cheurent en la gueule de leurs ennemies, si comme 
 est le fer sur I'enclume." It is a queer comparison : the only 
 apparent resemblance is in the thorough beating -which they 
 and the iron were both destined to undergo.
 
 CRUELTY OF BAJAZET. 91 
 
 of Saracens before the tyrant enemy of the faith who sat 
 there. He knew for certain, through good interpreters, 
 that the Earl of Nevers was grandson and cousin-german 
 to a king of France, and that his father was a duke of 
 great power and wealth, and that others were of the 
 same blood and nearly related to the king. So he be- 
 thought himself, that for preserving them he might have 
 great treasure : therefore he did not put them to death, 
 nor any other of the greatest barons, but made them sit 
 there on the ground before him. Alas ! immediately 
 after began the cruel sacrifice. For then were led before 
 him the noble Christian barons, knights, and esquires, 
 naked ; and then, as they paint on the walls King Herod 
 sitting on a chair, and the Innocents cut in pieces before 
 him, there were our faithful Christians cut in pieces by 
 these Saracen curs before the Earl of Nevers and under 
 his very eyes. So you may understand, you who hear 
 this, what grief went to his heart, good and kind lord as 
 he is, and what pain it gave him to see thus martyred his 
 good and loyal companions, and his people that had been 
 so faithful to him, and who were so distinguished for 
 gallantry. Certes I think he was so grieved at heart, 
 that fain would he have been of their company in that 
 slaughter. And so the Turks led them ,'one after an- 
 other to martyrdom, as men led in old times the blessed 
 martyrs, and struck their heads and chests and shoulders 
 fearfully with great knives, and felled them without 
 mercy. Well may one know with what woful coun- 
 tenances they went in that sad procession. For even 
 as the butcher drags a lamb to the slaughter, so were our 
 good Christians, without a word being spoken, led to die 
 before the tyrant. But notwithstanding that their death 
 was hard and their case pitiful, every good Christian 
 should esteem them thrice fortunate, and Jborn in a happy 
 hour, to receive such a death. For they must sometime 
 have died, and God gave them grace to die in the advance- 
 ment of the Christian religion, the holiest and worthiest 
 death (as we in our faith hold) that a Christian can die ; 
 and also he made them to be the companions of the 
 blessed martyrs, the hapoiest of all the orders of Saints
 
 92 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 in Paradise. For there is no doubt but that they are 
 Saints in Paradise, if they met their fate with good will. 
 In this piteous procession was Boucieaut, the Marshal of 
 France, naked, except his small clothes (petits draps). 
 But God, who willed not to lose his servant, for the 
 sake of the good service which he was to do thereafter, 
 as well in avenging the death of that glorious company 
 upon the Saracens, as in the other great benefits which 
 were to follow from his talents and by his means, caused 
 the Earl of Nevers to look at the Marshal and the Marshal 
 at him right sorrowfully, at the very moment that some one 
 was about to strike him. Then was the foresaid Earl 
 wonderfully vexed at heart for the death of such a man, 
 and he called to mind the great good, the prowess, loyalty, 
 and valour that were in him. So, on a sudden, God put it 
 in his mind to clasp his hands together as he looked at 
 Bajazet, and he made sign that the Marshal was to him 
 as a brother, and that he should respite him : which sign 
 Bajazet soon understood, and released him. When this 
 stern execution was complete, and the whole field was 
 strewed with the bodies of these blessed martyrs, as many 
 French as others of divers countries, that cursed Bajazet 
 arose, and ordered the Marshal, who had been so respited, 
 to be committed to prison in a large handsome town of 
 Turkey, called Bursa. So his bidding was done, and he 
 was kept there till the arrival of the said Bajazet.'" 
 
 Innumerable instances of the like ferocity might be 
 produced from Eastern history. Rowe's polished and 
 pious Tamerlane 'put to death 100,000 persons in the 
 streets of Delhi. Few men have so well and fairly 
 estimated their own character, and the class to which 
 they belong, as did Nadir Shah, when to the remon- 
 strance, " If thou art a king, cherish and protect thy 
 people, — if a prophet, shew us the way of salvation, — if 
 a God, be merciful to thy creatures," he replied, " I am 
 neither a king to protect my subjects, nor a prophet to 
 teach the way of salvation, nor a God to exercise the 
 attribute of mercy ; but I am he whom the Almighty 
 
 * Hist, de M. de Boucieaut ; premiere partie, chaps, xxv. xxvi.
 
 ALP AKSLAN. 93 
 
 has sent in his wrath to chastise a world of sinners." 
 The following anecdote, striking in itself, is the more 
 interesting as an exception to a general rule : " In the 
 year 1068 Alp Arslan, .the second [sultan of Persia, of 
 the Seljukian dynasty, defeated and took prisoner Ro- 
 manus Diogenes, husband of Eudocia, the reigning em- 
 press of Constantinople. He treated his prisoner with 
 extreme kindness and distinction ; he uttered no re- 
 proaches that could wound a humbled monarch, but gave 
 vent to the honest indignation of a warrior at the base 
 and cowardly conduct of those who had deserted and 
 abandoned so brave a leader. We are told that he asked 
 his captive at their first conference, what he would have 
 done if fortune had reversed their lot. ' I would have 
 given thee many a stripe,' was the .imprudent and viru- 
 lent answer. This expression of haughty and unsubdued 
 spirit excited no anger in the brave and generous con- 
 queror. He only smiled, and asked Romanus what he 
 expected would be done to him ? ' If thou art cruel,' said 
 the emperor, ' put me to death. If vain-glorious, load 
 me with chains, and drag me to thy capital. If generous, 
 grant me my liberty!' Alp Arslan was neither cruel 
 nor vain-glorious : he released his prisoner, gave all his 
 officers who were captives dresses of honour, and dis- 
 tinguished them by every mark of friendship and re- 
 gard."* 
 
 Far from wishing to cast an undue reproach upon the 
 past by these melancholy details of cruelty and suffering, 
 we should have been glad to relieve the narrative by 
 more numerous instances of generosity and mercy. But 
 that these virtues are not the attributes of a savage race, 
 will readily be granted by all : that |they are not neces- 
 sarily the fruit of refinement and civilization (if that term 
 be applicable to an advanced stage of art and knowledge, 
 without a corresponding improvement in moral wisdom) 
 is shown by the universal experience of the past, and no- 
 where more forcibly than in the history of Greece and 
 Rome. The progress of society seems only to have 
 
 * Malcolm, History of Persia.
 
 94 HISTORICxVL PARALLELS. 
 
 taught one lesson ; that it is better to make the conquered 
 subservient to the profit or amusement of the con- 
 queror, than to put him to death, like any other formi- 
 dable or offensive animal. In man's earliest and rudest 
 condition, as a hunter, slaves are worse than useless ; for 
 sustenance is of more value than labour, and the pre- 
 carious supply of the chase is insufficient to provide 
 permanently and plentifully for his own wants. The 
 avenging or preventing encroachments upon each other's 
 hunting-ground is therefore a most frequent cause of war- 
 fare among neighbouring tribes, and the massacre of the 
 conquered is prompted equally by revenge and policy. 
 We find accordingly that in North America a prisoner's 
 only chance of escape lay in being adopted into the hos- 
 tile tribe in the place of some one who had fallen in 
 battle. The still more savage practice of feasting upon 
 prisoners is sufficiently proved to have existed at a very 
 recent period in New Zealand. In other heathen coun- 
 tries they have been reserved from indiscriminate slaugh- 
 ter, only to perish on the altars of false gods. But labour 
 becomes valuable, and the command of Jabour an advan- 
 tage, in proportion as men emerge from barbarism, and 
 apply themselves to agriculture, or a pastoral life ; and 
 when it is found out that a prisoner's services may be 
 made worth more than his maintenance, the policy of the 
 victor changes, and he preserves an enemy whom for- 
 merly he was almost compelled to destroy. Slavery, 
 therefore, is, in the infancy of nations, an index of in- 
 creasing civilization, and an amelioration of human mi- 
 sery, since the bulk of mankind have ever hailed with joy 
 a respite from death, even though existence be attended 
 with degradation and suffering. A generous spirit, indeed, 
 would be little gratified at receiving ^life upon terms of 
 hopeless servitude ; yet even to such the introduction of 
 slave labour lightened the evils of defeat. When men 
 were detained merely for the value of their services, it 
 was natural to release them if an equivalent for that value 
 were paid, and hence arose the custom of admitting pri- 
 soners to ransom, which exercised a two-fold influence 
 in favour of slaves : first by enabling them to acquire
 
 TKEATMEXT OF PRISOXEES. 95 
 
 freedom at the sacrifice of wealth ; secondly, by re- 
 moving the utter hopelessness and degradation of their 
 state, and introducing a possibility that the slave and 
 master might some day be replaced in their original rela- 
 tion to each other. This practice was familiar in the 
 Homeric age, though revenge or the heat of battle often 
 caused mercy and interest to be alike disregarded. Me- 
 lancholy indeed was the fate of a captured city. The 
 adult males were usually slaughtered, the females and 
 children reserved for slavery ; those even of the highest 
 rank were employed as menial servants in the victor's 
 household. " What evils," says Priam, " does Jupiter 
 reserve me to behold on the threshold of age ! My sons 
 slain, my daughters dragged into slavery, my chambers 
 plundered, the very infants dashed against the ground in 
 mournful warfare, and my sons' wives dragged by the 
 destructive hands of the Greeks. The dogs which I fed 
 in my palace, at my own table, to protect it, will tear me, 
 even me, stretched dead at the outer door, as they lie 
 ravening in the vestibule lapping my blood. To a young 
 man it is becoming to lie slain in warfare, pierced by the 
 sharp sword ; to such nothing that can happen in death 
 is unseemly. But that dogs should defile the grey head 
 and the grey beard of a slaughtered elder, this is the 
 mournfulest thing that happens to wretched mortals."* 
 
 For the lot of those who were reserved, we may quote 
 Hector's parting speech to Andromache." 
 
 I know the day draws nigh when Troy shall fall. 
 When Priam and his nation perish all : 
 Yet less forebodings of the fate of Troy, 
 Her king, and Hecuba, my peace destroy ; 
 Less that my brethren, all th' heroic band, 
 Should with their blood imbrue their native land ; 
 Than thoughts of thee in tears, to Greece a prey, 
 Dragged by the grasp of war in chains away, 
 Of thee in tears, beneath an Argive roof 
 Labouring reluctant the allotted woof, 
 Or doomed to draw, from Hypereia's cave, 
 Or from Messeis' fount, the measured wave. 
 
 * II. xxii. 60— 7G.
 
 96 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 A voice ■will then be heard which thou must bear, 
 
 ' See'st thou yon captiye, pouring tear on tear ? 
 
 Lo ! Hector's wife, the hero bravest far 
 
 When Troy and^Greece round Ilion clashed in war.* ' 
 
 As time advanced the Greeks became more humane, 
 and the treatment of their prisoners improved ; insomuch 
 that about the year 500 b. c. it seems to have been 
 usual among the Peloponnesian states to admit each 
 other's citizens to ransom at a fixed sum of two minae, 
 something less than eight pounds of our money'; f and 
 the Athenians released certain Boeotians for the same 
 sum.J The meridian splendour of Greece, as we shall 
 have future occasion to notice, is more especially dimmed 
 by the cold-blooded cruelty of her civil wars. It is ob- 
 servable, however, that in the 10th year of the Pelopon- 
 nesian war, the mutual restoration of prisoners formed a 
 condition in a treaty of peace ; and this, we believe, is the 
 first instance on record at all resembling the humane 
 usage of the present day. 
 
 In the youth of Rome, as she gradually extended her 
 dominion, cities were depopulated to be refilled by her 
 citizens, and their inhabitants sold like cattle, by public 
 auction. $ In her days of greatness, when whole king- 
 doms fell before her, the rights of conquest were neces- 
 sarily more leniently exercised ; for nations cannot be 
 dispossessed and enslaved in mass. But the number of 
 Greek and of Syrian^ slaves in Rome show^s that the 
 independence of those nations was not overturned with- 
 . out a corresponding loss of private freedom ; and those 
 uncivilised countries, which could contribute little else 
 of wealth to satiate a Roman general's extortion, saw 
 droves of their inhabitants sold into captivity to supply 
 the labourers and gladiators of an idle and dissolute 
 
 * vi. 447—461. Sotheby's Homer. 
 
 t Weight for weight : to determine the sum which two 
 minae would correspond to in value is less easy. 
 
 I Herod, v. 77; vi. 79. 
 
 § See the instances of FidensD, Liv. iv. 34 ; Veii, v. 22. — 
 Carthage. Appian,
 
 THEATMEXT OF PRISONERS. 97 
 
 empire.* The exemption of modern Europe^ from 
 these horrors is chiefly referable to the_ influence of 
 Christianity, which, however; ineffectual to purify the 
 minds and lives of a vast majority of those who have out- 
 wardly embraced it, has given unquestionable proof of 
 its intrinsic excellence by refining and enlarging men's 
 views of morality and benevolence, wherever its doc- 
 trines have not been altogether obscured and corrupted.! 
 It is true that in the reign of Justinian, Constantinople 
 witnessed for the first and only time the insolent splen- 
 dour of a Roman triumph, granted to Belisarius after 
 the reduction of the Vandal kingdom ; on which, as on 
 former occasions, the noblest of the conquered nation, 
 headed by Gelimer, their king, swelled the vainglorious 
 procession. But the changed spirit of the times is shown 
 in the subsequent treatment of them. To the king and 
 his family a safe retirement and an ample estate in 
 Galatia were allotted ; and the flower of the Vandal 
 youth w^ere enlisted, and served with distinction in the 
 Persian w^ars. Among other claims to our gratitude, 
 the clergy of the dark ages have the merit of steadily 
 resisting the practice of enslaving Christians. The 
 working of the feudal system was also beneficial in this 
 respect. The aristocracy of the land were also its sol- 
 diery ; to make prisoners, therefore, was a greater 
 object than to kill, for the ransom of prisoners was a 
 
 * In Epiras, 150,000 persons are said to have been en- 
 slaved by L. ^milius Paulus. In Caesar's Gallic wars 
 1 ,000,000 prisoners were taken and of course sold. (PZi«. 
 Hist. Nat. vii. 25.) Another million is said to have been 
 slain : but these round numbers may be suspected to be much 
 exaggerated. Upwards of 100,000 Jews, according to Jose- 
 plms, were reduced to slavery by Titus. Cicero says of 
 Britain,/' It is well known that there is not a draclun of 
 silver in the island, and no hope of booty except in slaves ; 
 and among them you will hardly find learned men or mu- 
 sicians." Ad Att. iv. 16. 
 
 t It would be uncandid to pass in entire' silence over the 
 two deepest stains -perhaps in modern history — the Spanish 
 conquests in America, and the slave trade.
 
 98 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 never-failing source of revenue to the brave and power- 
 ful. And as the inferior classes might not be reduced 
 to domestic servitude, and besides passed naturally with 
 the land, whether as serfs, in absolute and acknowledged 
 bondage, or as vassals, free in name, but bound to 
 the soil by all the ties of property, the victor had no 
 interest in the detention of prisoners, except such as 
 were able to purchase freedom. The singular institu- 
 tions of chivalry also exercised a strong influence in hu- 
 manizing warfare. Knighthood formed a bond of union 
 throughout Europe. Men fought for gain, for honour, 
 for revenge ; but victory, which ensured all but the last, 
 was seldom tarnished by cruelty, except in instances of 
 deadly feud. We are by no means inclined to overrate 
 the savage virtues of those times, or to deny that they 
 abound in examples of most flagrant cruelty and oppres- 
 sion ; but we contend, that compared with earlier ages, 
 place even barbarism against refinement, the half-savage 
 Teuton against the polished Greek or Roman, we see 
 the tokens of a vast improvement in this respect. And we 
 may further observe that of the cruelties recorded a large 
 proportion are foreign to the question, being perpetrated 
 in prosecution of the cherished spirit of revenge, ^or to 
 extract wealth from Jews, or others of inferior rank, and 
 not on prisoners of war. We do not plead this in ex- 
 tenuation of those enormities ; the evil passions of the 
 heart sprung up unchecked into a plentiful harvest of 
 evil actions : but of cruelty to their prisoners of war, 
 the Europeans and the middle ages were comparatively 
 guiltless. Among them, for the first time in history, 
 the victor and the defeated mixed in social intercourse 
 upon terms of equality, without degradation being felt 
 by the one, or an undue and ungenerous superiority as- 
 sumed by the other ; each aware that on the morrow 
 the turn of fortune might reverse their situations, and 
 that disgrace attached to misfortune only when occa- 
 sioned by misconduct.* And the lofty, though fantastic 
 notions of honour which prevailed, tended still further to 
 
 * See, below, the Black Prince's address to John of France.
 
 TREATMENT Or PRISONERS. 99 
 
 lighten captivity, when the word of a knight was con- 
 sidered as sufficient suretyfor his ransom^ and prisoners 
 were enabled to obtain their release upon parole. No- 
 where is this courteous and humane spirit more strongly 
 marked than in the wars of England and Scotland during 
 the 14th century. Yet we might expect to find the 
 warfare of that century distinguished by more than 
 usual inhumanity. The perfidious aggression, the inve- 
 terate hostility of Edward I., were calculated to raise 
 in the Scotch a most implacable resentment ; while the 
 obstinate resistance and successful reprisals in which 
 our northern counties were repeatedly devastated, were 
 equally well fitted to inspire the English with no friendly 
 feelings towards their northern brethren. A hundred 
 years had elapsed since the first quarrel, during which 
 the sword had scarcely been sheathed, the fire of burn- 
 ing villages scarcely quenched. We might reason- 
 ably then expect to findj these wars carried on " a ou- 
 trance ;" to find no mercy in their battles, no gentleness 
 or generosity in their intercourse. But the account of 
 Froissart is very different. 
 
 *' Englysshmen on the one party e, 'and scottes on the 
 other partye, are goode men of warre, for when they 
 mete there is a hard fight, without sparynge ; there is 
 no troo bytwene them as long as speares, swordes, axes, 
 or dagers wyll endure, but lay on eche upon other ; and 
 whan they be well beaten, and that the one parte hath 
 optaygned ,'the victory, they then glorifye so in their 
 dedes of armes, and are so ioyfull, that such as be taken, 
 they shall be raunsomed or they go out of the felde, so 
 that shortely eche of them is so content with other, that 
 at their departynge curtoysly they will saye, Gode 
 thank you, but in fyghtynge one with another there is no 
 playe, nor sparynge ; and this is trewe, and that shall 
 well apere'^by this sayde rencounter (of Otterbourn), for it 
 
 was as valyauntly foughten as coulde be devysed 
 
 This batayle was fierse and cruell, tyll it came to the 
 end of the discomfiture ; but whan the scottes saw the 
 englysshmen recule, and yelde themselves, than the 
 scottes were curtes, and sette them to their raunsom,
 
 100 HISTOEICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 and every manne sayde to his prisoner, Sirs, go and 
 unarm you and take your ease, I am your mayster ; 
 and so made their prisoners as goode chere as though 
 they had been brethern, without doyng them any 
 damage."* 
 
 Another anecdote of the same battle, from the same 
 graphic and delightful historian, will serve to illustrate 
 more than one of the points to which the reader's atten- 
 tion has been drawn. Sir Matthew Reedman, the 
 governor of Berwick, fought under Percy at Otterbourn 
 and endeavoured to escape when fortune declared against 
 the English. 
 
 " Now I shall shewe you of sir Mathue Reedman, 
 who was on horsback to save himselfe, for he alone 
 coulde not remedy the mater : at his departing sir James 
 Lynsay was nere to hym, and sawe how sir Mathue 
 departed, and this sir James, to wyn honour, folowed 
 m chase sir Mathue Reedman, and came so nere hym, 
 that he myght have stryken hym with his speare if he 
 had lyst ; than he sayd. Ah sir knyght, tourne, it is a 
 shame thus to flye : I am James of Lynsay : if ye will 
 not tourne I shall stryke ye on the back with my spere. 
 Sir Mathue ;spake no worde, but strake his horse with 
 the spurs sorer than he dyde before. In this maner he 
 chased hym more than thre myles, and at last sir Mathue 
 Reedman's horse foundred and fell under hym : than he 
 stepte forthe on the erthe, and drewe oute his s worde, 
 and took corage to defende hymselfe : and the scotte 
 thought to have stryken him on the brest, but sir Mathue 
 Reedman swarved from the stroke, and the speare poynt 
 entred into the erthe : then sir Mathue strake asonder 
 the spere with his sworde ; and whan sir James Lynsay 
 sawe howe he had loste his speare, he caste awaye the 
 tronchon, and lyghted afote, and toke a lytell batayle- 
 axe that he caryed at his backe, and handeled it with 
 his one hande, quickely and delyverly, in the whiche 
 feate scottes be well experte, and than he set at sir 
 Mathue and he defended hymselfe properly. Thus 
 
 * Froissart, toI. ii. cap, 142, 145 (138, 141).
 
 SIR MATTHEW RESDMAN. 101 
 
 they tourneyed toguyder, one with an axe, and the 
 other with a swerde, a long season, and no man to lette 
 them : fynally, sir James Lynsay gave the knyght 
 suche strokes, and helde hym so shorte, that he was 
 putte out of brethe in such wyse that he yelded hymselfe 
 and sayde, Sir James Lynsay, I yelde me to jou. Well, 
 quod he, and I receyve you, rescue or no rescue. I am 
 content, quod Reedman, so you deale with me lyke a 
 good companyon. I shall nat fayle that, quod Lynsay, 
 and so putte up his swerde. Well, sir, quod Reedman, 
 what wyll you no we that I shall do ? I am your prisoner, 
 ye have conquered me ; I wolde gladly go agayne to 
 Newcastell, and within fyftene dayes I shall come to 
 you into Scotlande, whereas ye shall assigne me. I am 
 content, quod Lynsay : ye shall promyse by your faythe 
 to present yourself within this thre wekes at Edenborowe, 
 and wheresoever ye go, to reporte yourselfe my prisoner. 
 All this sir Mathue sware, and promysed to fulfyll. Than 
 €che of them toke their horses, and toke leave, eche of 
 other. Sir James returned, and his entent was to go to 
 his owne company the same way as he came, and sir 
 Mathue Reedman to Newcastell. Sir James Lynsay 
 could nat keep the ryght waye as he came : it was 
 darke, and a myst, and he hadde nat rydden halfe a 
 myle, but he met face to face with the bysshoppe of 
 Durham and mo than v hundred Englysshmen with hym : 
 he myght wel have escaped, if he had wolde, but he 
 supposed it had been his owne company that had pursued 
 the Englisshmen : whan he was among them, one de- 
 maunded of hym what he was. I am, quod he, sir James 
 Lynsay. The bysshoppe herdo those words, and stepte 
 to hym, and sayde, Lynsay, ye are taken ; yelde ye to 
 me. Who be you ? quod Lynsay. I am, quod he, the 
 bysshop of Durham. And fro whens come ye, sir ? quod 
 Lynsay. I come fro the batayle, quod the bysshoppe, 
 but I strake never a stroke there ; I go back to New- 
 castell for this night, and ye shall go with me. I may 
 nat chuse, quod Lynsay, sithe you will have it so : I 
 have taken, and I am taken ; such is the adventures of 
 armes. Whom have ye taken ? quod the bysshop. Sir, 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 102 ' HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 quod he, I toke in the chase sir Mathue Reedman. And 
 •where is he ? quod the bysshop. By my faythe, sir, he 
 is retourned to Newcasteii : he desyred me to trust hym 
 on his fayth for thre wekes, and so have I done. Well, 
 quod the bysshop, lette us go to Newcasteii, and there 
 ye shall spake with hym. Thus they rode to New- 
 casteii toguyder, and sir James Lynsay was prisoner to 
 the bisshop of Durham." 
 
 " After that sir Mathue Reedman M^as retourned to 
 Newcasteii, and hadde shewed to dyvers howe he had 
 been taken prisoner by sir James Lynsay ; than it was 
 shewed him howe the liisshoppe of Durham had taken 
 the sayd sir James Lynsay, and how that he was thene 
 in the towne as his prisoner : as sone as the bysshoppe 
 was departed, sir Mathue Reedman wente to the 
 bysshoppes lodgyng to see his mayster, and there he 
 founde hym in a studye, lyeng in a wyndowe, and sayd. 
 What, sir James Lynsay, what make you here V Than 
 sir James came forth of the studye to hym, and gave 
 hym good morowe, and sayd, By my fayth, sir Mathue, 
 fortune hath brought me hyder ; for as sone as I was 
 departed fro you, I mette by chaunce the bysshoppe of 
 Durham, to whome I am prisoner, as ye be to me. I 
 beleve ye shall nat nede to come to Edenborowe to me 
 to make your fynaunce : I think rather we shall make 
 an exchaunge one for another, if the bysshoppe be so 
 contente. Well, sir, quod Reedman, we shall accorde 
 i-yght well toguyder : ye shall dyne this daye with me ; 
 the bysshop and our men be gone Ibrthe to fyght with 
 your men. I can not tell what shall fall ; we shall know 
 at their retourne. I am content to dyne with you, quod 
 Lynsay. Thus these two knyghtes dyned toguyder in 
 Newcasteii."* 
 
 Some danger unquestionably there was, that where 
 the marketable value of prisoners was so clearly recog- 
 nised, humanity would be forgotten in avarice ; a lapse 
 of memory which our acquaintance with Algiers and 
 other piratical states proves not altogether impossible. 
 
 * Froissart, vol. ii., cap. 146 (142).
 
 BERTRAM DU GLESCLIIf. 103 
 
 One of the causes which prevented this, the union and 
 equality produced by knighthood, has been alluded to ; 
 and.vve may find another in the high-spirited notions of 
 personal honour which prevailed.* To refuse a pri- 
 soner his liberty upon payment of ransom, either 
 directly or covertly, by demanding a sum disproportionate 
 to his rank and means, was held dishonourable ; for a 
 knight would have esteemed himself disgraced if it 
 could be suspected that he retained an enemy in prison 
 through fear of meeting him in the open field. " After 
 that the Prince of Wales was returned from Spain into 
 Acquitayne, and his brother, the Duke of Lancastre, 
 into Englande, and every lorde into his owne, sir Ber- 
 tram du Guesclin was styll prisoner with the prince, and 
 with sir Johan Chandos, and coulde nat come to his 
 raunsome ,nor fynaunce, the whiche was sore displeasaunt 
 to kyng Henry, t if he might have mended it : and it so 
 fortuned after, as I was enformed, that on a day the 
 prince called to hym sir Bertram du Guesclin, and de- 
 maunded of hym how he dyde ; he answered and sayd, 
 Sir, it was never better with me ; it is reason that it 
 shulde be so, for I am in prison with the most renowned 
 knyght of the worlde. With whome is that ? sayd the 
 prince. Sir, quoth he, that is with Sir Johan Chandos ; 
 and, sir, it is sayd in the realme of Fraunce, and in other 
 places, that ye feare me so moche, that ye dare nat let me 
 out of prison, the whiche to me is full great honour. The 
 prince, who understode well the wordes of sir Bertram 
 du Guesclin, and parceyved well how his own counsayle 
 wolde in no wyse that he shuld delyver hym, unto the 
 
 * We cannot deny this merit at least to what is called, 
 vaguely enough, the age of chivalry. Few indeed merited 
 the appellation of Bayard, " sans peur, et sans reproche," but 
 many were " sans peur," and thereby escaped one most 
 fruitful source of " reproche." 
 
 f In the contest for the crown of Castile, between Don 
 Pedro and Henry of Transtamara, the former was supported 
 by the Black Prince, the latter by the French under Du 
 Guesclin, who had been taken prisoner by Sir John 
 Chandos. 
 
 r2
 
 104 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 tynie that king Don Peter had payed him all suche 
 sommes as he was bound to do. Than he sayd to sir 
 Bertram, Sir, then ye thinke that we kepe you for feare 
 of your chivalry ; nay, thynke it nat, for I swere by 
 saint George, it is nat so ; therfore pay for your raun- 
 some an hundred thousand fraunkes, and ye shall be 
 delyvered. Sir Bertram, who desyred gretly to be de- 
 lyvered, and herde on what poynt he might dejwrt, toke 
 the prince with that worde, and sayd. Sir, in the name 
 of God so be it, I wyll pay no lasse. And whan the prince 
 herde hym say so, he wolde than gladly have repented 
 hymselfe ; and also some of his counsayle came to hym, 
 and sayd. Sir, ye have nat done well so lightly to put him 
 to his raunsome. And so they wolde gladly have caused 
 the prince to have revoked that covenant ; but the 
 prince, who was a true and noble knight, sayd, Sithe 
 that we agreed therto, we wyll nat broke our promise ; 
 it shulde be to us a grete rebuke, shame and reproche, 
 if we shulde nat put him to raunsome, seyng he is con- 
 tent to pay such a grete somme as an hundred^ thousand 
 fraunkes."* 
 
 The following story of William Rufus, which is told 
 by William of Malmsbury, illustrates the character of 
 the man, rather than the spirit of the age. Helias de 
 Flechia laid claim to the city of Mans, part of that mo- 
 narch's continental possessions. He v»as taken and 
 brought before William, who said insultingly, " I have 
 you, sir." *' You have taken me by chance," said the 
 baron ; " could I escape, I should find something new to 
 do." The hot-headed king, shaking his fist, replied, 
 " You rascal, what would you do ? Troop, shog off, 
 
 * Froissart, vol. i. chap. 239. Subjoined to the chapter 
 the reader will find another version of this story, taken from 
 a most amusing book, entitled ' Memoires de Mecsire Ber- 
 trand du Guesclin,' The passage from Froissart, which 
 illustrates the same point in a much smaller compass, seemed 
 better fitted for insertion in the text ; but the other gives 
 such a minute and pleasant representation of manners, that 
 we cannot altogether omit it ; and it is too long for a note.
 
 KING JOHN OF FRANCE. 105 
 
 make yourself scarce — you may do what you can ; and 
 by the face of St. Luke, if you get the better of me, I 
 will ask you nothing for this favour."* 
 
 In conclusion we give a celebrated passage from 
 English history, which is strongly and pleasantly con- 
 trasted with the early part of the chapter. It is well 
 known that the king of France was taken prisoner by 
 the Black Prince at the battle of Poictiers. " The day 
 of the batayle at night, the prince made a supper in his 
 lodginge to the frenche kyng, and to the moost parte 
 of the great lordes that were prisoners : the prince made 
 the kynge, and his son, the lorde James of Bourbon, 
 the lorde John D'Artois, the erle of Tancarville, the 
 erle D'Estampes, the erle Dampmertyne, the erle of 
 Gravyll, and the lorde of Pertenay, to syt all at one 
 borde, and other lordes, knyghtes, and squiers at other 
 tables ; and alwayes the prince served before the kyng 
 as humbly as ho coude, and wolde nat syt at the kynges 
 borde, for any desyre that the kynge could make : but 
 sayd he was nat sufficient to syt at the table with so 
 great a prince as the kyng was ; but than he sayd to the 
 kyng. Sir, for goddcs sake make none yvell, nor heavy 
 chere, though god this day dyd not consent to folowe 
 your wyll : for syr, surely the kyng my father shall here 
 you as moche honour and amyte as he may do, and shall 
 acorde with you so reasonably that ye shall ever be 
 frendes toguyder after ; and sir, raethinke ye ought to 
 reioyse, though the journeyf be nat as ye wolde have 
 had it, for this day ye have wonne the hygh renome of 
 prowes, and have past this day in valyantnesse all other 
 of your partie : sir, I say natte this to mocke you, foralle 
 that be on our partie that saw every mannes dedes are 
 playnly acorded by true sentence to gyve you the price 
 and chapelette. Therewith the frenchemen began to 
 murmure, and sayd among themselves how the prince 
 had spoken nobly ; and that by all estimation he shulde 
 prove a noble man, if Gode send him lyfe, to perceyver 
 in such good fortune. Whan supper was done, every 
 
 * Lib. iv. f Fr. journee — though tha day has not gone, &e.
 
 106 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 man went to his lodgyng with their prisoners : the same 
 night they put many to raunsome, and beleyved them 
 upon their faythes and trouthes, and raunsomed them 
 but easily, for they sayde, they ivolde sette no knyghts 
 raunsom so hygh, but that he might pay at his ease and 
 mayntaygne still his degree. 
 
 " The same wynter the prince of Wales, and such of 
 Englande as were with him at Bardeaux, ordayned for 
 shippes, to convey the frenche king and his son and ail 
 other prisoners into Englande. Then he took the see, 
 and certayne lordes of Gascoyne with hym : the frenche 
 kyng was in a vessell by hymselfe, to be the more at hys 
 ease, accompanyed with two hundred men at arms, and 
 two thousand archers : for it was showed the prince that 
 the thre estates, by whom the realme of France was 
 governed, had layed in Normandy and Crotoy two great 
 armyes to the en tent to mete with hym, and to gette 
 the frenche kyng out of his handes if they might : but 
 there were no such that apered, and yet thei were on the 
 see xi dayes, and on the xii day they aryved at Sand- 
 wych ; then they yssued out of their shyppe, and lay 
 there all that nyghte, and taryed there two dayes to 
 refresh them ; and on the therde day they rode to 
 Canterbury. When the kynge of Englande knew of 
 their commynge, he commaunded them of London to 
 prepare theym, and their cyte, to receyve suche a man 
 as the frenche kyng was : then they of London arrayed 
 themselfe, by companyes, and the chief maisters clothing 
 different fro the other ; at saynt Thomas of Canterbury 
 the frenche kyng and the prince made their offerynges, 
 and there taryed a day, and than rode to Rochester, and 
 taryed there that day, and the next day to Dartforde, 
 and the fourth day to London, wher they were honour- 
 ably receyved, and so they were in every good towne as 
 they passed : the frenche kynge rode through London on 
 a whyte courser, well aparelled, and the prince on a 
 iyttell black hobbey by hym : thus he was conveyed along 
 the cyte till he came to the Savoy, the which house per- 
 tayned to the heritage of the duke of Lancaster ; there 
 the frenche kynge kept hys house a long season, and
 
 KING JOHN OF F3AXCE. 107 
 
 thydercame to se hym the kyng and the quene ofttimes, 
 and made him great fcest and chere."* 
 
 It has been said that the Prince's conduct was too 
 ostentatiously humble ; that in refusing to sit at table 
 with the King of France, and in making him the prin- 
 cipal object of attention in their entry into London, he 
 exceeded the modesty of a conqueror, and exposed him- 
 self to the charge of hypocrisy. The censure is, we 
 think, erroneous, and arises from ignorance of the feel- 
 ings of the times. The humility of the Black Prince 
 was that of a vassal in presence of his feudal lord, due, 
 not because he owed allegiance to the King of France, 
 but because that monarch was the peer of the King of 
 England, and in courtesy entitled, especially as a visitor, 
 though a forced one, to an equal measure of respect 
 from his subjects. The victor merely overlooked the 
 fortune of war, and paid to his royal prisoner the homage 
 which he would have shown to his father, and which 
 the King of France would have received from the heir 
 to his own crown. 
 
 * Lord Berners's Froissart, vol. i. chap. 168, 1G9, 173. '
 
 108 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE LIFE OF MESSIRE 
 BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN. 
 
 (Referred to in the Note, p. 1C4.) 
 
 ** One day the Prince of Vfalcs was risen from dinner, 
 and 2:one into a private chamber with his barons, who 
 had been served with wine and spices. So they began 
 to speak of many a bold deed of arms, of love-passages, 
 of battles, and of prisons, and how St. Louis to save his 
 life was made prisoner in Tunis, from whence he was 
 ransomed for fine gold, ])aid down by weight. Until 
 the Prince, who spoke without caution, said, ' When a 
 good knight well approved in battle is made prisoner in 
 fair feat of arms, and has rendered himself, and sworn to 
 abide prisoner, he should on no account depart without 
 his master's leave. And also one should not demand 
 such portion of his substance, that he be unable to equip 
 himself again.' When the Sire de Lebret heard these 
 words, he began to take heed, and said to him, ' Noble 
 Sire, be not angry with me if I relate what I have heard 
 said of you in your absence,' ' By my faith,' said the 
 Prince, 'right little should I love follower of mine sitting 
 at my table, if he heard said a word against my honour, 
 and apprised me not of it.' ' Sire,' said he of Lebret, ' men 
 say that you hold in prison a knight whose name I well 
 know, whom you dare not delyver.' * It is true,' said 
 Oliver de Clisson, * I have heard speak of it' Then the 
 Prince swore and boasted, ' that he knew no knight in the 
 world, but, if he were his prisoner, he would put him to a 
 fair ransom, according to his ability.' And Lebret said, 
 * How then do you forget Bertrand du Guesclin, that he 
 cannot get away ?' And when the Prince heard this, his 
 colour changed 5 and he was so tempted by pride, anger,
 
 BERTRAND DU GTJESCUX. 109 
 
 and disdain, that he commanded Bertrand to be brought 
 before him; with whom he wished to make terms, in spite 
 of all who had spoken of the matter, and woidd fain not 
 let him be ransomed, unless they themselves should fix 
 the amount. Then certain knights went and found Ber- 
 trand, who, to amuse himself and forget his weariness, 
 was talking with his chamberlain. Which knights 
 saluted him. And Bertrand arose towards them, and 
 showed a fair seeming, saying ' that they were come in 
 good time.' Then he ordered the aforesaid chamberlain 
 to bring wine. The knights answered ' that it was right 
 fitting they should have much wine, good and strong ; 
 for they brought him good, joyful, and pleasant news 
 with fgood will.' Then one of them who was wise and 
 discreet said, ' that the Prince sent for him to appear in 
 his presence, and he thought that he would be ran- 
 somed by help of those friends he had at court, who 
 were many.' ' What say you ?' said Bertrand ; ' I have 
 neither halfpenny nor penny, and owe more than ten 
 thousand livres, that have been lent me, which debt has 
 accrued in this city while I have been prisoner.' One 
 of them inquired of him, ' How have you accounted for 
 so much ?' ' I will answer for that,' said Bertrand ; ' I 
 have eaten, drunk, given, and played at dice with it. 
 A little money is soon spent. But if I be set free, 
 I shall soon have paid it : he saves his money, and 
 has it in good keeping, who shall for my help lend 
 m.e the keys of it.' And an officer who heard him said, 
 ' Sir, you are stout-hearted, it seems to you that 
 every thing which you would have m^ust happen.' ' By 
 my faith,' said Bertrand, 'you are right, for a dispirited 
 man is nothing better than beaten and discomfited.' And 
 the rest said, ' that he was like one enchanted, for he 
 was ])roof against every shock.' Then he was brought 
 to the chamber where was the Prince of Wales, and with 
 him John Chandos, a true and valiant knight. And 
 had they chosen to believe him, they would long before 
 have disposed of the war : for he gave much good advice. 
 And also there were Oliver de Clisson and other knights, 
 before whom came Bertrand, wearing a grey coat. And 
 
 f3
 
 110 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 when the Prince saw him, he could not keep from laugh- 
 ing, from the time ;he saw him. Then he said, * Well, 
 Bertrand, how fare you ?' And Bertrand' approached 
 him, bowing a little, and said, ' Sir, when it shall please 
 you, I may fare better : many a day have I heard the 
 rats and mice, but the song of birds it is long since I 
 heard.* I shall hear them when it is your pleasure.' 
 
 * Bertrand,' said the Prince, ' that shall be^whenyou will ; 
 it will depend only on yourself, so that you will swear, 
 and make true oath, never to bear arms against me, nor 
 these others, nor to assist Henry of Spain. So soon as 
 you will swear this, we will fully set you free, and pay 
 that you owe, and besides give 10,000 florins to equip 
 you anew, if you consent to this ; else you shall not go.*" 
 
 * Sire,' said Bertrand, ' my deliverance then will not 
 come to pass ; for before I do so, may I lie by the leg 
 in prison while I live. God willing, I will never be" a 
 reproach to my friends. For by Him who made the 
 world. I will serve with my whole heart those whom I 
 have served, and whose I have been 'from my outset. 
 These are the good King of France, the noble Dukes 
 of Anjou, of Berry, of Burgundy, and of Bourbon ; 
 whose I have been, as became me. But so please you^ 
 suffer me to go. For you have held me too long in 
 prison, wrongfully and without cause ; and I will tell 
 you how I had gone from France, I and my people 
 meaning to go against the Saracens. And so I had 
 promised Hugh de Carvalay, intending to work out my 
 salvation.' ' Why then went you not straight without 
 stopping?' said the Prince. * I will tell you,' said Ber- 
 trand in a loud voice. ' We found Peter, — the curse of 
 God confound him ! who had long since thrice falsely 
 murdered his noble Queen, born of the noble line of Bour- 
 bon, and of the blood of my Lord, St. Louis, which lady 
 
 * This expression will remind the reader of a favourite 
 saying of the " Good Sir James " Douglas, the companion 
 of Robert Bruce's dangers, that " It is better to hear the lark 
 sing, than the mouse cheep :" meaning that he would never 
 shut himself up in a castle while he could keep the open 
 field.
 
 BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN. Ill 
 
 was your cousin by the best blood in your body. Straight- 
 way then I stopped, to take vengeance for her, and to 
 help Henry ; for well Pknow, and surely I believe, that he 
 is the right king and the true heir of Spain. And also to 
 destroy, and put to an end, Jews and Saracens, of whom 
 there are too many in these parts. Now through great 
 pride you have come to Spain to the best of your ability, 
 both through covetousness of gold and silver, and that you 
 may have the throne after the death of Peter, who reigns 
 wrongfully, by which journey you have, in the first place, 
 injured your own blood, and troubled me and my people : 
 whence it has come to pass, that after you have so ruined 
 your friends, and you and jour people have been all 
 famished, and suffered great pain and labour, Peter has 
 deceived you by cheating and trickery, for he has not 
 kept faith nor covenant with you, for which, by my 
 faith, I thank him heartily.' When Bertrand had re- 
 lated his reasons, the Prince rose, and could not help 
 saying that on his soul Bertrand was right, and the 
 barons said that he had spoken truth. Then was there 
 great joy stirring all round and about, and they said of 
 Bertrand, one to another, ' See there a brave Breton.* 
 But the Prince called, and said to him, ' You shall not 
 escape me without paying a good ransom ; and yet it 
 vexes me that you obtain such favour. But men say 
 that I keep you prisoner because I fear you ; and to the 
 end that every one may cease to suspect this, and may 
 know that I neither fear nor care for you, I will deliver 
 you on payment of sufficient ransom.' ' Sir,' said Ber- 
 trand, ' I am a poor knight of little name, and not so born 
 as that I should find help in plenty. And besides, my 
 estate is mortgaged for purchase of war-horses, and also I 
 owe in this town full ten thousand florins. Be moderate, 
 therefore, and deliver, me.' ' Where will you go, fair 
 Sir ?' said the Prince. ' Sir,' said_^Bertrand, ' I will go 
 where I may regain my loss, and more I say not.' ' Con- 
 sider then,' said the Prince, ' what ransom you will give 
 me : for what you will shall be enough for me.' ' Sir,* 
 said Bertrand, ' I trust you will not stoop to retract your 
 meaning. And since you are content to refer it to ray
 
 112 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 pleasure, I ought not to value myself too low. So I will 
 give and engage for my freedom one hundred thousand 
 double golden florins.' And when the Prince heard him 
 his colour changed, and he looked round at his knights, 
 saying, ' Does he mean to make game of me that he 
 offers such a sum ? for I would gladly quit him for the 
 quarter.' ' Bertrand,' said he, ' neither can you pay it, 
 nor do I wish such a sum ; so consider again.' ' Sire,' 
 said Bertrand, ' since you will not so much, I place my- 
 self at sixty thousand double florins; you shall not have 
 less, sobeit you will discharge me.' ' Well,' said the 
 Prince, ' I agree to it.' Then said Bertrand loudly, 
 
 * Sir, Prince Henry may well and truly vaunt that he 
 will die King of Spain, cost him what it may, and he 
 will lend me one half my ransom, and the King of France 
 the other ; and if I can neither go nor send to these two, 
 I would get all the spinstresses in France to spin it rather 
 than that I should remain longer in your hands.'* And 
 when the Prince had heard him he thus said : ' What 
 sort of man is this ? He startles at nothing, either in act 
 or thought, no more than if he had all the gold which 
 is in the world. He has set himself at sixty thousand 
 double florins, and I would willingly have quitted him 
 for ten thousand.' And all the barons also marvelled 
 greatly. ' Am I then at liberty ?' said the gallant Ber- 
 trand. And Chandos asked him whence the money 
 should come. ' Sir,' said he, ' I have good friends, as I 
 shall find, I am certain.' ' By my faith,' said Chandos, 
 
 * I am much rejoiced therefore, and if you have need of 
 my help, thus much I say, I will lend you ten thousand.' 
 ' Sir,' said Bertrand, ' I thank you. But before I seek 
 anything of you I will try the people of my own country.' 
 The news of this matter went through the city of Bor- 
 deaux. There you might see all persons, great and 
 small, citizens, and artisans of all sorts, run towards the 
 mansion of the Prince to see Bertrand. And when the 
 Prince's kniffhts saw the people assemble thus, and 
 
 * Si le gagneroie aincois a filler toutes les filleresses qui 
 en France sent, que ce que je demourasse plus entre vos mains.
 
 BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN. 1 13 
 
 knew the cause of their coming, they brought the said 
 Bertrand to lean out at a window, who laughed heartily 
 at the matter. And when the commoners saw him from 
 a distance, they said, ' He is a downright enemy ! cursed 
 be the hour that he escapes alive. He has done much 
 evil, and will do worse.' And others said, ' Have we 
 idled and yawned, and run away from our business, to 
 look at such a squire as this ? May God bless him not ! 
 for he is an ugly fellow, and unable to pay the ransom 
 at which he is valued.' ' Whence should he draw it?' 
 said others ; ' he will never pay a single penny of his 
 own, but will pilfer it through the broad land.' And 
 those who knew Bertrand better said to them, ' Now 
 argue not so much in using such words,- for there is no 
 better knight in the world, and none that better knows 
 how to make |war. And there is no castle, however 
 strong, however high the rock on which it stands, that 
 would not soon surrender if he went thither to assault 
 it : and, throughout the kingdom of France, there is no 
 man nor woman, however poor, who would not contribute, 
 if he needed it, rather than that he should remain in 
 prison." * 
 
 * Kist. dii ilessire Bertrand du Guesclin.
 
 ( 114 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. . 
 
 Tyranny of Cambyses, terminating in madness — of Caligula 
 — of the Emperor Paul. 
 
 No questions which can become the subject of judicial 
 examination are more delicate and difficult than those 
 which depend upon a man's mental sanity, whether the 
 case be of a civil or a criminal nature ; whether it re- 
 gard his competence to manage his own affairs, or his 
 possession of that moral feeling of right and wrong in 
 the absence of which he cannot be justly punished as a 
 responsible agent. In the first instance, daily experience 
 shows us that general eccentricity, and even delusion 
 upon particular subjects, may exist in union with the 
 most acute perception of personal interests ; in the 
 second, it is equally clear that the moral sense may be 
 perverted upon one or more points without being de- 
 stroyed, and indeed without any other indication of mental 
 disease. We may take as an example of this the burn- 
 ing of York Cathedral some years ago. Martin believed 
 this to be morally a meritorious act, and herein lay his 
 madness : on a case of murder, robbery, or any other in- 
 fraction of the laws, he would have judged aright. But 
 though he believed it to be meritorious, he knew it to
 
 EFFECTS OF ABSOLUTE POAVER. 115 
 
 be illegal ; he knew that he was subject to punishment, 
 and fled from it accordingly : and upon this ground the 
 question might be raised, whether his madness should 
 have protected him from the penalty affixed to his act. 
 But exclusively of those more strongly marked caseSy 
 which alone are likely to become subjects of judicial in- 
 quiry, no man can converse extensively with the living, 
 or, through the medium of books, with the dead, without 
 continually asking himself whether the eccentricity, per- 
 verseness, intemperance, and extravagance which he sees 
 on all sides are compatible with a perfectly sound state of 
 mind. Mental as well as bodily illness may assume all 
 shapes, and be of all degrees : and both reflection and 
 observation lead us to conclude that excessive indulgence 
 of the passions will impair the understanding, as surely 
 as sensual intemperance injures the constitution. It 
 would not be difficult to enumerate a long list of causes 
 tending more or less to unsettle the reason ; indeed, no 
 pursuit, however unexciting it may seem, can be ex- 
 clusively followed without risk of this result. Science 
 has its dangers as well as love : the philosopher's stone 
 and the quadrature of the circle have probably turned 
 as many heads as has female ingratitude, from the time 
 of Orlando Furioso downwards. At present, however, 
 we mean to confine ourselves to one particular manifesta- 
 tion of insanity, or something nearly allied to it, with 
 the view of illustrating, in some degree, that large por- 
 tion of history which is occupied by the crimes and 
 follies of absolute monarchs. 
 
 In reading such narratives as the following, we natu- 
 rally wonder how it is that anything human can have 
 been led to play a part so entirely at variance with all 
 the kindly feelings of human nature. To believe that 
 Caligula and Nero came into the world fully prepared for 
 the part which they were afterwards to play, would be 
 as unreasonable as to adopt the other extreme, and main- 
 tain, as some have done, that the tempers and abilities of 
 all men are originally similar and equal. But " the 
 child is father of the man." The work of education 
 begins at an early period, and circumstances seemingly
 
 116 HISTOKICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 too trivial to notice, may exert a powerful effect in 
 fixing our future destiny for good or evil. There are 
 fev\^ persons whose patience has not been more or less 
 tried by spoiled children, and who cannot point out ex- 
 amples where the temper of the mature man has been 
 seriously injured by early injudicious indulgence ; and 
 many must know cases in which the paroxysms of a 
 naturally bad temper, exasperated by uncontrolled licence 
 and habitual submission, have amounted almost to occa- 
 sional insanity. Causes closely analogous to those which 
 render one man the dread of his domestic circle, may 
 render another the terror and the scourge of half the 
 earth. The same spirit which vents itself in ill-humour 
 for a broken piece of china, or execrations for an ill- 
 cooked dinner, if fostered by power, might correct 
 breaches of etiquette with the knout, and deal out con- 
 fiscations and death as unsparingly as oaths. We may 
 observe that, bloody and unfeeling as their administration 
 may have been, it is not among the adventurers who have 
 carved their own way to a crown that the wantonness 
 of tyranny has been most developed ; it is rather among 
 their descendants, men nurtured among parasites, with 
 the prospect of despotism ever before their eyes. Sur- 
 rounded from infancy by those whose interest it has been 
 to pamper, not to repress their evil passions, taught, in 
 Pagan countries, to regard themselves as gods, and wor- 
 shipped as such by a servile and besotted multitude, 
 what wonder that they tread under foot those who bow 
 the neck before them, and scorn to sympathise with a 
 confessedly inferior race ? In private life, however, the 
 regulation of the mind may be neglected, the supremacy 
 of law, and the knowledge that excess, beyond a certain 
 point, cannot be committed with impunity, exerts a 
 salutary restraint over the wildest spirits. But he who 
 is above the influence of fear, whose angry passions have 
 never been checked, nor his desires controlled, and who 
 is harassed by the craving after excitement consequent 
 upon satiety of sensual pleasures, is prepared for any 
 caprice or enormity which the humour of the moment 
 may suggest. The mind can hardly be thus morally
 
 EFFECTS OF ABSOLUTE POWER. 117 
 
 depraved without becoming intellectually depraved also : 
 as the animal m.an is cherished, and the reasonable man 
 neglected, the former vvill assume the guidance due to 
 the latter, and human becomes little superior to brute 
 nature, except in its greater power to do mischief. In 
 this state of degradation 
 
 Even-handed justice 
 Condemns tlie ingredients of the poisoned chalice 
 To our own lips. 
 
 The dominion of the passions is worse than external 
 oppression, and conscience exasperates, after it has lost 
 its power to reform. Misery may then complete the 
 ruin which intemperance began, and cruelty, from being 
 only indifferent, become congenial. 
 
 If a man deprives himself almost of the common 
 necessaries of life, for the purpose of accumulating 
 money which he will never use or want ; if he sleeps 
 all day, and wakes all night ; if he chooses to wear his 
 shoes upon his hands, and his gloves upon his feet, or 
 indulge in any other such ridiculous fancies ; we call 
 him odd, eccentric, a madman, according to the degree 
 of his deviation from established usages : and justly, for 
 in all these things a sound mind is wanting. Yet that 
 man may be perfectly able to foresee the consequences 
 of his actions, perfect master of his reason upon every 
 subject ; and therefore be both legally and morall}^ re- 
 sponsible. It is a state of mind strictly analogous, as we 
 believe, to this, which has produced the vi'orst excesses 
 of the worst oppressors ; and one which has sprung 
 from the same cause — habitual submission to the will 
 instead of the reason. From the childish passion of 
 George II., who manifested his displeasure on great oc- 
 casions by kicking his hat about the room, to the super- 
 human crimes of Caligula, we find this disease, if we may 
 call it so, manifested in every variety of degree and 
 form. In Henry VIII. of England, we trace it in the 
 contrast between the early and later years of his reign, 
 in the increased violence of his passions, and in the 
 capriciousness and cruelty ingrafted on a temper not
 
 118 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 naturally ungentle. We ascribe to it the ungovernable 
 fury which obscured the brilliant qualities of Peter ot* 
 Hussia ; and we find it still more strongly marked in the 
 extravagances which are ascribed to Xerxes. His very 
 preparations for invading Greece, on a scale so dispro- 
 portionate to the value of his object if attained, show 
 how subordinate was his judgment to his inclinations ; 
 and no one can read the narration of his chastisement of 
 the Hellespont, without recognising the weakness of a 
 mind unsettled by extravagant presumption. " When 
 Xerxes heard that his bridges were carried away, he was 
 much vexed, and ordered three hundred lashes to be 
 given to the Hellespont, and a pair of fetters to be cast 
 into it. And I have heard that he sent men at the 
 same time to brand the Hellespont. Moreover, he com- 
 manded those that inflicted the stripes to use unholy and 
 barbarian language, saying, ' Thou bitter water, thy 
 master inflicts this punishment upon thee, because thou 
 hast wronged him, having received no injury at his 
 hands. And King Xerxes will cross thee, whether thou 
 wilt or no : and, as is fit, no one sacrifices to thee, 
 because thou art a salt and crafty river.' So he ordered 
 them to punish the sea thus, and to cut off' the heads of 
 the Grecians who had charge of the bridge."* This is 
 as downright frenzy as the walls of Bedlam ever wit- 
 nessed : a paroxysm of temporary insanity, produced by 
 disappointment acting on a vain, ungoverned mind. 
 
 Before proceeding to relate in detail the lives of some 
 remarkable persons which bear upon the point in ques- 
 tion, we wish briefly to allude to the very singular 
 and striking history of Nebuchadnezzar, though with 
 no view of resolving that preternatural visitation, which 
 is expressly stated to have been from God, into a natural 
 consequence of his intemperate pride. From the few 
 notices of him preserved in the Bible, he seems to have 
 been a man cast in no ordinary mould ; to have been en- 
 dowed with powers and capability of excellence com- 
 mensurate with the exalted situation which he was ap- 
 
 * Herod, vii. 35.
 
 EFZECTS OF ABSOLUTE POWER. 119 
 
 pointed to hold. It is evident, however, that he had 
 drunk deep of the intoxication of despotism. His in- 
 tended massacre of the wise men, and the Chaldeans, in 
 point of wisdom and justice is on a par with the anger of 
 a child who beats his nurse because she will not give 
 him the moon to play with ; and his conduct with re- 
 spect to the image of the plain of Dura, if less prepos- 
 terous, is not more creditable to his notions of toleration 
 or humanity. In fact, he appears to have been in a fair 
 way to become as truculent a tyrant as Cambyses 
 or Caligula, when that awful vision, related at length in 
 the fourth chapter of Daniel, was presented to him, 
 which foretold his banishment from the throne and from 
 men : and we may infer from the warning of the inspired 
 interpreter, and from the course of the narrative, that 
 his overweening pride and hardness of heart, the food 
 and origin of that mental alienation of which we have 
 been speaking at such length, were the vices against 
 which Divine anger was especially directed. " This is 
 the decree of the Most High, which is come upon my 
 lord the king : They shall drive thee from men, and thy 
 dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, till thou 
 know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom ot 
 
 men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will 
 
 Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto 
 thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine 
 iniquities by showing mercy to the poor : if it may be a 
 
 lengthening of thy tranquillity At the end of 
 
 twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom 
 of Babylon. The king spoke and said. Is not this the 
 great Babylon that I have built for the house of the 
 kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honour 
 of my majesty ? While the word was in the king's 
 mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King 
 Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken ; the kingdom is 
 departed from thee. And they shall drive thee from 
 men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the 
 field ; they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and 
 seven times shall pass over thee, until thou know that
 
 120 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth 
 it to whomsoever he will."* 
 
 Of the following sketches the two first exhibit the 
 dominion of passion in its most violent form ; the last 
 differs rather in degree than in nature. Strictly speaking, 
 the life of Cambyses is not entitled to a place here ; but 
 Herodotus makes us so familiar with Persian history from 
 the time of Cyrus, that it seems naturally to find a place 
 in v.orks relating to the history of Greece. 
 
 Cambyses succeeded to the undisturbed possession of 
 that vast empire which his father Cyrus had acquired, 
 extending from the Indus to the iEgean, and from the 
 Caspian to the Red Sea. This extent of dominion might 
 seem enough to satisfy the most ambitious, and employ 
 the most active mind ; but the son, unhappily for himself, 
 inherited the father's military spirit, and in the fourth 
 year of his reign quitted his paternal kingdom to conquer 
 Egypt. He marched along the coast from Palestine to 
 Pelusium, where he found encamped Psammenitus, who 
 had succeeded his father Amasis on the Egyptian throne. 
 A battle was fought, in which the Egyptians were de- 
 feated ; they fled to Memphis, and the rest of the coun- 
 try submitted without further struggle. Herodotus, who 
 visited the field of battle, relates a curious story. The 
 bones of either nation were heaped apart, as they had 
 been originally separated ; and the Persian skulls were 
 so weak that you could throw a pebble through them, 
 whereas the Egyptian would hardly break, though beaten 
 with a large stone. Their descendants do not appear to 
 have degenerated in this respect. 
 
 Cambyses sent a ship of Mitjdene up the Nile, to 
 summon Memphis to surrender. The savage and exas- 
 perated inhabitants tore the herald and crew limb from 
 limb, and made a long defence, during which the Cyre- 
 nL^eans and the neighbouring Libyans submitted. The 
 city being at last taken, he put Psammenitus to a singular 
 trial. 
 
 " On the tenth day after the capture of jMemphis, he 
 
 * Daniel, iv. 24, 25, 27, 29—32.
 
 CAMBYSES. 121 
 
 placed Psammenitus, together with other Egyptians, 
 M'ithout the gates ; and meaning to make essay of his 
 temper, he acted thus. He clothed that king's daughter 
 in servile raiment, and sent her, bearing a water-pitcher, 
 to fetch water, and with her other maidens of the noblest 
 families similarly clad. And as they went with wailing 
 and lamentation past their fathers, these, all but Psam- 
 menitus, re-echoed their cries, seeing the evil condition 
 of their children ; but he bowed his head to the earth. 
 When they had passed, his son came by with two thou- 
 sand Egyptians of like age, with bits in their mouths, 
 and their necks bound with halters, who were thus led 
 to death in retaliation for the Mityleneans who were 
 slain at Memphis. For the royal judges had decided 
 that for every one of them ten of the noblest Egyptians 
 should perish. And he, seeing them pass, and knowing 
 that his son was carried to execution, while his country- 
 men who were around him wept and were much dis- 
 tressed, did as in the case of his daughter. When they 
 were gone, an old man, who was formerly of his drinking 
 parties, being now deprived of his fortune, and compelled 
 to beg through the army, chanced to come where Psam- 
 menitus was sitting ; and Psammenitus, when he saw his 
 friend, cried aloud, and smote his head, calling upon 
 him by name. Men were placed near, who told Cam- 
 byses eveiy thing that happened ; and he was much 
 surprised, and sent this message : ' Psammenitus, your 
 master Cambyses asks why, having given way neither 
 to cries nor tears when you saw your daughter mal- 
 treated and your son going to execution, you have 
 honoui'ed with them a man nowise related to you ? ' 
 He answered, ' Son of Cyrus, my domestic misfortunes 
 were too mighty to be wept ; but the sufferings of a 
 friend, who, on the threshold of old age, has fallen from 
 a high and happy state into beggary, form a fit subject 
 for tears.' "* The heart of Cambyses was touched for 
 once, and he ordered the Egyptian prince to be sought 
 and saved ; but his mercy came too late. 
 
 * Herod, iii. 14
 
 122 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 Proceeding from Memphis to Sais, he broke open the 
 tomb of Amasis, the late king, and caused the body, 
 which was embalmed as usual, to be scourged, and insulted 
 in every possible way.* Finally, he ordered it to be 
 burnt, wherein he transgressed equally the religion of 
 the Persians and Egyptians. For the former say that it 
 is not fit to consign a dead man to a divinity, esteeming 
 fire as such ; while the latter believe it to be a savage 
 animal, which consumes every thing within its reach, 
 and then dies ; and consider it unlawful to let their 
 corpses be the prey of wild beasts. Hence the practice 
 of embalming, that worms may not prey upon their flesh. 
 This wanton and disgusting outrage was prompted by 
 personal hatred, arising from a slight said to have been 
 put "uiwn him by Amasis, in consequence of which the 
 invasion of Egypt was undertaken. 
 
 That country being subdued, far from being contented 
 with his acquisitions, he now meditated three expeditions 
 at once : one against Carthage, which was frustrated by 
 the Phoenicians, who composed the chief part of his 
 iieet, refusing to serve against their kinsmen and de- 
 scendants ; another against the Ammonians, who lived in 
 the Libyan desert, in a spot made famous by the oracle 
 of Ammon ;f a third against the Jithiopians, called 
 Macrobii, or long-lived, who were said to be the tallest 
 and handsomest of all men, and to reach the age of 120 
 years and upwards. The monarchy was elective, and 
 they chose for their king whoever was most eminent for 
 strength and stature. Before he set out, Cambyses sent 
 spies into this country, charged with gifts and professions 
 of friendship, to which the Ethiopian replied, "The 
 king of Persia has not sent you with gifts, as setting a 
 higiti price on my alliance ; and you speak falsely, for you 
 
 "' * The body of Cromwell was taken from the grave, ex- 
 posed on a gibbet, and finally buried under the gallows, and 
 this in the gay and polished reign of Charles II., who had 
 not even the poor excuse for this despicable revenge which 
 the Persian king's unbridled passions may supply, 
 t The modern Siwah.
 
 CAMBYSES. 123 
 
 arc come as spies of my realm. Neither is that man 
 upright, for then he would covet none other country 
 than his own, and not have enslaved those from whom 
 he has had no wrong. Give to him, then, this bow, and 
 say, ' The king of the ^Ethiopians advises the king of 
 the Persians to invade the long-lived Ethiopians with 
 overpowering numbers, as soon as the Persians can draw 
 thus easily such bows as these; and, until then, to thank 
 the gods who have not inclined the sons of the Ethiopians 
 to add the lands of others to their own.' "* 
 
 Cambyses, as we may suppose, flew into no small 
 passion at the receipt of such an answer, and urged his 
 march, says Herodotus, like one out of his right mind, 
 and too impetuously to wait until magazines could be 
 formed,— a precaution the more needful, because, accord- 
 ing to the prevalent notions of geography, he was going 
 to the uttermost parts of the earth. From Thebes he 
 detached 50,000 men to enslave the Ammonians, and 
 burn the temple of Ammon, while he advanced towards 
 Ethiopia with the rest : but before one-filth of the 
 journey was accomplished, all their food was consumed, 
 even to the beasts of burden which attended the camp. 
 *' If, when he found this out, he had changed his mind, 
 and brought home his army, then, bating the original 
 fault, he would have been a wise man. But, instead of 
 this, he pressed continually forward, without any consi- 
 deration." 
 
 The consequence of this improvident obstinacy was, 
 that his soldiers, who had lived on herbs so long as the 
 earth produced anything, began to live upon each other 
 "when they reached the sandy desert. Cambyses had no 
 relish for this sort of supper, whether he was to eat, or, 
 like Polonius, to be eaten, and at length turned back, 
 not beibre he had lost a large part of his army. The 
 other detachment advanced deep into the desert, whence 
 they returned not, nor was it known what became of 
 them. The Ammonians said that a mighty south-west 
 Mind had overwhelmed them with sand. The circum- 
 
 * iii. 21.
 
 124 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 stances of their supposed destruction are powerfullj 
 though rather extravagantly described by Darwin : — 
 
 " Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds breathe, 
 And the live desert pants and heaves beneath ; 
 Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise 
 Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies, 
 In red arcades the billowy plain surround. 
 And stalking turrets dance upon the ground. 
 Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge, ," 
 Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge ; 
 Wave over wave the driving desert swims ; 
 ( Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling limbs ; 
 Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush. 
 Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush, — 
 Wheeling in air the winged islands fall. 
 And one great earthy ocean covers all ! — • 
 Then ceased the storm. — Night bowed his Ethiop brow 
 To earth, and listened to the groans below. — 
 Grim Horror shook — awhile the living hill 
 Heaved with convulsive throes — and all was still ! "* 
 
 The king returned to Memphis, his army much weak- 
 ened, and his warlike ardour probably no less cooled, by 
 this double failure ; for he made no more trials to extend 
 his empire. So humiliating a disappointment was not 
 likely to sweeten his arbitrary temper, and to its effects 
 we are inclined to attribute the sudden change which 
 appears to have taken place in his conduct. We say 
 appears, because up to this time nothing is related of his 
 private life : it is not probable, however, that the histo- 
 rian would have omitted occurrences such as those which 
 characterise it from henceforward. The seeds of the 
 evil which now shot up had long been rooting them- 
 selves. Self-gratification had been the end, and his 
 will the guide, of his actions ; and on such persons uncon- 
 trolled power acts like a hot-bed, to draw up their bad 
 qualities into tenfold rankness. Old tales make frequent 
 mention of magicians being torn in pieces by the spirits 
 whom they have called up. He who gives loose to the 
 evil passions of" his nature, has a worse set of fiends to 
 
 * Botanic Garden, v. 473.
 
 : CAMBYSES. 125 
 
 deal with, than the grotesque imaginations of our fore- 
 fathers ever figured, and will find it harder to escape 
 from them in safety : what wonder is it if the reason 
 proves unequal to bear the shocks of such a warfare ? 
 That the mind of Cambyses so yielded, the cruelty, 
 impiety, and extravagance of his latter years, in which 
 his conduct was as impolitic as wicked, will not allow us 
 to doubt. Disappointment and vexation could not have 
 produced the disorder, though they may have hastened 
 the crisis and increased its violence. 
 
 The Egyptians referred this change to another cause. 
 When Cambyses reached Memphis he found the city in 
 great joy. Apis,* the sacred bull, one of their most 
 venerated deities, had just appeared, and, as usual, the 
 whole country celebrated it as a festival. The des- 
 pot suspected, not unnaturally, that they were rejoicing 
 over his defeat, and sent for the magistrates, to ask why 
 the Eofvptians, who had done nothing of the sort when 
 he was before at Memphis, made such show of joy, now 
 that he came there after losing his army. They replied, 
 that their god, who was wont to appear at long intervals, 
 had manifested himself, and that on this occasion the 
 Egyptians always kept holiday. Cambyses said they 
 lied, and therefore sent them to execution. He next 
 sent for the priests, and being similarly ansv/ered, said 
 that he would soon know whether any tame god was 
 come among the Egyptians. At his command, the ani- 
 mal was produced ; he drew his dagger,' struck Apis in 
 the thigh, and said, laughing, '' Fools, are such things 
 gods, composed of flesh and blood and penetrable to 
 
 * Apis was a black calf, with a square white spot on its 
 forehead, the figure of an eagle on its back, a double tuft 
 of hair on its tail, and the figure of the cantharus, the sacred 
 beetle, under its tongue. When an animal bearing these 
 marks was found, or manufactured, the birth of Apis was an- 
 nounced to the people, a temple was built on the spot, where 
 he was fed for four months, and after various ceremonies he 
 was finally conveyed to Memphis, where he spent the rest of 
 his life in a splendid palace, receiving divine honours. 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 126 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 steel ? He is indeed a god worthy of the Egyptians I 
 For you, you shall not make a mock of ^'me with impu- 
 nity." So saying, he ordered the priests to be scourged, 
 and all persons found celebrating the feast to be slain. 
 Apis died, and was buried secretly. From this sacrilege 
 the Egyptians dated the madness of Cambyses. Others 
 ascribed it to epilepsy, to which he is said to have been 
 subject from his birth. The disease might have pro- 
 duced a liability to 'insanity, but it could scarcely have 
 been the agent in working so sudden a change. The ex- 
 travagances of Caligula, however, were referred by many 
 to the same cause. 
 
 The change in his temper was first shovi^n by the mur- 
 der of his brother Smerdis, whom he had sent back to 
 Susa in a fit of jealousy because he was the only man in 
 the army who could draw the King of Ethiopia's bow, 
 even for two fingers' breadth. After taking this step, 
 he dreamed that a messenger came to him from Persia, 
 with tidings that Smerdis sat upon the throne, and 
 touched the heavens Mith his head. Fearing, therefore, 
 that this vision portended his being deposed and mur- 
 dered, he sent a trusty follower, named Prexaspes, to 
 Susa, with orders to assassinate his brother. The com- 
 mission was faithfully performed. 
 
 A sister also, who had followed him into Egypt, and 
 with whom he cohabited, fell a victim to his intemperate 
 passion. '' Before this time," Herodotus says, "the 
 Persians never married their sisters, but he, wishing to 
 do so, managed it thus. Knowing that he was about to 
 act contrary to their customs, he sent for the royal judges, 
 and asked them if there were any law permitting any one 
 who wished to cohabit with his sister. Now the royal 
 judges are select men among the Persians, who retain 
 their office during life, or till convicted of some injustice ; 
 and it is they who preside in the Persian courts and in- 
 terpret the laws and institutions of the nation, and all 
 things are referred to them. So to this question of 
 Cambyses they returned an answer that was both just 
 and safe, saying that they could find no law permitting a 
 brother to marry his sister ; but they had indeed dis-
 
 CAMBYSES. 127 
 
 covered another — that it was lawful for the king of the 
 Persians to do whatever he liked. Thus, then, they did 
 not break the law from fear of Cambyses ; and yet, lest 
 they should themselves perish out of regard for the law, 
 they found another law to help him in marrying his sis- 
 ter,"* Cambyses and his judges seem to have been 
 well suited. There is on record a better instance of 
 courtly evasion, related by Waller. The poet went, on 
 the day of a dissolution of parliament, to see the King, 
 James II., at dinner. " Dr. Andrews, Bishop of Win- 
 chester, and Dr. Neal, Bishop of Durham, were stand- 
 ing behind his majesty's chair, and there happened some- 
 thing in the conversation these prelates had with the 
 King on which Mr. Waller did often reflect. His ma- 
 jesty asked the bishops, ' My lords, cannot ,1 take my 
 subjects' money when I want it, without all this forma- 
 lity in parliament ? ' The Bishop of Durham readily 
 answered, ' God forbid, sire, but you should ! You are 
 the breath of our nostrils.' Whereupon the King turned 
 and said to the Bishop of Winchester, 'Well, my lord, 
 what say you ? ' ' Sire,' replied the bishop, ' I have no 
 skill to judge of parliamentary cases.' The King replied, 
 * No put-offs, my lord — answer me presently.' ' Then, 
 sire,' said he, ' I think it is lawful for you to take my 
 brother Neal's money, for he offers it.' "f 
 
 It was another sister who followed Cambyses into 
 Egypt, and perished there by his violence. She was 
 present when he set a lion's whelp to fight a puppy. 
 The latter had the worst, till another of the same litter 
 broke loose, and came to help it, when the two together 
 beat the lion. The princess shed tears at the sight, and 
 being questioned why she did so, replied that it was for 
 the remembrance of Smerdis, and the thought that there 
 was no one to avenge his death. The brute kicked her, 
 and thereby inflicted a mortal injury. 
 
 He held Prexaspes, the person employed to murder 
 Smerdis, in especial favour, and among other marks of it 
 
 * iii. 31. 
 , t Preface to Waller's Poems, Lond. 1711. 
 
 G 2
 
 128 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 appointed that nobleman's son to be his cup-bearer. One 
 day he asked, " Prexaspes, what sort of person do the 
 Persians think me ? " He replied with unseasonable 
 candour, " that they praised him very highly, only they 
 said that he was terribly fond of wine." Cambyses was 
 very angry at the imputation. " Do the Persians," he 
 answered, " say that I am beside myself for love of wine ? 
 You shall see whether they speak the truth, or whether 
 it is they that are beside themselves when they talk thus. 
 If I cleave your son's heart with my arrow as he stands 
 without the door, then the Persians will be proved to 
 talk nonsense : if I miss, then say that the Persians speak 
 truth, and it is I that am mad." He drew his bow, the 
 boy fell, and he commanded that he should be opened : 
 the arrow was found fixed in his heart. He turned to 
 the father and said, laughing, " Prexaspes, I have made 
 it clear to you that the Persians are mad, and not I. Now 
 tell me whether you have seen any man who shot so 
 well ?" The miserable wretch, fearing for his own 
 safety, replied that not even a god could have done so 
 well. 
 
 Croesus, who was kept in attendance in his court, as 
 before in Cyrus's, ventured to remonstrate on the course 
 which he was pursuing, but so unsuccessfully, that no- 
 thing but a rapid flight saved him from furnishing an- 
 other proof of Cambyses' skill in archery. He was then 
 ordered to execution, but the officers who had charge of 
 him, knowing the value that their master set upon Croesus, 
 and expecting rewards for saving his life, concealed him 
 until the king's anger should be over. One day at length 
 they produced him, when Cambyses was expressing his 
 regret for the Lydian's death. It is dangerous to calcu- 
 late upon a madman's conduct. The king said that he 
 was very glad Croesus was preserved, and put the officers 
 to death for disobeying his orders. 
 
 He had now been absent from Persia three years 
 faearly, when a revolt broke out ; the natural conse- 
 quence of so long a desertion of the seat of empire, 
 especially under a despotic government ; in which case 
 the people, habituated implicitly to submit to those in
 
 ■ CAMBYSES. 129 
 
 authority, care little from what head that authority eman- 
 ates, provided it is conveyed through the customary 
 channels. On leaving Persia, Cambyses had appointed 
 Patizeithes, a Magian, or one of the hereditary priest- 
 hood, to be steward or inspector of the royal household. 
 This man probably possessed rank and influence, as, 
 under all monarchies, the nobility have been eager to fill 
 even menial offices about the royal person ; perhaps his 
 station gave him political importance, as in France, 
 under the Merovingian dynasty, the Maires du Palais 
 wielded the whole power of the state. He had a brother 
 named Smerdis, closely resembling in person Smerdis 
 the son of Cyrus ; and knowing both that the latter was 
 dead, and that the fact of his death was carefully con- 
 cealed from the nation, he conceived a plan, founded pro- 
 bably on the reputed madness and necessary unpopu- 
 larity of Cambyses, for dethroning him, and substituting 
 his own brother as the son of Cyrus. The attempt 
 seems to have succeeded without opposition : for the 
 historian merely states that he set his brother on the 
 throne, and sent heralds throughout the empire, to say 
 that in future obedience was to, be paid to Smerdis, son 
 of Cyrus, and not to Cambyses. The herald sent 
 into .'Egypt found the latter with his army in Syria, and 
 (a service of no small danger) boldly delivered his mes- 
 sage to the king in public. On this occasion the mad- 
 man behaved reasonably, for instead of killing Prexaspes 
 and the herald in the first instance, and then proceeding 
 to inquire ,"how Smerdis came to be alive, he began by 
 investigating, and soon perceived the real state of the 
 case. The true meaning of the dream already referred 
 to then struck him, in which he saw a messenger from 
 Susa, who told him that Smerdis sat upon the throne, and 
 reached the heavens with his head. Some remnant of 
 kindly feeling:and remorse now touched his heart, and 
 he wept to think that he had destroyed his brother to 
 no purpose ; but this soon gave way to a natural anger, 
 and with his usual precipitation he would instantly have 
 departed to assert his own empire, and punish the con- 
 spirators. But as he sprung to horse the button dropped
 
 130 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 off which -closed the end of his scabbard ; and the naked 
 point pierced his thigh, the spot in which he had sacri- 
 legiously wounded Apis. He thought that the injury 
 was mortal, and asked the name of the city where he 
 then was. It was called Ecbatana,* and in Ecbatana an 
 oracle had forewarned him he should die ; but he na- 
 turally interpreted it of the more celebrated Ecbatana, 
 the residence of the ancient Median kings. When he 
 heard the name he was sobered, and comprehending the 
 oracle aright, said " Here then Cambyses, son of Cyrus, 
 is destined to end his life."f The wound mortified, and 
 on the twentieth day after the accident he sent for the 
 most eminent of his countrymen, and addressed them in 
 these words: " Men of Persia, I am now forced to de- 
 
 * A Syrian city ; its site is not clearly ascertained. Cam- 
 byses seems to have been at this time ou his route home, 
 t K. Henry. Doth any name;*particular belong 
 
 Unto the lodging where I first did swoon ? 
 Warw. 'Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord. 
 
 K. Henry. Laud be to God ! — even there my life must 
 end. 
 It hath been prophesied to me many years 
 I should not die, but in Jerusalem, 
 Which vainly I supposed^the Holy Land : — 
 But bear me to that chamber ; there I'll lie. 
 In that Jerusalem shall Harry die. 
 
 Xing Henry IV. Part 2, iv. 4. 
 The ground work of this passage is to be found in Holin- 
 shed ; and the same tale is told in Fabyan's Chronicles, and 
 in Restell's Pastime of PJeasui'e. The latter writers state it 
 without any appearance of doubt. But Holinshed uses a de- 
 gree of caution not very common in a chronicler of that time : 
 *' Whether this was true that so he spake, as one that gave 
 too much credit to foolish prophecies and vain tales, or whe- 
 ther it was fained, as in such cases it commonly happeneth, 
 we leave it to the advised reader to judge." The advised 
 reader will probably hesitate little in adopting the latter con- 
 clusion ; especially as the same tale is told of other persons. 
 See the notes to Shakspeare, in the edition of 1821. The 
 actors and the scenes differ in the different cases; but the 
 equivoque arises in all upon the name " Jerusalem."
 
 CAMBYSES. 131 
 
 clare to you what I have hitherto concealed most carefully. 
 For, being in Egypt, I saw in my sleep a vision which I 
 would fain never have seen, and thought a messenger 
 from home brought word that Smerdis sat upon the 
 throne, and reached the heavens with his head. Fear- 
 ing, therefore, to be deposed by my brother, I did more 
 hastily than wisely, for it is not in man's nature to turn 
 aside that' which is decreed : but I, fool as I was, sent 
 Prexaspes to Susa to kill Smerdis, and lived in security 
 when this great evil was done, never thinking that, 
 though he was removed, some other person might rise up 
 against me. And thus, being wrong concerning every 
 thing that was to happen, I have needlessly become a 
 fratricide, and yet am equally deprived of my kingdom. 
 For it was Smerdis, the Magian, whose revolt the divi- 
 nity foretold in my dream. The deed then is done, and 
 be assured that you have no longer Smerdis, son of Cyrus, 
 but the Magi fill the royal office ; he whom I left 
 steward of my household, and Smerdis his brother. He 
 is. dead, then, whose part especially it was to avenge the 
 wrongs done to me by the Magi ; dead, impiously mur- 
 dered by his nearest of kin. And as he is no more, I am 
 com.pelled to give in charge to you, O Persians, those 
 things which at the end of life I wish to be done. I 
 require of you then, and call the gods of our empire to 
 witness, that you suffer not the sovereignty to revert to 
 the Medes, but if they have obtained it by fraud, by 
 fraud let them be stripped of it ; if by force, by force 
 do you recover it. And as you do this, may your land 
 be fruitful, and your v.ives and flocks yield increase to 
 you as a free people for ever ; but if you recover not 
 the empire, nor attempt to recover it, I imprecate upon 
 you the reverse of all these things, and further pray that 
 the end of every Persian may be like mine." So say- 
 ing, he bewailed in tears his whole condition. And 
 when the Persians beheld their king weeping they rent 
 their clothes, and made lamentation unsparingly.* Thus 
 
 * Herod, iii. 65.
 
 132 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 died Cambyses, in the seventh year and fifth month of 
 his reign. 
 
 /"The Egyptians, who were horror-struck at the out- 
 rage committed upon Apis, and who ascribed the atro- 
 cities perpetrated by the Persian monarch to madness, 
 the consequence of this crime, saw in the manner of his 
 death a further manifestation of divine vengeance. Strange 
 inconsistency, that men should believe a deity unable t» 
 protect his own person, and yet thus capable of inflicting 
 punishment upon his injurer ! In a similar spirit, the 
 death of Cleomenes, King of Sparta, an event attended 
 with remarkable and impressive circumstances, was at- 
 tributed to no less than four different acts of impiety by 
 different parties, each believing that it was caused by an 
 infringement upon those things which they themselves 
 considered as peculiarly sacred. Cleomenes' mind was 
 impaired before he ascended the throne, insomuch that 
 his younger brother endeavoured to set aside the strict 
 order of succession in his own favour. We may notice 
 this as a strong proof of what has been said of tlie 
 efficacy of moral restraint in preserving mental sanity, 
 and checking the progress of existing disease. The 
 strict discipline of Sparta, the subjection of her kings in 
 common with all other citizens, not merely to written 
 law, but to public opinion, was sufficient to restrain the 
 wanderings even of an impaired mind ; for though his 
 reign was overbearing and violent, nothing is related of 
 him which can be considered as a proof of madness 
 until towards its close, when he became addicted to 
 drunkenness, a vice especially contrary to the Spartan 
 laws. Being proved to have bribed the priestess to 
 return an answer suitable to his own interests on one 
 occasion when the Spartan government consulted the 
 Delphic oracle, he fled to Thessaly, and from thence 
 to Arcadia, where he employed himself so successfully 
 in stirring up war against Sparta, that he was recalled 
 and reinstated. Shortly after he broke out into frenzy, 
 having been before, says Herodotus, somewhat crazed ; 
 and being placed in confinement under the charge of a
 
 CLEOMENES — LORD BROOKE. 133 
 
 Helot, he obtained a sword from his guard, with which 
 he deliberately cut himself into pieces, beginning at the 
 legs and so proceeding upwards, until he reached the 
 vital parts, and died.* 
 
 That so tragical an end should excite general atten- 
 tion, that it should be referred to the direct interposition 
 of the Deity to punish some crime, is no wonder : what 
 is chiefly observable, and characteristic of Grecian 
 religion, is that no one thought of attributing the anger 
 of the gods to moral guilt, of which Cleomenes had no 
 lack, but merely to some injury or insult oifered especially 
 to the gods themselves. Hence, according to the reli- 
 gious prepossessions of the party speculating, there were 
 four methods current of accounting for his madness. 
 Some time before, when commanding in an invasion of 
 Argolis, he had defeated the opposing army, and driven 
 many of them into a wood sacred to the hero Argus (not 
 he with the many eyes), from whom the Argians traced 
 their descent. Unwilling to lose his prey, he at first 
 enticed them one by one with promises of safety, and 
 when his treachery was discovered, and they refused to 
 quit their asylum, he caused the Helots attendant on the 
 army to surround the grove with drV wood, and burnt it 
 together with the wretches it contained. The Argians 
 then said that the hero Argus thus avenged the pollution 
 and destruction of his grove : the Athenians were equally 
 confident that he Mas thus afflicted because he had once 
 ravaged the sacred precincts of Eleusis : the other 
 Greeks, who cared comparatively little either for Argus 
 or Ceres, found a sufficient cause in his corruption of 
 the Delpliian oracle, which was consulted and venerated 
 
 * Loss of sensation or a depraved state of sensation in the 
 extremities, is a common symptom of madness. Where the 
 former exists, it is not uncommon for patients to burn them- 
 selves dreadfully, from mere insensibility to the action of 
 ^re. The latter is often manifested by a sort of irritation 
 which leads the sufferer to cut and lacerate the hands and 
 feet. These facts, with a little allowance for exaggeration, 
 may do something to explain rather a startling passage. — 
 See Dr. Conolly on Insanity. 
 
 G 3
 
 134 HISTORICAL 
 
 by all alike. And the Spartans, bigoted to nothing so 
 much as to their own institutions, probably stumbled 
 upon the truth when they said that there was nothing 
 divine about the business, but that he was driven mad 
 by hard drinking. A similar feeling led the royalists to 
 see something extraordinary in the death of Lord Brooke, 
 who was killed by a musket-shot in the eye, fired from 
 Lichfield Cathedral, while besieging it for the Par- 
 liament in 1643. " There were many discourses and 
 observations upon his death, that it should be upon St. 
 Chad's day, being the 2nd of March, by whose name, 
 he being a bishop shortly after the planting ot Christia- 
 nity in this island , that church had anciently been called. 
 And it was reported that in his prayer that very morn- 
 ing (for he used to pray publicly, though his chaplain 
 were in the presence), he wished ' that if the cause he 
 were in were not right and just, he might presently be 
 cut off.' "' Others went still further, and observed not 
 only that he was killed in attacking St. Chad's church 
 on St. Chad's day, but that he received his death-wound 
 in the very eye with which he had said he hoped to see 
 the ruin of all the cathedrals in the kingdom. It is observ- 
 able that the honour of the tutelary saint seems to have 
 been more thought of than that of the Deity. 
 
 C. Cagsar Caligula, son of Germanicus and Agrippina, 
 being left an orphan at an early age, passed under the 
 guardianship of his grand-uncle Tiberius, who adopted 
 and declared him his successor. In this critical situation 
 he profited so well by the admirable example of duplicity 
 ever before him, that neither the destruction of his near- 
 est relations, nor even the insults studiously offered to 
 himself, drew from him a complaint, or interrupted his 
 obsequious attentions to the reigning power. It was well 
 said after his accession, in reference to this period, that 
 there never was a better slave or a worse master. But 
 cruelty and licentiousness showed themselves through this 
 mask of milkiness ; and the clear-sighted Tiberius, it is 
 said, often predicted that Caligula would live for his own 
 and all men's perdition, and that he was cherishing a 
 serpent against the Roman people, and a Phaeton against
 
 CALIGULA. 135 
 
 the whole world. If the speech be genuine, the empe- 
 ror's kind intentions towards others merited that he should 
 be the first victim of his amiable pupil, and such was the 
 case. At the close of his last illness, while he lay in a 
 stupor which was supposed to be death, Macro, the favour- 
 ite minister, proclaimed Caligula. But he revived — his 
 courtiers slunk away from the new-made monarch, and 
 Caligula in passive terror awaited the consequences of his 
 precipitance, until Macro caused his reviving benefactor 
 to be smothered under the bed-clothes. 
 
 The news of a change of masters was received with 
 universal joy, partly from hatred to Tiberius, partly from 
 love to the family of Germanicus ; and the early conduct 
 of the young prince was calculated to increase the ge- 
 neral attachment. He honoured the ashes of his mother 
 and brothers with a splendid funeral, remitted punish- 
 ments, discharged all criminal proceedings, professed to 
 have no ears for informers, watched over public morals 
 and the administration of justice, and in all things assumed 
 the semblance of a mild and conscientious monarch. But 
 this affectation of popularity lasted no longer than the 
 caprice or fear which produced it. 
 
 The extravagant folly of his nature broke out in the 
 assumption of divinity. This was no new pretension ; 
 but he surpassed his predecessors in the extent and 
 absurdity of his claims. He mutilated without remorse 
 the products of Grecian art, by placing his own head upon 
 the images of the gods, without regard either to the 
 beauty or sanctity of the statues which he thus disfigured. 
 He built a temple in his own honour, appointed priests, 
 and laid down a ritual- of sacrifice, including only those 
 birds which were most esteemed by the epicures of the 
 day. He assumed the title of Latian Jupiter, and com- 
 pleted the mummery by pretending to hold secret con- 
 ferences with the Jupiter of the Capitol, in which he was 
 heard threatening to send him back to Greece in disgrace ; 
 and was only mollified by the repeated entreaties of the 
 father of gods and men, who invited him to share his own 
 abode, the venerated Capitol. 
 
 The Jews of course did not acknowledge his divinity,
 
 136 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 which angered him exceedingly, insomuch that he issued 
 an order to erect his own statue in the temple at Jerusalem. 
 At the intercession of Agrippa this edict was recalled, 
 but his anger against the nation still continued, and gave 
 rise to a very curious scene. A deputation of Jews had 
 gone to Rome in order to conduct a dispute between them- 
 selves and the Alexandrians. Caligula appointed the 
 parties to come before him at a villa which he had ordered 
 to be thrown open for his inspection. On the intro- 
 duction of the Jews, " You," he said, " are those fellows 
 who think me no god, though I am acknowledged to be 
 such by all men, and who confess none except that unpro- 
 nounceable one of yours ;" and raising his hands towards 
 heaven, he uttered that word which it was not lawful to 
 hear, iar less to speak. The Jews w^ere in despair, while 
 their [adversaries jumped and clapped their hands, and ac- 
 cumulated the epithets of all the gods on Caligula. One of 
 them, to improve this advantage, said that the emperor 
 would detest the Jews still more if he knew that they 
 were the only people who had never sacrificed in his 
 behalf. The Jews all exclaimed that it was false — that 
 they had thrice offered hecatombs for his welfare. " Be 
 it so," he answered ; " what then ? You sacrificed to 
 another, and not to me." All this time he was running 
 over the whole house, up and down stairs, and dragging 
 the poor Jews after, who, besides being in mortal terror, 
 were exposed to the ridicule of all the court. Presently 
 he gave some orders about the building, and then turned 
 to them and said gravely, " But why do you not eat pork?" 
 This was another triumph for their adversaries, who 
 burst into such immoderate laughter that the courtiers 
 began to be shocked. The Jews answered, "that the 
 habits of nations varied. Some persons," they added, 
 *' do not eat lamb." " They are right," said the emperor, 
 " it is a tasteless meat." At last he said, rather angrily, 
 " I should like to know on what plea you can justify 
 your city ;" and as they entered into a long speech, he 
 ran over the house to give orders about the windows ; 
 then returning, he asked again what they had to say, and 
 then, when they began their speech again, ran off to look
 
 ^ CALIGULA. 137 
 
 at some pictures. Finally he sent them off, with the 
 observation, " These are not such bad fellows after all, 
 but they are great fools for not believing me to be a 
 god."* 
 
 No man ever spilt blood more lightly, with more re- 
 finement in cruelty, or with less excuse. He had no 
 rivals to I'ear, no conspiracies to provoke him ; but selfish- 
 ness seemed to have stifled every humane feeling, and to 
 have left him a prey to the guidance of his evil passions, 
 unrestrained by that natural abhorrence of blood which 
 few even of the worst entirely overcome. To relate 
 one half of his atrocities would weary and disgust 
 the reader : the few here given are selected to show how 
 closely levity was mingled wdth brutality. He asked 
 one w ho had been banished by Tiberius, how he em- 
 ployed himself in exile. " I besought the gods that 
 Tiberius might perish, and you be emperor," was 
 the courtly reply. Thinking that those whom he had 
 banished might be similarly employed, he sent persons 
 around the islands of the Mediterranean, the abodes 
 usually prescribed to those unhappy men, commissioned 
 to put all to death. Cowardly as cruel, he was con- 
 scious that the prayer merited a hearing, and had 
 superstition to fear, though not religion to venerate or 
 obey. A civil officer of rank, resident for the sake of 
 his health in Anticyra (an island of the JEgean Sea, cele- 
 brated for the growth of hellebore), requested the ex- 
 tension of his leave of absence. Caligula answered, 
 " that blood-letting was necessary, M'here so long a 
 course of hellebore had failed," and sent at .the same 
 time an order for his execution. The joke, such as] it 
 is, appears to have been the only provocation to;this act. 
 Imperial wit need be brilliant if it is to be displayed at so 
 high a price. It was his frequent order to the execu- 
 tioner, whose work he loved to superintend, " Strike so 
 that he may feel himself die." When, by a mistake of 
 name, one man had suffered for another, he observed 
 that both deserved alike ; and here he probably stumbled 
 
 * Philo Uepl 'Aperuy. sub fin.
 
 138 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 upon a truth. One of his exclamations is notorious : 
 " Oh that the Roman people had one neck ! " In a 
 similar spirit he lamented that his reign was distinguished 
 by no public misfortunes — he should be forgotten in the 
 prosperity of the age. It was a mistaken diffidence : he 
 might have trusted in his own powers to avert such a 
 misfortune. Another .source of bloodshed was his pro- 
 fuse expenditure. Within a year he spent the treasure 
 left by Tiberius, amounting to twenty-two millions 
 sterling, and then supplied his extravagance by every 
 species of extortion. He abrogated the wills of some, 
 because of their ingratitude in not making his prede- 
 cessor, or himself, their heir ; those of others he 
 annulled, because witnesses were found to say that they 
 had meant to do so ; and having thus frightened many 
 into appointing him a legatee conjointly with their 
 friends and relations, he said that they were laughing at 
 him, to continue alive after making their wills, and sent 
 poisoned dishes to many of them. And being thus 
 callous, and boastfully indiflerent to his subjects' suffer- 
 ings, he chose to affect horror when in the savage sports 
 of the amphitheatre one gladiator killed five others, and 
 published an edict to express his abhorrence at the 
 cruelty of those who had endured such a sight. 
 
 One instance of his extortion we could pardon. After 
 an exhibition'of gladiators, he caused the survivors to be 
 sold by auction. While so employed he observed that 
 one Aponius was dozing in his seat, and turning to the 
 auctioneer, desired him on no account to neglect the bid- 
 dings of the gentleman who was nodding to him from the 
 benches. Finally thirteen gladiators w^ere knocked down 
 to the unconscious bidder for near 73,000/. Among 
 other equally honest and dignified ways of raising money, 
 he sold in Gaul the jewels, servants, and other property, 
 even the very children of his sisters ; and he found this 
 so profitable, that he sent to Rome for the old furniture 
 of the palace, pressing all carriages, public and private, 
 for its conveyance, to the great inconvenience and even 
 distress of the capital. But the sale, we may suppose, 
 went off dully, for the emperou»complained loudly of his
 
 CALIGULA. 139 
 
 subjects' avarice, who were not ashamed to be richer 
 than himself, and affected sorrow at being compelled t,o 
 alienate the imperial property. 
 
 The most ludicrous part of his life is the history of his 
 wars. Benig told that his Batavian guards wanted re- 
 cruiting, he took a sudden whim to make a German 
 campaign, and set out with such speed that he arrived at 
 his head-quarters in Gaul .before the troops could be 
 entirely collected. He now assumed the character of a 
 strict disciplinarian ; broke those officers whom his own 
 causeless hurry had made too late ; and mingling a due 
 attention to economy with his caprices, deprived 6000 
 veterans of the pensions due to them. He claimed the 
 conquest of Britain , on the ground of receiving homage 
 from an exiled prince of that island ; and having sent a 
 pompous account of this magnificent acquisition to the 
 senate, he proceeded to the Rhine and even crossed it. 
 While marching through a defile, he heai'd some one 
 observe that the appearance of an enemy at that moment 
 would cause no little confusion. The notion of war in 
 earnest was too much for the descendant of Germanicus 
 and Drusus. He mounted his horse, hurried to recross 
 the river, and rather than wait until an obstructed bridge 
 could be cleared, was passed from hand to hand over the 
 heads of the crowd. Not finding, or rather not seeking 
 a real enemy, he made some Germans of his own army 
 conceal themselves in the forest, and while he was at 
 table caused the approach of an enemy to be hurriedly 
 announced. On this he rushed to horse, galloped with 
 his companions and part of his guard into the next wood, 
 erected a trophy in honour of his exploit, and quickly 
 returned to censure the cowardice of those who had re- 
 fused to share the danger of their prince. In a similar 
 spirit he sent away some hostages privately, then led the 
 hue and cry to overtake them, and brought them back 
 in fetters as deserters. But his most brilliant exploit 
 was that of giving battle to the ocean. He drew his 
 troops up in line upon the sea-shore, ranged his artillery, 
 machines for throwing large darts and stones, as if 
 against an enemy, and then, while all were wondering
 
 140 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 what folly would come next, commanded the soldiers to 
 fill then- helmets and pockets with shells, calling them 
 the spoils of the ocean, due to the Capitol and the 
 palace. To celebrate this victory he built a light- 
 house, and distributed a hundred denarii to every sol- 
 dier ; and then, as if he had surpassed all former in- 
 stances of liberality, " Depart," he said, " depart happy 
 and rich." 
 
 Such victories deserved a triumph, but there was some 
 difficulty in procuring proper ornaments for the ostenta- 
 tious ceremony : for his German victories had produced 
 no prisoners, and it does not appear to have occurred to 
 him that the ocean contained fish as well as shells. A 
 live porpoise would have formed a novel and appropriate 
 feature in the procession, and have done honour to his 
 own prowess and to the majesty of the empire. To 
 supply the deficiency he collected a number of Gauls, 
 distinguished by their stature and personal advantages, 
 caused them to let their hair grow, and to dye it red (the 
 characteristics of the German race), and even to^ learn the 
 German language, and to assume German names. Strange 
 mixture of vanity with dfsregard of his own character 
 and contempt of the public opinion ! The slightest re- 
 flection must have shown the futility of these pretences, 
 and the immeasurable littleness of his own behaviour. 
 But so long as he had the pleasure of wearing his 
 borrowed plumes, it seems to have mattered not that the 
 world knew them to be borrowed. In a similar spirit he 
 affected to wear the breast-plate of Alexander the 
 Great. What bitterer satire could his worst enemy 
 have devised ? 
 
 The capricious variations of his temper exposed his 
 associates to constant danger. At one time he loved 
 company, at another solitude : sometimes the number of 
 petitions made him angry, and sometimes the want of 
 them. He undertook things in the greatest hurry, and 
 executed them with sluggish neglect. To flatter, or to 
 speak truth, was equally dangerous, for sometimes he 
 was in a humour for one and sometimes for the other ; 
 so that those who had intercourse with him were equally
 
 CALIGULA. 141 
 
 at a loss what to do or say, and thanked fortune rather 
 than prudence if they came off unhurt. 
 
 His private life was polluted by vice and intemperance 
 of every description. Cowardly as cruel, the report of 
 a rebellion among those Germans of whose conquest he 
 boasted, terrified him into preparing a refuge in his 
 transmarine dominions, lest, like the Cimbri of old, they 
 should force a passage into Italy. At a clap of thunder 
 he would close his eyes and cover his head, and in a 
 heavy storm the Latian Jupiter used to run under the bed, 
 to hide himself from his Capitoline brother. He usually 
 slept but three hours in the night, and that not calmly, 
 but agitated by strange visions : the rest he passed sit- 
 ting upon the bed, or traversing extensive colonnades, 
 impatiently calling for the return of day. Justice began 
 the work of retribution earl}--, and he who troubled the 
 rest of all others was unable to find quiet for himself. 
 Among his other extraordinary qualities was a most in- 
 sane jealousy of the slightest advantages enjoyed by 
 others. He overthrew the statues of eminent men erected 
 by Augustus in the field of Mars, and forbade them to be 
 erected to any one in future except with his express 
 permission. He even thought of not allowing Homer to 
 be read : " Why not I, as well as Plato, who expelled 
 that poet from his republic ?" and talked of weeding all 
 libraries of the writings and images of Virgil and Livy. 
 This folly he carried even to envying the personal 
 qualifications of his subjects, and being bald himself, he 
 sent the barber abroad to shave every good head of hair 
 that came in his way. 
 
 Little remains to complete the picture, but to say that 
 his tastes were low, as his ' character was brutish. 
 Passionately fond of theatrical entertainments and the 
 sports of the amphitheatre and circus, it was from the 
 profligate followers of these arts that he chose his favour- 
 ites, to whom, and to whom alone, he was devotedly 
 attached. The story of his meaning to appoint his horse 
 consul is well known : the brute would have done more 
 credit to the subordinate, than his master to the imperial
 
 142 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 dignity ; but it is apocryphal. But besides a marble 
 stable and an ivory manger, indulgences to which so 
 dignified an animal might reasonably aspire, Caligula 
 assigned to him a house and establishment, that he might 
 entertain company more splendidly. We regret not to 
 know whether the senators or their horses were the ob- 
 jects of this hospitality. 
 
 He was wont to say, that of all his qualities, he most 
 valued his firmness of purpose {'a5iaTpe\pla). The 
 judgment was in one sense correct : this was indeed the 
 2)redominant feature of his character. But it was the 
 firmness not of principle, not even of policy,' but of 
 obstinate and entire selfishness, which regarded not the 
 weightiest interests of others when placed in opposition 
 to its caprices ; of habitual self-indulgence, which 
 gratified the whim of the moment, alike careless of its 
 folly or of its guilt. At first he w^ould not, in the end 
 he probably could not, control his passions ; and this 
 inflexibility is the symptom of that mental disease which 
 we believe to originate in uncontrolled power. This plea 
 furnishes no particle of excuse for him, no more than 
 drunkenness for the excesses of the drunkard : in both 
 the loss of reason is a crime in itself, and in neither 
 probably is it ever so complete as to obliterate the per- 
 ception of right and wrong. Of genuine madness we 
 find no trace in his life. He appears to have been 
 subject to no delusions upon particular subjects, to no 
 access either of frenzy or melancholy. As a boy he, as 
 M'ell as Cambyses, was subject to epileptic fits, which 
 were supposed to have impaired his mind ; and he enter- 
 tained, it is said, doubts of his own sanity, and had 
 thoughts of submitting to a course of medicine for his 
 recovery. Others thought that a love potion, administered 
 by his wife to fix affection, had produced madness ; but 
 the tenor of his life countenances neither supposition. 
 Folly, selfishness, cruelty, and the restlessness of a self- 
 upbraiding spirit cannot be allowed shelter under the 
 plea of insanity ; and the mental weakness and incapa- 
 city of self-control which arises from the habitual
 
 THE EMPEROR PAUL. 143 
 
 dominion ol passion, is .no less widely different in its 
 effects than in its origin from that which is dependent 
 upon physical causes. 
 
 He perished by domestic conspiracy, in the fourth 
 year of his reign and the twenty-ninth of his age. He 
 oppressed the people and the nobility with impunity : 
 he fell, when his jealous temper rendered him formidable 
 to his servants and favourites. 
 
 Paul, emperor of Russia, was the son of Catherine II., 
 who, as is well known, murdered her husband Peter III., 
 and took possession of his throne, which she retained 
 till death. She conceived a strong aversion for her son, 
 who was in consequence brought up in retirement, neg- 
 lected, and even exposed to want. When arrived at 
 manhood he was still forbidden to reside at court ; his 
 children were taken away to be educated under the 
 empress's care ; he was studiously excluded from all 
 knowledge or participation in affairs of state ; and even 
 denied permission to gratify his military taste by active 
 service. His mother's object was at once to render him 
 unfit for empire, and to spread abroad the notion that he 
 was so ; with the view of passing him entirely over in 
 favour of his son Alexander, whom in her will she ap- 
 pointed to succeed to the throne. Paul seems to have 
 been naturally affectionate, methodical, a lover of justice, 
 temperate, even amidst the most consummate profligacy 
 ever witnessed in a court ; but these good qualities vv'cre 
 stifled by the faults of his education. Privation, con- 
 tumely, and a constant sense of injury, soured his temper, 
 and rendered him distrustful and cruel, at the same time 
 that the enjoyment of a minor despotism made him 
 capricious and ungovernable ; for he was the undisputed 
 master of his little court, and could vent upon others 
 the ill-humour inspired by his own crosses, unchecked 
 by the presence of a superior, or the influence of public 
 observation. He lived at the country palaces of Gats- 
 china and Paulowsky, surrounded by his household 
 officers and troops, and shunned by all others ; devoted 
 to the iminutiae of military discipline, and employed 
 chiefly in reviewing his guards, for whom he devised a
 
 144 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 new system of dress and regulations, which it was after- 
 wards his great pride and pleasure to introduce into the 
 army at large. There was a long terrace at Paulowsky, 
 from which he could see all his sentinels, M'ho were 
 stuck about wherever there was room for a sentry-box. 
 Here he used to promenade with an eye-glass, sending 
 orders from time to time to one man to open a button 
 more or less, to another to carry his musket higher or 
 lower, andjsometimes trotting a quarter of a league to ad- 
 minister a good caning with his own royal hand to one 
 soldier, or to bestow a rouble on another, as he was pleased 
 or displeased with his bearing. 
 
 One or two anecdotes of this part of his life will best 
 illustrate his temper. Travelling through a forest, with 
 marsh on each side of the road, he recollected some 
 reason for going back, and ordered the driver to turn. 
 He did not do so instantly, and Paul repeated the order. 
 " In a moment," the man replied ; " here the road is 
 too narrow." Paul flew into a passion, jumped out of 
 the carriage, and called to an equerry to stop the driver 
 and chastise him. The equerry endeavoured to allay 
 the storm by assurances that the carriage would turn as 
 soon as possible. " You are a scoundrel as well as he,*^ 
 was the reply ; ** he shall turn even though he break my 
 neck : at all hazards he shall do as I bid, the moment I 
 give the order." Meanwhile the coachman had done so, 
 but too late to save himself from a sound beating. 
 
 He ordered a horse that stumbled under him to be 
 starved. On the eighth day word was brought him of 
 the animal's death ; to which he merely answered, 
 " Good." The same accident happened after his acces- 
 sion in the streets of St. Petersburgh, on which he got off, 
 made his equerries hold a court-martial, and sentenced 
 the offending beast to receive a hundred blows with a 
 stick, which were immediately inflicted in presence of 
 the Czar and the people. Worse anecdotes might be 
 found. His passion for the strict observance of military 
 minutise has been mentioned. One day, as he exercised 
 his regiment of cuirassiers, an officer's horse fell. Paul 
 ran to the spot in a fury : " Get up, you rascal !" "I
 
 THE EMPEROR PAUL. 145 
 
 cannot, Sire — my leg is broken." Paul spit upon him, 
 and walked away swearing. 
 
 Catherine, as before said, appointed Alexander her 
 successor by will. She| had intrusted this important 
 document to Zoubow, her last favourite, who hastened 
 immediately upon her death, in the year 1796, to place 
 it in Paul's hands. It is due to the late emperor to say, 
 that he never took any part in the measures adopted for 
 excluding his father, who succeeded to the vacant throne 
 without opposition. The Czar's conduct towards his 
 family, on this occasion, does him honour : the more, 
 that under similar circumstances, few of his predecessors 
 would have hesitated to establish their power by the im- 
 prisonment or death even of an involuntary rival. In- 
 stead of using severity, he gave an affectionate reception 
 to his sons, who had been separated from him since 
 childhood, increased their revenues, and assured them 
 and the empress, to whom he had been a harsh and 
 capricious husband, of his love and protection ; and at 
 the same time, with prudence commendable on his son's 
 account no less than on his own, he provided employment 
 for Alexander which kept the prince near his person till 
 the critical time was over. 
 
 The court and city of St. Petersburgh, the whole 
 public of Russia, received with fear their new sovereign, 
 whose caprice and extravagance were well known ; but 
 his first measures belied their expectation. He showed a 
 decent respect to his mother's memory, though he fully 
 returned the hatred which she felt for him, retained her 
 ministers, whom he had no reason to love, and displayed 
 judgment and honesty in his first political measures, 
 until every body thought that a false estimate had been 
 formed of his character. This good sense and moderation 
 did not last long. His first step was to secure his 
 throne by incorporating with the royal guards his own 
 household troops, on whose fidelity he depended. The 
 latter, like the Praetorian bands of the Roman emperors, 
 were a highly privileged and powerful body, captains of 
 which held the rank of colonels of the line. Its officers 
 of course were chiefly of high rank, and many of them, 
 to the amount of some hundred, resigned their commis-
 
 146 HISTOKICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 sions, angry at seeing men not of noble birth, perhaps' 
 raised from the ranks, placed over their heads, or un- 
 willing to undergo the new and harassing discipline 
 which Paul introduced. The Czar became alarmed at 
 this general desertion, and, by way of conciliation, 
 issued an order that all who had resigned, or should 
 thereafter resign their commissions, should quit St. 
 Petersburgh within twenty-four hours. Many persons 
 transported suddenly without the barriers, and forbidden 
 to re-enter the city, and left on the high road, without 
 shelter or clothing fitted to protect them from the cold, 
 perished miserably for want of money to reach their 
 homes. 
 
 Paul came to the throne ambitious of signalizing him- 
 self as a reformer, but his mind was far too confined io 
 perform so hard a task successfully. In the civil depart- 
 ment, he did little but reverse all that his mother had 
 done ; in the military, his attention was confined to in- 
 significant details. His great object was to conform the 
 dress and exercise of the whole army to the model which 
 he had been so long and anxiously forming at Gatschina. 
 The very morning after his accession he commenced this 
 important task by establishing what he called his Wacht- 
 parade, to which every morning he devoted three or four 
 hours. However severe the cold, he was still there, 
 dressed in a plain green uniform, with thick boots and a 
 large hat, for he placed his pride in bearing a Russian 
 winter without furs ; stamping about to warm himself, 
 with his bald head bare and his snub-nose turned up to 
 the wind, one hand behind his back, and the other 
 beating time with his cane, and crying JRaz, dwa — Razy 
 diva, one, two — one two — surrounded by gouty old 
 generals, who dared neither to absent themselves nor to 
 dress warmer than their master. The old Russian uni- 
 form was handsome, suited to the climate, and could be 
 put on in an instant : it consisted merely of a jacket and 
 large trousers, which enabled the wearer to protect him- 
 self by any quantity of interior clothing, without injury 
 to uniformity of appearance. The hair was worn long, 
 and falling round the neck, so that it defended the ears 
 from cold. Paul introduced the old-fashioned German
 
 THE EMPEROR PAUL. 147 
 
 uniform, which every true Russian hated for its own 
 sake, and despised as holding the Germans in supreme 
 contempt ; he encased their legs in long tight gaiters, made 
 them powder and curl their hair, and hung false pigtails 
 from their necks. Marshal Suvarof, on receiving orders 
 to introduce these changes, together with the measure 
 of the men's curls and pigtails (for everything under 
 Paul was done by measure), observed that " hair- 
 powder was not gunpowder, nor curls cannon, nor pig- 
 tails bayonets ;" and 'this witticism is said to have cost 
 him his recall. 
 
 Not content with modelling the army after his own 
 notions of elegance, his meddling spirit exerted itself in 
 the most vexatious and tyrannical interferences with the 
 freedom of private life. The dress, the colour of car- 
 riages and liveries, the method of harnessing horses, 
 everything was matter of rule, and woe to him who met 
 the Czar with anything about his equipage contrary to 
 etiquette. One day he saw Count Razumoffski's sledge 
 standing in the street without the driver, and ordered it 
 to be immediately broken in pieces. It was of a blue 
 colour, and the servants wore red liveries : upon which 
 he issued a proclamation forbidding the use of blue 
 sledges and red liveries in any part of the empire. He 
 waged a crusade against round hats, which he thought a 
 mark of jacobinism, the object of his greatest hate and 
 fear. If any person appeared in one, it was taken from 
 his jhead by the police ; if he resisted, he was well 
 beaten. The cocked hats in St. Petersburgh were of 
 course soon exhausted, and then round hats were meta- 
 morphosed into three-cornered hats, by pinning up the 
 sides. The emperor himself is said to have stopped 
 persons and pinned up their hats with his royal hands, 
 to show his people how a loyal subject ought to 
 be dressed. An order against wearing boots with 
 coloured tops was no less rigorously enforced. The 
 police officers stopped a gentleman driving through the 
 streets in a pair. He remonstrated, and said he had no 
 others with him, and certainly would not cut off the tops 
 of those ; upon which the officers, seizing each a leg as 
 he sat in his droski, pulled them off, and left him to go
 
 148 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 barefoot home. Coming down a street, the emperor 
 saw a nobleman who had stopped to look at some work- 
 men planting trees by his order. *' What are you 
 doing '?" said he. " Merely seeing the men work," 
 replied the nobleman. " Oh ! is that your employment? 
 Take off his pelisse and give him a spade. There — now 
 work yourself!" Once, when he met an officer going 
 to the palace wrapped in his cloak, a servant following 
 with his sword, he gave the servant his master's com- 
 mission, and reduced the officer to the ranks. 
 
 It was an ancient Russian usage that all who met the 
 Czar, male or female, should quit their carriage, be it in 
 mud or snow, to salute, and even to prostrate themselves 
 before him. Peter the Great used to cudgel soundly 
 any person who did so, and Catherine II. had abolished 
 the practice ; but Paul revived it, and exacted its ob- 
 servance most severely. Of course, amid a crowd of 
 carriages continually passing at full speed, it was easy to 
 neglect it, without intentional disrespect ; but no such 
 excuse was admitted. A lady, wife of a general in the 
 army, hastening into St. Petersburgh, from the country, 
 to procure medical advice for her sick husband, passed 
 the Czar inadvertently, and was immediately arrested and 
 sent to prison. Alarm and anxiety threw her into a 
 burning fever, which terminated in madness ; and her 
 husband died from the same causes, and for want of pro- 
 per care and attendance. On being presented to Paul, 
 it was necessary to drop plump on your knees, with force 
 enough to make the floor ring as if a musket had been 
 grounded, and to kiss his hand with energy sufficient to 
 certify to all present the honour which you had just en- 
 joyed. Prince George Galitzin was placed under arrest 
 for kissing his hand too negligently. When enraged he 
 lost all command of himself, which sometimes gave rise 
 to very curious scenes. In one of his furious passions, 
 flourishing his cane, he struck by accident the branch of 
 a large lustre and broke it ; whereupon he commenced a 
 -serious attack, from which he did not relax until ^^he had 
 entirely demolished his brittle antagonist. 
 
 Under a sovereign of such a temper no man could feel 
 secure for an hour. The police kept strict watch over
 
 THE EMPEROR PAUL. 149 
 
 the words, the actions, the correspondence of every one ; 
 and the knout, exile to Siberia, or at the best deporta- 
 tion without the frontiers, were unsparingly dealt out 
 for involuntary or chimerical offences : and suspected 
 persons were continually hurried out of the country with- 
 out time being allowed for the arrangement of their af- 
 fairs, and in ignorance at once of their offence and of 
 the nature of the intended punishment. Such a state of 
 things was not likely to last very long in Russia, with so 
 many examples to prove how easy the descent is from the 
 palace to the grave. 
 
 Towards the close of his reign his conduct became 
 more and more intolerable, and at last he took care 'to 
 advertise all Europe of his folly or madness, or both, by 
 inserting in the St. Petersburgh Gazette a notice to the 
 following effect : " That the Emperor of Russia, finding 
 that the powers of Europe cannot agree among them- 
 selves, and being desirous to put an end to a war which 
 has desolated it for eleven years, intends to point out a 
 spot to which he will invite all the other sovereigns to 
 repair and fight in single combat, bringing with them as 
 seconds and esquires their most enlightened ministers 
 and able generals, such as Turgot, Pitt, Bernstorff, and 
 that the Emperor himself proposes being attended by Ge- 
 nerals Count Pahlen and Kutusolf." This piece of ex- 
 travagance appears to have completed the disgust of the 
 nobility, and consummated his ruin. 
 
 A plot was formed, at the head of which was Count 
 Zoubow, the man to whom he had been indebted for 
 the important service of suppressing Catherine's will. 
 Paul's aversion to every thing which his mother had fa- 
 voured soon overcame his gratitude, and Zoubow was or- 
 dered to quit the court, and reside upon his estates. 
 Fresh intrigues again brought him into favour, and the 
 first use he made of it was to plan the murder of his mas- 
 ter. He opened his mind gradually to other noblemen : 
 it was resolved, as private crime will often assume the 
 guise of public virtue, that the safety of the empire re- 
 quired the deposition of Paul ; and as there is but one 
 prison whose doors can never open to a dethroned mo- 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 150 HISTORICAL, PARALLELS. 
 
 navch, they resolved, in conibniiity with all Russian 
 }3recedent, to put him to death. The details of this 
 catastrophe are interesting, and, it is presmned, authen- 
 tic and accurate, since they were thus related to Mr. 
 Carr by an eye-witness, and therefore an agent in the 
 deed. 
 
 " The Emperor used to sleep in an outer apartment, 
 next the Enij)ress's, upon a sofa, in his boots and regi- 
 mentals ; the other branches of the imperial family being- 
 lodged in difterent parts of the same building. On the 
 10th March, o.s. 1801, the day preceding the fatal night 
 (whether Paul's apprehension, or anonymous information 
 suggested the idea, is not known), conceiving that a 
 storm was ready to burst upon him, he sent to Count 
 
 P , the governor of the city, one of the noblemen 
 
 who had resolved on his destruction. ' I am informed, 
 
 P ,' said the Emperor, ' that there is a conspiracy on 
 
 foot against me : do you think it necessary to take any 
 precaution V The Count, without betraying the least 
 emotion, replied, ' Sire, do not sutler such apprehensions 
 to haunt your mind ; if there were any combination 
 ibnning against your Majesty's person, I am sure I should 
 l)e acquainted with it.' ' Then I am satisfied,' said the 
 Emjieror, and the governor withdrew. Before Paul re- 
 tired to rest, he unexpectedly exi)ressed the most tender 
 solicitude for the Empress and his children, kissed them 
 with all the warmth of farewell fondness, and remained 
 with them longer than usual ; and after he had visited the 
 sentinels at tlieir different posts, he retired to his chamber, 
 w here he had not long remained, before, under some co- 
 lourable pretext that satisfied the men, the guard was 
 ciianged by the officers who had the command ibr the 
 night, and were engaged in the confederacy. An hussar, 
 wiiom the Emperor had particularly honoured by his no- 
 tice and attention, always at night slept at his bed-room 
 door, in the antechamber. It was impossible to remove 
 this faitliful soldier by any lair means. At this momen- 
 tous period, silence reigned through the ]jalace, except 
 where it was disturbed by the pacing of the sentinels, or 
 at a distance by the murmurs of the Neva ; and only a
 
 THE EMPEROR PAUL. 151 
 
 few lights were to be seen distantly and irregularly 
 gleaming through the windows of this dark colossal abode. 
 In the dead of the night, Z and his friends, amount- 
 ing to eight or nine persons, passed the drawbridge, 
 easily ascended a private staircase which led directly to 
 the Emperor's chamber, and met with no resistance till 
 they reached the anteroom, where the faithful hussar, 
 awakened by the noise, challenged them, and presented 
 his fusee. Much as they must have admired the brave 
 fidelity of the guard, neither time nor circumstances 
 would admit of an act of generosity which might have 
 
 endangered the whole plan. Z drew his sabre and 
 
 cut the poor fellow down. Paul, awakened by the noise, 
 sprung from his sofa ; at this moment the whole party 
 rushed into the room ; the unhappy sovereign, anticipa- 
 ting their design, at first endeavoured to entrench him- 
 self in the chairs and tables ; then recovering, he as- 
 sumed a high tone, told them they were his prisoners, 
 and called on them to surrender. Finding that they 
 fixed their eyes steadily and fiercely on him, and con- 
 tinued advancing towards him, he inijilorcd them to spare 
 his life, declared his consent instimtly to relinquish the 
 sceptre, and to accept of any terms they would dictate. 
 In his raving he offered to make them princes, and to 
 give them estates, and titles, and orders, without end. 
 They now began to press upon him, when he made a 
 convulsive efibrt to reach the window ; in the attempt he 
 failed, and indeed so high was it from the ground, that, 
 had he succeeded, the attempt would only have put an 
 end to his misery. In the effort, he very severely cut 
 his hand with the glass ; and as they drew him back, he 
 grasped a chair, with which he felled one of the assail- 
 ants, and a desperate resistance took place. So great was 
 the noise, that, notwithstanding the massy walls and dou- 
 ble folding-doors which divided the apartment, the Em- 
 press was disturbed, and began to cry for help, when a 
 voice whispered in her ear, and imperatively told her to 
 remain quiet, otherwise she would be put to instant death. 
 While the Emperor was thus making a last struggle, the 
 Prince Y struck him on one of his temples" with his
 
 152 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 fist, and laid him upon the floor : Paul, recovering from 
 the blow, again implored his life ; at this moment the 
 
 heart of Z relented, and on being observed to 
 
 tremble and hesitate, a young Hanoverian resolutely ex- 
 claimed, ' We have passed the Rubicon : if we spare his 
 life, before the setting of to-morrow's sun we shall be his 
 victims.' Upon which he took off his sash, turned it 
 twice round the naked neck of the Emperor, and giving 
 
 one end to Z and holding the other himself, they 
 
 pulled for a considerable time with all their force, until 
 their miserable sovereign was no more : they then retired 
 from the palace without the least molestation, and re- 
 turned to their respective homes."* 
 
 After the accession of the new emperor, Zoubow was 
 
 ordered not to approach the court, and Count P 
 
 was transferred from the government of St. Petersburgh 
 to that of Riga. No other notice was taken of the 
 actors in this tragedy. Whether this extraordinary le- 
 nity is to be ascribed to fear, or to a sense of the ne- 
 cessity of removing Paul from the throne (for the high 
 personal character of Alexander places him above the 
 suspicion of having been an accomplice), the late em- 
 peror would better have consulted justice, the interests 
 of his throne, and his own reputation, if he had exacted 
 a severer retribution for the murder of a father and a 
 sovereign.! 
 
 * Carr's Northern Summer. 
 
 f This sketch of Paul's life is chiefly taken from Masson, 
 Memoires Secrets sur la Eussie, Several of the anecdotes 
 rest on Dr. Clarke's authority.
 
 ( 153 ) 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Early changes in the Athenian constitution — Murder of Cylon 
 — Fatalism — Usurpation of Pisistratus — His policy — 
 Hippias and Hipparchus — Conspiracy of Harmodius and 
 Aristogiton— Expulsion of Hippias— Cosmo de' Medici, 
 Lorenzo and Giuliano de' Medici — Conspiracy of the 
 Pazzi. 
 
 For nearly four centuries subsequent to the age of 
 Theseus, scarce any mention of Athens occurs in Grecian 
 history : a circumstance honourable to that city, as de- 
 noting a long course of tranquil prosperity, and indica- 
 tive of candour and veracity in the writers, who were 
 content to relate the few incidents preserved by tradi-
 
 154 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 tion, without taxing their imaginations to cast a fabulous 
 splendour over an unknown period. The change of 
 dynasty in the person of Melanthus, and the more cele- 
 brated devotion of his son Codrus,"* with' the alterations 
 in the constitution subsequent to, and partly consequent 
 upon, the death of the latter, constitute the only remark- 
 able events during this long lapse of years ; and when at 
 length her authentic history commences, it is in con- 
 sequence of the interruption of that happiness which we 
 ^re led to believe she so long enjoyed. Upon the death 
 of Codrus it was resolved that no living person could bo 
 worthy to bear the title which he had borne, and his 
 son Medon was appointed chief magistrate, with the 
 title of Archon, or ruler. Twelve Archons followed in 
 hereditary succession, when a further change took place, 
 the office being made elective, and limited to the period 
 of ten years ; and at the end of the seventh decennial 
 Archonship the duties of the office were divided between 
 nine persons annually elected. After this change, the 
 possession of political supremacy became an object of 
 strife to the Eupatridoe, or nobles, in whom all power ' 
 was vested : and the Alcmaeonidee, or descendants of 
 Alcmceon, the last hereditary Archon, secured the prize. 
 Cylon, a man eminent for rank and influence, bore their 
 superiority impatiently, and endeavoured by force of 
 arms to make himself master of the government. He 
 seized the citadel ; but the people rose against him, and 
 being unprovided for a siege he sought safety in flight, 
 abandoning his followers to the rage of the adverse fac- 
 tion. As their best hope, they took refuge at the altars, 
 where violence could not be offiered to them without 
 incurring the guilt of sacrilege. Megacles, the head of 
 the Alcmseonidoe, was then Archon ; and by his partisans, 
 some of the suppliants, induced to quit their refuge ui)on 
 condition of personal safety, were perfidiously executed ; 
 others were put to death even at the dreaded altars of 
 'the Eumenides.f Thus far there is nothing in this 
 
 * Hist, of Greece, p. 18. 
 
 f The Furies. These goddesses were worshipped with
 
 ATTEMPT OF CYLOX. 155 
 
 occuiTence to distinguish it from a hundred other in- 
 stances 01 perfidy and cruehy : it is to the remote con- 
 sequences that we wish to direct the reader's attention. 
 The Athenians, without caring ibr the murder, were 
 deeply shocked at the sacrilege ; insomuch that not long- 
 alter, when parties had changed place, it was decreed 
 that of those who had been concerned in it, all yet alive 
 should be condemned to banishment, .and the bones of 
 the deceased be taken up and cast out of Attica. The 
 exiles afterwards returned ; but a prejudice long existed 
 Against their posterity, which proved no inefFeciual wea- 
 pon in political warfare, and twice furnished Sjnu'ta with 
 the means of embarrassing her enemy by requiring the 
 expulsion of some of the leading citizens of the state. 
 The demand was aj)tly met by recalling to mind two 
 similar transactions in which the principal families of 
 Sparta had been engaged, and bidding them set the ex- 
 ample of expiation.* It appears, however, from Aris- 
 tophanes (unless the passage is merely a squib against 
 the Lacedeemonians) that the charge of being " one of 
 the poluted " had not, even after the lapse of one hundred 
 and sixty years, or more., lost all its influence. t 
 
 mysterious veneration by the Athenians, who held it an ill 
 omen to call them by their proper name, and spoke of tliem 
 as tlie venerable goddesses (^aeixvai deai), or the Eumenides, 
 'because they liad been propitious (iufxey€7s) to Orestes after 
 5iis acquittal^ by the coiu-t of Areopagus. This was owing 
 partly to a general dislike of alluding to gloomy subjects, 
 which led them, among other things, to avoid speaking 
 openly of death or tlie dead (hence the phrases 6i icaij-Syresy 
 bi KaToixofx^vQi, those who are worn out, the departed, &c.) ; 
 partly to wishing to propitiate an object of dread by fair words, 
 as the Highlanders called fairies " men of peace," especially 
 on a Friday, when their power was greatest, and the Low- 
 landers entitled them " good neighbours," and the devil 
 himself the " goodman,'' keeping reverentially out of sight 
 his territorial designation. 
 * See Greece, p. 55. 
 
 f 'Ex Tuya.\iT7]picoy cre^cpT]- 
 fx\y eyoveyai ruu ttJv Giov. 
 
 IrT. 445.
 
 156 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 We have already mentioned that it was the insult 
 offered to the gods, rather than the crime against man, 
 which produced so deep a sensation. That the perpe- 
 trators of a cruel and treacherous action should be re- 
 gai'ded with abhorrence, will not indeed surprise us : but 
 the lasting ban entailed upon their posterity is connected 
 with some remarkable tenets, and deserves a few words 
 in explanation. The Greeks were firm believers in the 
 doctrines of fatalism. Man, it was held, struggled in 
 vain to escape from the vortex of destiny ; however 
 repugnant to his wishes, or abhorrent to his principle?, 
 he was borne on to do or suffer that which was decreed, 
 by an irresistible force, against which even the immortal 
 gods contended in vain. A very curious passage to this 
 effect occurs in Herodotus. Croesus, after his defeat and 
 captivity, sent messengers to reproach the Delphian 
 oracle with misleading to ruin, by its false predictions, 
 one who had merited the favour of the god by the mag- 
 nificence of his offerings. The answer ran thus: — "It 
 is impossible even for a god to escape from fate. Croesus 
 but expiates the sin of his fifth ancestor,* who, being in 
 the guard of the descendants of Hercules, "in subservience 
 to a woman's treachery, slew his master, and seized upon 
 a kingdom which belonged not to him. Fain would 
 Apollo have deferred the fall of Sardis until the time of 
 the sons of Croesus ; but he could not turn aside the 
 Fates."! Here, coupled withtheassertion'ofan immutable 
 destiny, we find the not unnatural deduction that the 
 crime of an ancestor entailed misfortune on his posterity : 
 but this doctrine was extended much farther, and it was 
 taught that deeds of extraordinary blackness introduced 
 a malignant demon into the family of the offender, which 
 empoisoned its 'prosperity, and hurried generations yet 
 unborn to inevitable guilt and ruin. The office of inflict- 
 ing this retribution was assigned with some degree of 
 
 * Gyges. Candaules, whom he murdered, was one of 
 the Heraclidse, or descendants of Hercules. The story is 
 told in Herodotus, i. 8. 
 
 t Herod, i. 91.
 
 TATALISM. 157 
 
 confusion and uncertainty to the Fates, " who follow up 
 the transgressions of gods and men,"* to the Erinnyes, 
 or Furies, or to Nemesis, the personification of divine 
 displeasure. But when once these fearful visitants were 
 established in a house, that house was marked out for 
 misery and ruin. Such was the fate of the descendants 
 of Pelops and Labdacus, the royal families of Argos and 
 of Thebes, whose misfortunes have furnished a never- 
 failing theme to the Greek tragedians, who abound in 
 references f to the fatal curse upon these races. J It is 
 from the presence of these dread ministers of wrath, 
 visible to her inspired eyes, that Cassandra draws her 
 fearful presages of evil in that scene, perhaps the grandest 
 in Grecian tragedy. 
 
 " For never shall that bard, whose yelling notes 
 In dismal accord pierce the affrighted ear, 
 Forsake this house. The genius of the feast, 
 Drunk with the blood of man, and fired from thence 
 To bolder daring, ranges through the rooms 
 Linked with his kindred furies : these possess 
 The mansion, and in horrid measures chaunt 
 
 * Hesiod., Theog., 220. 
 
 t iEsch., Sept. c. Theb., 832, 951. Eurip., Phoenissse, 
 15i8. 
 
 X Some modern historical instances of a similar supersti- 
 tious feeling are given lower down in the text. Its nature, 
 however, cannot be better illustrated than by reference to 
 the legend attaching to the family of Eedgauntlet in the 
 novel of that name. The downfall of the house of Eavens- 
 wood, in the admirable tale of the Bride of Lammermoor, 
 though foretold and fated, is not sufficiently identified with 
 the story of the Mermaid's Well, to be quoted on this occasion. 
 If it were so, that work, from the severe grandeur of its 
 serious parts, and the singularly impressive way in which 
 all events, and all agency, human and supernatural, combine 
 from the outset to bring about a catastrophe, foreseen and 
 prophesied, but not the less inevitable, would offer to the 
 English reader an excellent example of the spirit of the 
 superstitions and tragedies here alluded to, though widely 
 differing from them in form. 
 
 H 3
 
 158 HISTORICAL PAEALLELS. 
 
 The first base deed ; recording with abhorrence 
 The adulterous lust which stained a brother's bed."* 
 
 So, after the catastrophe, the chorus refers to the same 
 cause the accumulated horrors and crimes which weigh 
 down the house of Atreus. 
 
 " O thou demon, who dost fall 
 On the high Tantalid hall, 
 Well I know thee, mighty fiend, 
 Who hei'e dost ever wend, 
 Haunting doM^i the double line 
 From father unto son ! 
 " Cli/tcni. Aye, now thy words have sense and grace,, 
 Calling on that thrice great fiend, 
 The (lemon of this race. 
 For 'tis from him their bowels burn 
 With rage of hipping blood ; 
 Ere the old griet has ceased to throb, 
 Young gore comes on amain."f 
 
 "With such ideas concerning an avenging destiny, it is 
 no wonder that the Greeks shunned contact witii the 
 inheritors of divine anger; and national prejudice might 
 be more strongly raised by the sacrilege of the Alcnue- 
 onidcC, because many of the sufierers were slain at the 
 very altars of the Eumenides, to whom the punishment 
 of such deeds peculiarly belonged, and whose worship 
 had been introduced into Attica in amends for the 
 judicial sentence which delivered Orestes from their 
 power. In modern times an analogous persuasion con- 
 cerning the fortunes of particular families has prevailed ; 
 in illustration of w^hich we may cite the belief in the ill- 
 luck of the Stuarts, a belief almost justified by the series 
 of calamities and bloody deaths which beset the princes 
 of that house : and, indeed, this faith in the influence of 
 misconduct to produce hereditary misfortune has been 
 
 * Potter's iEschylus : Agam., 1157 ; ed. Blomf. We give 
 the translation as we find it, and are not answerable for the 
 rendering of Kci\aos ^uyy6vuy 'Epivvwy. 
 
 f Symmons' Agamemnon ; 1414, ed. Blomf.
 
 FATALISM. 159 
 
 general in Ireland and the Scottish Highlands, and 
 probably in other countries where a vivid imagination is 
 found in union with no high degree of cultivation and 
 knowledge. In Ireland it is the popular creed, that an 
 estate gained by fraud brings a cui'se along with it* (to 
 
 * A similar belief existed in England with respect to the 
 aJienations of church property at the Reformation, of which 
 tlie following is a remarkable instance. 
 
 Sir Walter Raleigh was gifted by Queen Elizabeth with 
 t3ie lands of Sherborne in Dorsetshire, which had been be- 
 queathed by Osmund, a Norman knight, to the see of Can- 
 terbury, with a heavy denunciation against any rash or pro- 
 fane person who should attempt to wrest them from the 
 cTiurch. This anathema was, in the opinion of the vulgar, 
 first accomplished in the person of the Protector Somerset, 
 to whom, after sundry vicissitudes, the property belonged. 
 This nobleman was hunting in the woods of Sherborne when 
 his presence was required by Edward the Sixth, and he was 
 ■shortly afterwards committed to the Tower, and subsequently 
 beheaded. The forfeited estate thenTapsed to the See of 
 Salisbury until the reign of Elizabeth, to whom it was made 
 over by the bishop, at the instigation of Raleigh, who was 
 blamed, and apparently with justice, for having displayed on 
 this occasion a grasping and even dishonourable spirit. So 
 strong were the religious prejudices of the day, that even 
 the discerning Sir John Harrington attributed to a judgment 
 from heaven a trifling accident which occurred to Raleigh 
 while surveying the demesne which he coveted. Casting 
 his eyes upon it, according to the notion of that writer, as 
 Ahab did upon Naboth's vineyard, and, in the course of a 
 journey from Plymouth to the coast, discussing at the same 
 time the advantages of the desired possession. Sir Walter's 
 horse fell, and the face of the rider, then, as the relater ob- 
 serves, '• thought to be a very good one," was buried in the 
 ground. After Raleigh's fall the estate was seized by James 
 the First, who wished to bestow it on his favourite, Car, Earl 
 •of Somerset ; but Prince Henry interfered, and obtained posses- 
 sion, intending to restore it to the owner. The prince's death, 
 however, frustrated his intentions, and left Sherborne still 
 ill tlie favourite's hands. The premature death of this pro- 
 mising youth was thought by the vulgar again to corroborate 
 the old prophecy. To Carew, the youngest son, and the
 
 160 HISTOKICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 open force they seem to be more indulgent) ; that the 
 possessor becomes a doomed man, and neither he nor 
 his descendants prosper. In Scotland it was thought 
 that a pious parent entailed a blessing upon his offspring, 
 while the punishment of the wicked and oppressor, if 
 not immediately manifested upon himself, or his children, 
 yet surely descended even on succeeding generations. 
 This feeling extended to all classes ; and a striking 
 instance of it is connected with the massacre of Glencoe, 
 the blackest incident in Scottish history. Colonel Camp- 
 bell, of Glenlyon, grandson of Glenlyon, who com- 
 manded the military upon that fatal day, being with his 
 regiment at Havannah, was ordered to superintend the 
 execution of a soldier condemned to be shot. A reprieve 
 was sent, but with directions that no person was to be 
 told of it until the prisoner was on his knees prepared 
 to receive the volley, not even the firing party, who 
 w^ere informed that the signal would be the waving of a 
 white handkerchief by the commanding officer. " When 
 all was prepared, and the prisoner in momentary expect- 
 ation of his fate. Colonel Campbell put his hand into 
 his pocket for the reprieve, and in pulling out the 
 packet, the white handkerchief accompanied it, and 
 catching the eyes of the party, they fired, and the un- 
 fortunate prisoner was shot dead. The paper dropped 
 through Colonel Campbell's fingers, and clapping his 
 hand to his forehead, he exclaimed, " The curse of God 
 and of Glencoe is here ! I am an unfortunate, ruined 
 man." He soon after retired from the service, not from 
 any reflection or reprimand on account of this melancholy 
 affair, for it was known to be entirely accidental. The 
 
 injured survivor of Sir Walter, the subsequent attainder of 
 Car, and the forfeiture of his estates upon his committal to 
 the Tower, appeared to confirm the ill fortune attendant upon 
 the owners of Sherborne ; and the misfortunes which after- 
 wards befell the house of Stuart were also considered by him 
 to corroborate the old presage. On the confiscation of Car's 
 estates, Digby, Earl of Bristol, obtained Sherborne from the 
 king, and iu his family it now remains. — Life of Sir W. 
 Baleigh, by Mrs. Thomson, chap. vi.
 
 FATALISM. 161 
 
 impression upon his mind, however, was never effaced. 
 Nor is the massacre, and the judgment which the people 
 believe has fallen on the descendants of the principal 
 actors in this tragedy, effaced from their recollection. 
 They carefully note, that while the family of the unfor- 
 tunate gentleman who suffered is still entire, and his 
 estate preserved in direct male succession to his posterity, 
 this is not the case with the family, posterity, and estate 
 of those who were the principals, promoters, and actors 
 in this black affair."* 
 
 In addition to the strife of faction consequent upon 
 Cylon's attempt, Athens was* convulsed by discord be- 
 tween the rich and poor, arising from the oppressive 
 rights possessed by creditors over the persons of their 
 debtors, and the difficulty experienced by indigent free- 
 men in supporting themselves by their own exertions, 
 in consequence of the general prevalence of slave labour. 
 Solon was appointed archon, with power to remodel the 
 constitution ; and having done so, he quitted Athens, 
 and remained abroad, it is said, for ten years, the people 
 having engaged not to alter his institutions within that 
 time. But to put an end to faction was beyond his 
 power. The landholders of Attica were divided into 
 three parties, denominated from the lowlands, the high- 
 lands, and the coast. The first consisted chiefly of 
 the nobility, the great proprietors ; the second were a 
 poorer class, among whom the democratical interest 
 predominated ; and the third, consisting in a great 
 degree of men engaged in trade, held an intermediate 
 station, both in circumstances and politics. Lycurgus 
 headed the first party ; Megacles was chief of the third ; 
 and during the absence of Solon, Pisistratus, with whom 
 we are more immediately concerned, advanced to emi- 
 nence, and assumed the direction of the second. Of 
 his early life few particulars have reached us ; it is only 
 said that he was distinguished by eloquence and militar}^ 
 talents, which he displayed on different occasions in the 
 wars against Megara. Not long after Solon's return, 
 
 * Stewart, Sketches of Highlanders, part i. sect. xii.
 
 162 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 Pisistratus came in his chariot into the niarkct-placo, 
 complaining that, in consequence of the jealousy ex- 
 cited by his support of the democratical interest, his 
 life had been attempted while he; was on his road into 
 the country, in confirmation of which he exhibited 
 wounds upon his own person and upon his mules. 
 Whether the story were true or false, has been contro- 
 verted, and must remain a matter of opinion ;. but that it 
 was a fiction, seems to have been generally thought by 
 the ancient writers. At all events, the people believed 
 the tale, and a body of guards was decreed him, the 
 numbers of which were gradually augmented, until he 
 was enabled to gain possessioni of the Acropolis, or 
 -citadel, and, in the language of Greece, became tyrant* 
 of Athens. 
 
 Death and confiscation being the usual concomitants 
 of a Greciiin revolution, it was a matter of course that 
 the leaders of the defeated party should consult their 
 siifcty by flight; and accordingly, Megacles, with the 
 other chiefs of the Alcmteonidae, withdrew from Athens. 
 The terms on which he was invited to return, which 
 happened soon after, are curious and characteristic. He 
 was distinguished by victories gained in the public games 
 of Greece, and during his exile he had conquered in the 
 chariot-race at the Olympic festival. The condition of 
 his restoration was, that the glory of this success should 
 be ascribed to Pisistratus. f It may be doubted, though 
 jhorse-racing in modern days, and chivalrous exercises in 
 the middle ages, have been cidtivated with ardour by 
 .-men distinguished by birth and station, whether the 
 {|Wssea?ion of the best horses in the world has at any 
 
 * The proper meaning of this -word will form the subject 
 of a future article ; meanwhile it is sufficient to observe, that 
 it will never be employed here to denote specifically a blood- 
 thirsty and oppressive ruler, but merely one who has raised 
 himself to a degree of power unauthorised by the constitu- 
 tion of his country. 
 
 f Schol. in Nub. Meurs. Pisistratus. This story is told 
 of Ciraon, the father of Miltiades, instead of legacies, by 
 Herodotus, vi. 103. .
 
 PISISTKATUS. 16o 
 
 time since availed to procure the forgiveness of a political 
 enemy. But the high estimation of such honours forms 
 a striking feature in the Grecian character. ^Ve know 
 from Homer, that, long previous to the institution of 
 public games, princes contended with each other in 
 athletic exercises : and when stated times were set aside, 
 at which the flower of all Greece might vie in displaying 
 strength and activity under the sanction and with all the 
 pomp of religion, and the victor was rewarded by the 
 acclamations of his assembled countrymen, it is no won- 
 der that a nation highly imaginative and susceptible of 
 the love of fame should have been led to set an extrava- 
 gant price upon the superiority in qualities whose value 
 was in truth great in times when the arm of one 'man 
 v/as sufricient to decide a battle, but diminished propor- 
 tionably to the progress of art and science. The chariot- 
 race almost always formed a part of these games ; and 
 naturally, for when warriors ibught from chariots, the 
 possession of the best horses was a valuable distinction. 
 This method of vrarfare had been disused long before 
 the time of Pisistratus ; but the chariot-race still formed 
 a part, perhaps the most important one, in the Grecian 
 games. And the welcome of a conquering general to 
 his native city was less distinguished than that of an 
 Olympic victor, whose prowess reflected honour upon 
 the state which gave him birth : and thus such triumphs, 
 by gratifying popular vanity, might become important, 
 even to the interests of a statesman. 
 
 The year 560 b.c. is fixed as that of Pisistratus's usurpa- 
 tion. The union of Megacles and Lycurgus produced 
 his expulsion, after he had possessed the tyranny, it is 
 thought, for about six years ; of the transactions during 
 which we have no information. He remained in banish- 
 ment for an equal time, when the enmity between the 
 united factions broke out afresh, and Megacles, to estab- 
 lish his superiority, brought back Pisistratus, connecting 
 their interests by giving him his daughter in marriage. 
 To gain the consent of the Athenians to his return, they 
 devised a plan, characterised by Herodotus, from whom 
 we have the story, as a most simple device to ensnare a
 
 164 HISTOEICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 people distinguished for intellect and very far removed 
 from a simple good-nature. In one of the boroughs of 
 Attica th%re lived a woman named Phya, of extraordi- 
 nary stature, and withal of handsome person, whom they 
 selected to personate the patron Goddess of Athens ; and 
 having carefully instructed her how to act her part, they 
 dressed her in appropriate armour, placed her in a 
 chariot, and sent her into the city, preceded by heralds, 
 making proclamation, " O Athenians, receive with favour 
 Pisistratus, whom Athene,* honouring him above all 
 men, herself brings back unto her own Acropolis." The 
 news flew abroad throughout Attica," that Athene had 
 brought back Pisistratus, and those who were in the city, 
 believing that it was the Goddess, paid divine honours to 
 a mortal, and received the exile. f 
 
 His prosperity, however, was of very short duration : 
 a domestic quarrel is said to have produced his expulsion 
 a second time, about a year after his return, and he re- 
 mained in banishment for a period of ten years, at the 
 end of which his son liippias, who had now attained man- 
 hood, induced him to attempt the recovery of his power. 
 Thebes, Argos, and other f;ities assisted him with loans, 
 by means of which he collected an army ; and sailing 
 from Eretria, where he had fixed his abode, he disem- 
 barked at Marathon, was joined by many of his country- 
 men, and defeating the ruling party, for the third time 
 became master of Athens. Both now and formerly his 
 success was characterised by moderation and lenity ; for 
 his only measure of precaution against future conspira- 
 cies was to take as hostages the children of such of his 
 chief opponents as chose to remain in Athens, who were 
 committed to the charge of Lygdamis, the friendly ruler 
 of Naxos. 
 
 That Pisistratus.'s temper and character were mild and 
 amiable, is proved by the bloodless nature of the revolu- 
 tions which he effected ; and confirmed even by the testi- 
 mony of those authors who have endeavoured to raise 
 
 * Or Pallas, the Latin Minerva. 
 f Herod, i. 60.
 
 PISISTKATUS. 165 
 
 the reputation of Solon at his expense, by narrating 
 many not very probable stories of the sage's pertinacious 
 opposition to his schemes of advancement. That Solon 
 saw and lamented the ambition of Pisisti'atus is probable, 
 but we learn upon the same authority that they lived on 
 terms of intimacy and esteem from the return of the for- 
 mer until his death ; and Plutarch, whose object was to 
 exalt the patriot philosopher, has yet, in doing so, drawn 
 a most favom-able pictm-e of the tyrant. " He was 
 courteous, and marvellously faire spoken, and showed 
 himself beside very good and pitiful! to the poore, and 
 temperate also to his enemies : further, if any good 
 quality were lacking in him, he did so finely counterfeit 
 it, that men imagined it was more in him, than in those 
 that naturally had it in them indeed. As, to be a quiet 
 man, no meddler, contented with his owne, aspiring no 
 higher, and hating those which would attempt to change 
 the present state of the Common Wealth, and would 
 practise any innovation. By this art, and fine manner 
 of his, he deceived the poore common people. How- 
 beit Solon found him out straight, and saw the mark he 
 shot at : but yet hated him not at that time, and sought 
 still to win him, and bring him to reason, saying oft 
 times, both'to himselfe and to others, that whoso could 
 pluck out of his head the worme of ambition, by which 
 he aspired to'be the chiefest, and could heale him of his 
 greedy desire to rule, there could not be a man of more 
 virtue, nor a better citizen than he would prove."* He 
 adds a strong testimony to the beneficent administra- 
 tionjof Pisistratus, in saying that Solon afterwards be- 
 came one of his council ; and while Herodotus has dis- 
 tinctly asserted that he ruled Athens honourably and 
 well, neither changing the magistracies nor altering the 
 laws, we learn from other authorities that he adhered to 
 the regulations of Solon. And it is to his credit that 
 he obeyed a citation to appear before the court of Areo- 
 pagus, on a charge of murder, even if we grant that he 
 ran little risk of being condemned^; for it shows pru- 
 
 * Plut. vit. Solon.
 
 1 66 HISTOKICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 dence, and good sense, and good feeling, that he chose 
 rather to wear the appearance of submission to authority, 
 than to outrage popular opinion by the visible assump- 
 tion of irresponsible power. Of his lenity towards 
 those who personally offended or injured him, several 
 stories are told. A young man who was attached to 
 his daughter, with the help of his friends carried her 
 oft' forcibly from a sacrifice upon the sea-shore, at which 
 she was assisting. Their galley was intercepted by Hip- 
 pias, who was then cruising in search of pirates, and 
 they were led captives to Athens. Being brought be- 
 fore the injured father, they scorned to use the lan- 
 guage of entreaty, boldly declaring that they had held 
 death cheap from the time of undertaking the enterprise. 
 Pisistratus, struck with the high spirit of the youth, gave 
 his daughter in marriage to the principal, and thus con- 
 verted dangerous enemies into valuable and attached 
 friends.* The above extract from Plutarch bears witness 
 to his charity, which yet was not indiscriminate, nor 
 abused to the encouragement of idleness ; against which 
 he not only enacted laws, but would inquire of any one 
 whom he saw unemployed in the market-place, whether 
 it were owing to the want of agricultural, implements, 
 and if it were so, he would supply the deficiency. 
 
 In this, however, perhaps policy was as much con- 
 cerned as charity. Having obtained his power through 
 the support of the democratical party, it was now his 
 object to consolidate and establish it upon the downfall 
 of that interest, by removing the multitude as far as 
 possible from the city, and compelling them to follow 
 agricultural labour. Another reason might be the im- 
 provement of the revenue, towards which he exacted 
 the tithes of all agricultural produce. A humorous 
 story is told of an old man, who was found by him cid- 
 tivating a stubborn and rocky piece of ground. " What 
 harvest can you derive from thence ?" he said. ." Aches 
 and blisters, and the tithe of them goes to Pisistratus." 
 The answer was well received, and procured for him an 
 
 * Meursius, Pisistratus.
 
 PISISTKATUS. 1 67 
 
 immunity from the tax. On this subject, however, 
 Pisistratus's conduct was generally unjust and oppressive, 
 tor he not only forced the poorer Athenians to a rural 
 life, but excluded them from the city, and made them 
 wear a particular dress, that this exclusion might be the 
 better enforced. ^ At the same time he proved himself 
 not indifferent to their interest, by appointing a public 
 provision for those who were wounded in the public 
 service. 
 
 It were much to be wished that our information con- 
 cerning the policy of Pisistratus and the public affairs of 
 Athens during his administration were more minute j 
 out the total silence of history concerning this period 
 indicates at least that it was one of tranquillity and hap- 
 piness. We have seen already that his private charac- 
 ter was amiable ; it remains to be added that his tastes 
 were elegant and his mind cultivated. By many he is 
 included in the list of worthies distinguished as the 
 seven sages of Greece ; indeed all writers who mention 
 him bear testimony to the successful cultivation of his 
 mental powers ; and he possesses a strong claim to the 
 gratitude of the world at large, if it be true that he col- 
 lected and rendered into order the scattered fragments 
 of Homer's poems before they were irretrievably cor- 
 rupted and confused by the inaccuracies of oral tradi- 
 tion.! And he scarcely deserves less credit* for having 
 been the first to establish a public library : an institution 
 
 * Meurs. Pisistratus. 
 
 t He is accused, however, of having interpolated several 
 lines to gratify Athenian vanity, and one with a deeper view ; 
 that, namely, which says of Ajax, that he ranged his own 
 alongside of the Athenian ships (II. ii. 558) with the purpose 
 of strengthening Athens' claim to Salamis, then hotly con- 
 tested by Megara. The Megarian versions said, on the 
 other hand, that Ajax led ships from Salamis, and from 
 Polichne, Nisoea, and other towns of Megaris. Both this 
 trick, and the credit of collecting Homer's poems, are as- 
 cribed by other authors to Solon. Some eminent modern 
 scholars iiave doubted whether this arrangement and revi- 
 sion ever took place. — See Knight, Proleg. ad Horn. § 4, 5.-
 
 168 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 most valuable in all ages and places, but especially be- 
 fore the introduction of printing, when the price of books 
 rendered it impossible for any but the wealthy to pos- 
 sess them. He also devoted much of his attention and 
 revenue to the embellishment of the city ; he built foun- 
 tains, and a gymnasium, or place of exercise ; he threw 
 his private gardens open to the public ; he dedicated a 
 temple to the Pythian Apollo, and had commenced 
 another to Olympian Zeus, the Latin Jupiter, when his 
 labours were interrupted by death, b.c. 527, after he 
 had enjoyed for ten years in tranquillity the sovereignty 
 which he had pursued for so many anxious years. He 
 left a name adorned by many virtues and accomplish- 
 ments, and blemished apparently only by one great fault, 
 ambition : but this, the master-passion of his life, has 
 sullied his numerous great and good qualities, as a tainted 
 fountain pollutes the whole stream. Had he been a 
 rightful sovereign, he might have been hailed as the 
 father of his country : instead of which his fellow- 
 citizens saw in him only the parent of a hated and pro- 
 scribed race, and later ages " damn him with the faint 
 praise" of being the best of tyrants. 
 
 His sons Hipparchus and Hippias* appear to have 
 succeeded quietly to his authority ; which they shared in 
 common, Hipparchus filling the more prominent station. 
 Their father's virtues descended to them, and Athens for. 
 some time flourished under their guidance. The strong 
 expression of Plato is, that the Athenians lived as in old 
 times under the reign of Saturn. He goes on to say 
 that Hipparchus made the collection of Homer's poems 
 which others have ascribed to Pisistratus, and caused 
 them to be publicly read in the order, of their arrange- 
 
 * Much doubt has arisen which of these was the elder. 
 Thucydides says, contrary to the general opinion, that it was 
 Hippias, and he seems to be corroborated by Herodotus ; but 
 it is a question of no importance, and not worth discussion. 
 Pisistratus left a third legitimate son, named Thessalus, of 
 whom scarce any mention is made in history, and a natural 
 son, Hegesistratus, established by his father as tyrant of 
 Sigeum, on the Hellespont.
 
 HIPPIAS AND HIPPARCHUS. 169 
 
 ment at the Panathenaic festival ; and further displayed 
 his taste in the patronage of Anacreon and Simonides, 
 whom he induced by his liberality to take up their abode 
 in Athens. And having thus provided for the mental 
 cultivation of the citizens, he turned his attention to the 
 improvement of the rustic population, and with this 
 view caused Hermse* to be erected in the main streets 
 of the city and boroughs, upon which he inscribed in 
 verse the most pithy maxims which he had heard or 
 invented, that so the countrymen, wandering about, 
 might taste of his wisdom, and come from the fields and 
 woods to be further instructed in it. Two of these sen- 
 tences are preserved — ' ' The memorial of Hipparchus. 
 Do not deceive a friend." "The memorial of Hip- 
 parchus. Depart, meditating justice." Further, we 
 have the testimony of Thucydides, that he oppressed not 
 the many, but bore himself ever inoffensively, and that 
 " these tyrants held virtue and wisdom in great account 
 for a long time, and taking of the Athenians but a 
 twentieth part of their revenues, (they diminished, 
 therefore, Pisistratus's impost by one half,) adorned the 
 city, managed their wars, and performed the rights of 
 their religion. In other points they were governed by the 
 laws formerly established, save that they took care ever 
 to prefer to the magistracy men of their o\^n adherence." 
 Thus fourteen years they ruled in peace and honour, 
 when at length a single act of oppression and insult, a 
 moment's violation of the maxims of temperance and 
 virtue, which their conduct as well as their precepts 
 enforced, produced a revolution upon which probably 
 the destinies of all Greece have hinged. 
 
 Hipparchus had conceived a personal ill-will towards 
 an Athenian citizen named Harmodius, which he vented 
 by insulting publicly the offender's sister. Another 
 citizen, Aristogiton, had reasons of his own for wishing 
 ill to Hipparchus : he stimulated his friend Harmodius 
 to a keener sense of the injury, and they resolved to 
 
 * Statues of Hermes, the Latin Mercury, consisting of a 
 square pillar surmounted by a head of the god.
 
 170 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 wash away their wrongs in blood. But few associates 
 were admitted to the knowledge of their plot, which was 
 to be executed at the Panathenaic festival, when it was 
 usual for all persons to appear in arms. Hipparchus 
 alone was personally offensive ; but to dissolve the 
 tyranny, and to secure themselves from retribution, 
 Hippias was to be involved in his brother's fate. On 
 the morning of the festival, while Hippias, attended by 
 his guards, was in the Ceramicus,* ordering the pro- 
 cession, Harmodius and Aristogiton saw one of the con- 
 spirators conversing with him familiarly, " for Hippias 
 was accessible to all." Thinking themselves betrayed, 
 they resolved, at least, to take vengeance on the more 
 obnoxious party, and hastened to seek Hipparchus^ 
 whom they slew. Harmodius was slain in the tumult 
 which ensued. Aristogiton escaped for a time, but was 
 soon after taken and put to death. 
 
 The news being brought instantly to Hippias before 
 others had heard it, he dissembled his emotion, and bade 
 the citizens repair to a certain spot without their arms, 
 as if he wished to address them previous to the jm'o- 
 cession. He then summoned his guard, and selected 
 from the assembled multitude all whom he suspected, 
 or found armed with daggers, a weapon not generally 
 worn by those celebrating the festival. Thus for the 
 present he preserved his power ; but his temper was 
 changed by the danger which he had escaped, and his 
 government became jealous and intolerable. Many were 
 slain, and many fled to join the exiled Alcmaeonidas, 
 whose cause became daily more popular at Athens, and 
 throughout the rest of Greece, until at length they gained 
 strength sufficient to enable them, with the assistance of 
 Laceda?mon, to lay siege to Hippias in Athens, in the 
 fourth year after the death of Hipparchus. The city, 
 however, Mas strong and well provisioned ; and he 
 might have bailed their patience, but for a fortunate 
 chance which threw his children, with those of his lead- 
 
 * A spaca in the city, surrounded by public buildings, in 
 which the people usually held their meetings.
 
 HARMODIUS AND ARISTOGITON. 171 
 
 ing partisans, into the hands of the assailants. Parental 
 anxiety prevailed, and the town surrendered, on con- 
 dition that the obnoxious should receive no injury, but 
 should quit Attica within five days. Hippias retired to 
 Sigcum. When advanced in years, he accompanied the 
 armament of Darius in hope of recovering his sovereignty ; 
 it was he that counselled its descent upon the plain of 
 Marathon, where once before he had landed under a 
 better star, and he is reported by Cicero to have been 
 slain in the memorable battle which ensued.* 
 
 After the expulsion of Hippias, the memory of Har- 
 modius and Aristogiton was hallowed by the Athenians 
 in every way which the imagination of a grateful people 
 could devise. Brazen statues were erected in honour of 
 them (by the side of which, in after-times, those of 
 Brutus and Cassius were placed), their descendants 
 were gifted in perpetuity with the privilege of eating in 
 the Prytuiieumt at the public cost, with select places at 
 the ])ublic spectacles, and with immunity from taxes : 
 their names, forbidden to be borne by slaves, were 
 ordered to be celebrated at all future Panathenaic festi- 
 vals : and if the orators of Athens wished to find a theme 
 agreeable to national vanity, it was to the praises of the 
 tyrant-killers, or the events of the Persian war, that the}'' 
 resorted. Yet, after all these tributes of admiration, it 
 is asserted by iEschines, that " a temjieratc and governed 
 feeling so modified the character of those benefactors of 
 the state, men supereminent in all virtues, that those 
 who have panegyrised their deeds do yet appear therein 
 to have fallen short of the things performed by them.'* 
 This extravagant, or probably pretended, enthusiasm 
 may be endured, though not commended, as a privilege 
 
 ■ * Ad. Att. lib. ix. 10. 
 
 t lu modern language this would be the town-hall. 
 Tliere was a table kept here for the Prytanes (the officers 
 presiding in the senate for the time being), and to have the 
 right of eating here (0-1x770-/5 iu llpvrav^iui) was one of the 
 greatest honours that his country could bestow on an Athe- 
 nian.
 
 172 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 assumed by advocates and public speakers in all ages : 
 but we cannot extend the same toleration to Simonides, 
 who had benefited by the friendship and liberality of 
 the deceased, when he asserts " that a light broke upon 
 Athens when Harmodius and Aristogiton slew Hip- 
 parchus." Their exploit was a favourite subject of the 
 odes* with which the musical Athenians enlivened their 
 entertainments, one of which, composed by Callistratus, 
 has been preserved, and is esteemed among the noblest 
 specimens of the lyric muse of Greece. 
 
 I'll wreath my sword in myrtle bough, 
 The sword that laid the tyrant low, 
 When patriots, burning to be free, 
 To Athens gave equality. 
 
 Harmodius, hail ! though reft of breath, 
 Thou ne'er shalt feel the stroke of death ; 
 The heroes' happy islesf shall be 
 The bright abode allotted thee. 
 
 * Allusions to the affection with which these patriots 
 were regarded, both generally and with reference to this 
 custom, are frequent in Aristophanes. — See 'Itttt. 786,'Axapv. 
 980, 2</). 1225. 
 
 t Not the Hesperides, but an island called Achilleia, or 
 Leuce, at the mouth of the Danube, consecrated to Achilles, 
 where his tomb was visible. The hero, however, must have 
 been there in proper person, since he espoused either Helen or 
 Iphigenia, and had a son hy her. Here he dwelt in per- 
 petual youth, with Diomed, the Ajaxes, and other heroes. 
 Many mythological tales are related concerning the island. 
 Birds swept and sprinkled the temple of Achilles with water 
 from their wings : passing vessels often heard the sound of 
 sweet yet awe-inspiring music ; others distinguished the 
 din of arms and horses and the shouts of battle. If vessels 
 anchored for the night off the island, Achilles and Helen 
 would come on board, drink with the sailors, and sing them 
 the verses of Homer, with particulai'S of their personal 
 adventures, even of the most delicate description. Once a 
 man who ventured to sleep upon the island was awoke by 
 Achilles, and taken home to sup with him, when the hero 
 played the lyre, and Patroclus served wine: Thetis and
 
 HARMODIUS AND AEISTOGITON. 173 
 
 I '11 wreathe the sword in myrtle bough, 
 The sword that laid Hipparchus low, 
 When at Minerva's adverse fane 
 He knelt, and never rose again. 
 
 While Freedom's name is understood, 
 You shall delight the wise and good ; 
 You dared to set your country free, 
 And gave her laws equality.* 
 
 Nevertheless there seems not to be the smallest ground 
 for supposing that the actors in this tragedy were guided 
 by patriotic motives. The authors who speak of it vary- 
 somewhat in the circumstances which they relate, but 
 all agree that it was a private quarrel, a personal offence, 
 which inspired their resolution and their hatred. Many 
 have been the instances in which the wantonness of 
 power exercised on an individual has proved fatal to 
 men who have trampled unopposed upon the liberties of 
 their country, as if it were beneficially ordained that the 
 vices of individuals should work out the general good. 
 
 But though this conspiracy can in no respect be re- 
 garded as the proximate cause of the re-establishment of 
 democracy ; though neither its motives nor its effects, so 
 far as we can judge after the long lapse of ages, merit 
 the encomiums which have been showered on them so 
 profusely, it nevertheless affected vitally the interests ot 
 Athens, and, through her, of the civilised world. The 
 mind need indeed be far-sighted and acute which pre- 
 sumes to trace the changes which a single deviation from 
 the ordained course of events would have produced ; yet 
 it is neither uninteresting nor uninstructive to consider 
 in what way a nation's destiny might have been modi- 
 fied, and to observe the natural connexion by which 
 crime results from intemperance and injustice, misfortune 
 and misconduct from crime ; while the melancholy 
 series is still overruled to restore freedom to an injured 
 
 other gods were there. Many other stories, equally amusing 
 and no less worthy of credit, are related concerning this 
 wonderful place. — Baule, art. Achilleia. 
 t Bland, Anthology 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 174 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 people, and to punish the ambition which produced such 
 fatal effects. From the apparently uninterrupted con- 
 tent which prevailed at Athens during a period of 
 twenty-four years, from the last return of Pisistratus to 
 the death of Hipparchus, there is good reason to be- 
 lieve that, but for private enmity, the brothers might 
 have borne uninterrupted sway for the natural period of 
 their lives. That of Hippias was prolonged for twenty- 
 three years ; making a sufficient period in the whole to 
 have habituated the Athenians to usurpation, and to 
 have enabled him to transfer the sceptre to his children 
 as easily as he received it from his father. Athens, 
 thus converted, like the Ionian cities, into a tyranny,* 
 would probably have offered no more effectual progress 
 than they did to the Persian power, and without her 
 assistance all Greece would have fallen under the 
 dominion of the King.f To pursue the subject further 
 would be both rash and useless : it is obvious that such 
 an event would have exercised a most powerful influence 
 over the subsequent history of mankind : to define that 
 influence would be difficult to the most penetrating and 
 comprehensive understanding, and the attempt would be 
 presumption here. 
 
 In the Italian republics of the middle ages we find 
 the age of Greece revived, though on a smaller scale 
 and with diminished splendour. They exhibit in the 
 same colours the results of multiplying small inde- 
 pendent states, where every citizen may feel that he has 
 an individual as well as a general interest in public af- 
 fairs, and every city that she is concerned in the domestic 
 quarrels of her neighbours. The effects of such a system 
 are manifest alike in either country : the good, in the 
 remarkable number of distinguished men produced by 
 them ; the bad, in the prevalence of external aggression 
 
 * See Herod, iv. 137, for the change in policy arising from 
 such a change in constitution. 
 
 t BatnAeu;. The king, simply and by pre-eminence, — 
 the title by which the Persian monarch was universally 
 known in Greece.
 
 COSMO DB' MEDICI. 175 
 
 and internal discord, signalised alike by political acute- 
 ness, unblushing profligacy, and revolting cruelty. Above 
 all, Florence and Atliens are naturally associated by 
 their kindred eminence in art and literature ; they were 
 alike distinguished for the mercurial temper and lively 
 imagination of their citizens, and political resemblances 
 are not ^'anting to complete the comparison. The early 
 changes in the Florentine constitution, the gradual de- 
 pression of the nobles, by the rise of the commons to 
 wealth and importance, their exclusion from public of- 
 fices and honours, the elevation of a plebeian aristocracy 
 upon the ruins of the feudal nobility, and the division 
 of the commons into an oligarchical and a democratical 
 party, are briefly and clearly related in Perceval's His- 
 tory of Italy, and may not inaptly be compared to the 
 gradual subversion of the Athenian Eupatridee. Towards 
 the close of the fourteenth century, the oligarchy, headed 
 by the family of Albizzi, succeeded in obtaining pos- 
 session of the government, which it held for fifty years 
 with a mild and undisturbed sway. But their opponents, 
 though silent, were not crushed : as new families gained 
 wealth by trade, they grew impatient of political in- 
 feriority and exclusion : and the Medici, one of the 
 most distinguished houses of the popular nobles, who 
 had long ranked in opposition to the Albizzi, were 
 naturally regarded as the stay of the democratic cause. 
 It was at this time that Cosmo de' Medici appeared in 
 public life. The characters and adventures of this dis- 
 tinguished man and of his immediate descendants oft^er 
 a singular number of coincidences with those of Pisis- 
 tratus and his family. 
 
 At the beginning of the fifteenth century, Giovanni, 
 the father of Cosmo, was the most distinguished person 
 of his house and party. The great wealth which he 
 had acquired by commercial adventure was set off by 
 generosity and unblemished integrity : and though here- 
 ditarily opposed to the ruling faction, his own disincli- 
 nation to interfere in politics, and the moderation of his 
 .opponents, left him in undisturbed possession of his 
 riches and influence. To these his son Cosmo succeeded, 
 
 i2
 
 176 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 and being possessed of greater talents and a more stir- 
 ring ambition, he took an active part in public life, and 
 became the recognised leader of the popular party. 
 The older heads, under whose temperate guidance Flo- 
 rence had enjoyed a long interval of tranquillity, were 
 now deceased, and Rinaldo degl' Albizzi, a young man 
 of inferior judgment and stronger passions, had succeeded 
 to their influence. He observed and endeavoured to 
 check the growing spirit of discontent, and thereby 
 hastened a crisis which he was unprepared to meet. 
 By his machinations Cosmo was brought to trial upon 
 a frivolous and unfounded charge, and though his life, 
 which was aimed at, was preserved by a judicious bribe, 
 he was convicted and sentenced to banishment for ten 
 years. He quietly submitted to the decree, and retired 
 to Venice, where he was received with distinguished 
 honour : but Rinaldo had miscalculated his strength ; 
 the next year a set of magistrates came into office who 
 were attached to the Medici, and by them the dominant 
 family was overthrown and expelled, and Cosmo tri- 
 umphantly recalled. 
 
 The youth then of Pisistratus and of the Florentine 
 commenced under the same political aspect, and was 
 marked by the same adventures ; but the advantage thus 
 far is clearly on the side of the latter, who owed his 
 iirst elevation to hereditary distinction and to his own 
 merit, and his recall to the voice of his countrymen 
 constitutionally expressed. And the resemblance of 
 their youth holds good through their maturer years : 
 they alike retained their sway to the end of a prosperous 
 life, and alike employed it with beneficence and mode- 
 ration ; for though the triumph of Cosmo was not 
 unstained by blood, and he hesitated not to ensure its 
 stability, when threatened, by the exile of his opponents 
 and the retrenchment of popular rights, yet his measures 
 seem dictated by prudence, not by revenge : they are 
 unpolluted by the atrocious cruelties so common in Italian 
 party contests, and Florence prospered, and was respected 
 under his administration. He avoided, even more than 
 Pisistratus, the ostentation of that power which it would
 
 COSMO De' MEDICI. 177 
 
 have been nobler not to have possessed ; and presented 
 to the world the spectacle of a merchant raised to the 
 head of a powerful state, pursuin^^ his original profession 
 with industr}'^ and success, and declining the alliance oF 
 sovereigns to marry his children among his fellow-citi- 
 zens, whom he treated as if they were in reality, no less 
 than in appearance, his equals. No superior magnifi- 
 cence distinguished his establishment or his table ; but 
 his wealth was profusely em[)loyed in distributing favours 
 to all around him, until there was scarce a man of his 
 party who was not bound to him by some personal tie. 
 To this happy temper, and to the sim.plicity ot his tastes 
 and manners, he owes the enviable reputation which he 
 has gained. Had he assumed the ostentation of a prince^ 
 which his riches and power might well have warranted,, 
 the obligations which he dispensed would have carried 
 with them the impress of servitude. But men forgive 
 injuries more easily than mortifications, and his fellow- 
 citizens reconciled themselves to the unconstitutional 
 superiority of one who treated them in every-day life as- 
 his equals, or displayed his elevation only in the extent, 
 of his generosity, and a freer cultivation and patronage 
 of all that is fascinating in art and literature. 
 
 We have described Cosmo de' Medici as exercising 
 a power little less than regal in a republic whose magis- 
 trates were changed every two months, and in which 
 he neither possessed ostensible office and authority, nor 
 that armed support which has often enabled usurpers to 
 dispense with all other title. The reader, therefore ^ 
 may be at a loss to understand the nature of his influence ]. 
 it is explained in the following passage. " The au- 
 thority which Cosmo and his descendants exercised in 
 Florence, during the sixteenth century, was of a very 
 peculiar nature, and consisted rather in a tacit influence 
 on their part, and a voluntary acquiescence on that of 
 the people, than in any prescribed or definite compact 
 between them. The form of government was ostensibly 
 a republic, and was directed by a government of ten 
 citizens, and a chief executive officer, called the gon- 
 faloniere, or standard-bearer, who was chosen every two
 
 178 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 months. Under this establishment the citizens imagined 
 they enjoyed the full exercise of their liberties ; but 
 such was the power of the Medici, that they generally 
 either assumed to themselves the first offices of the state, 
 or nominated such persons as they thought proper to 
 those employments. In this, however, they paid great 
 respect to popular opinion. That opposition of interests, 
 so generally apparent between the people and their 
 rulers, was at this time scarcely perceived at Florence, 
 where superior qualifications and industry were the 
 surest recommendations to public authority and favour ; 
 and, satisfied that they could at any time withdraw 
 themselves from a connexion that exacted no engage- 
 ments, and required only a temporary acquiescence, 
 the Florentines considered the Medici as the fathers, 
 and not the rulers of the republic. On the other hand, 
 the chiefs of this house, by appearing rather to decline 
 than to court the honours bestowed upon them, and by a 
 singular moderation in the use of them when obtained, 
 were careful to maintain the character of simple citizens 
 of Florence, and servants of the state. An* interchange 
 of reciprocal good offices was the only tie by which the 
 Florentines and the Medici were bound, and perhaps 
 the long continuance of their connexion may be attributed 
 to the very circumstance of its being in the power of 
 either of the parties at any time to have dissolved it."* 
 The state of things described in a former part of this 
 passage corresponds with what the Greeks called tyranny, 
 and in the same sense in which Pisistratus was tyrant of 
 Athens, Cosmo and Lorenzo de' Medici were tyrants of 
 Florence. But in his remarks upon the nature of their 
 power, Mr. Roscoe's partialities appear to have led him 
 astray. The Medici, from their brilliant qualities, were 
 possessed ,of the affections of a large portion of their 
 countrymen, and it so chanced, therefore, that the one 
 were as ready to submit as the other to command. But 
 it will scarcely be believed that the connexion with a 
 family which had usurped the entire command of the 
 
 * Life of Lorenzo de' Medici, chap. i.
 
 THE MEDICI.' 179 
 
 state, the sole disposal of the magistracies, could have 
 been dissolved at any time ; or indeed that it could ever 
 have been dissolved, except by force of arms : and the 
 praise of moderation, however applicable to the two 
 elder Medici, is scarcely due to Lorenzo, who abolished 
 even the shadow of a popular magistracy, and asserted 
 the dependence of all functionaries upon himself," whose 
 expenditure was upon a scale of regal extravagance, and 
 who made his country bankrupt to prevent the bank- 
 ruptcy of his house. For he carried on the vast com- 
 mercial establishment by which his grandfather Cosmo 
 had acquired wealth ; but with such different success, 
 that he was compelled to debase the national currency 
 to raise means for meeting his mercantile engagements. 
 Cosmo, resembling Pisistratus in the elegance of his 
 taste, lived, like him, at a time which enabled him to 
 confer singular beneiits upon society. To the Athenian 
 we probably owe the preservation of Homer's poems in 
 a connected form ; to the Florentine and to his family 
 we are mainly indebted for those ^treasures of ancient 
 literature which time has spared ; which, four centuries 
 ago, were rapidly decaying in obscurity, or, by a more 
 ignoble fate, were defaced to make room tor lying legends 
 and scholastic quibbles, until, early in the fifteenth cen- 
 tury, a few enlightened spirits eagerly devoted them- 
 selves to rescuing what still remained. The vast wealth 
 of Cosmo and his extensive correspondence were ever 
 ready to be employed in the service of learning ; at the 
 request of the men of letters, by whom he loved to be 
 surrounded, his agents were continually charged to buy 
 or to have copied whatever manuscripts could be found 
 in Europe or Asia ; he founded public libraries, and 
 among them that which is still named after his grand- 
 son, the Laurentian, and supported the cause of litera- 
 ture by affording countenance to all who cultivated it 
 with success. His mansions were filled with gems, 
 statues, and paintings, the master-pieces of ancient and 
 modern art, and he was the friend no less than the pro- 
 
 * Sismondi, chap. xc.
 
 180 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 lector of Donatello and Masaccio, to whom sculpture 
 and painting respectively are much indebted for their 
 rapid advance. Nor was he so much absorbed by these 
 tastes, or by affairs of state, as to neglect his domestic 
 concerns, and the flourishing condition of his estates of 
 Careggi and Caffagiuolo bore witness to his skill and 
 attention to agriculture, as did his foreign dealings to his 
 mercantile knowledge and success. 
 
 Architecture, however, was his favourite pursuit. Like 
 Pisistratus, he spent vast sums in ornamenting his city, 
 and if his glory as a patron of the art be inferior to that 
 of Pericles — if he cannot boast, like Augustus, that he 
 found Florence of brick, and left it of marble, he has 
 one claim to our praise which neither they nor probably 
 any other public improver of ancient or modern times 
 has possessed, namely, that the expenses of his works 
 were defrayed from his private fortune. It appears from 
 a memorandum of his grandson, Lorenzo, that in thirty- 
 seven years their house had spent in buildings, charities, 
 and contributions to the state, no less than 663,755 
 golden florins, equivalent to more than 1,300,000/. of 
 the present day. The magnificent edifice known as the 
 Riccardi palace was built by Michelozzi for Cosmo's re- 
 sidence ; under his patronage the dome of the Florentine 
 cathedral was reared ; he built churches and convents, 
 the enumeration of which would be tedious, and erected 
 a palace upon each of his four country estates. To 
 these retreats he betook himself in his declining years, 
 and, estranged from politics and surrounded by men of 
 letters, he passed the evening of his life in tranquillity, 
 unmolested by any enemy except the gout. Its close 
 alone was clouded by the death of his younger son, 
 whom he regarded as the destined supporter of his name 
 and grandeur, for the bad health of the elder incapaci- 
 tated him for an active life ; and the aged statesman, as 
 he was carried through the vast palace which he had na 
 longer strength to traverse on foot, exclaimed with a 
 sigh, "This house is too large for so small a family." 
 He died within a year of his son, in 1464, loved by his 
 friends, and regretted even by his enemies, who dreaded
 
 THE MEDICI. 181 
 
 the rapacity of his partisans when restrained no longer 
 by the probity and moderation of their chief; and 
 Florence bore the best witness to his virtues, when 
 she inscribed on his tomb the title of Father of his 
 Country. 
 
 Piero de' Medici, his eldest son, in name succeeded 
 to his father's influence ; but owing to his infirmities he 
 resided chiefly in the country, while, under shelter of 
 the respected name of Medici, a few citizens monopolized 
 the administration of justice and the management of the 
 state, and converted both to their own private and cor- 
 rupt emolument. He died in 1469, leaving two sons, 
 Lorenzo, named the Magnificent, and Giuliano ; the 
 former being less than twenty-one years of age, and 
 the latter five years his junior. Had the Florentines 
 still been animated by their ancient spirit, there M'as 
 now a most favourable opportunity for the recovery of 
 liberty : but, under various pretexts, most of the distin- 
 guished families under whom the people might have 
 ranked themselves had been driven into exile, and the 
 personal virtues of Cosmo, and his unquestioned pre- 
 eminence as a party leader, had laid the foundations of 
 an hereditary influence, and prepared a way for the en- 
 tire change of the constitution. So fully was the pre- 
 dominant party aware of this, that the men who had 
 ruled Florence in the name of Piero, but without refer- 
 ence to his Vy'ill, and who had embittered the close of 
 his life by their profligacy and corruption, instead of 
 profiting by the youth oi' his sons to shake off this nomi- 
 nal subjection, were eager to ascribe to them a power 
 which they did not possess. They took measures to 
 continue, under an empty name, a junto which assured 
 to them the distribution of all places and the disposal 
 of the revenue. The ambassadors who had been used 
 to treat with Thomas Soderini, the citizens who had 
 long been aware that their fortunes depended on his 
 favour, hastened to visit him, upon the deathof Piero. 
 But Soderini feared to rouse the jealousy of his associates, 
 and to weaken his party by accepting these marks of 
 respect. He sent tlie citizens who waited on him to the 
 
 I 3
 
 182 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 young Medici, as the only chiefs of the state ; he assem- 
 bled the men of most importance, and presenting Lo- 
 renzo and his brother, advised them to preserve to those 
 young men the credit which their house had enjoyed 
 during thirty-five years, and suggested that it was far 
 easier to maintain a power already strengthened by time 
 than to found a new one. 
 
 The Medici received with modesty the marks of 
 attachment and respect which were paid to them in the 
 name of the commonwealth, and for several years they 
 did not endeavour to assume an authority which ostensibly 
 was centred in [the magistrates alone, and which could 
 not be exerted in secret, except by men whose long 
 services and known abilities ensured attention. For 
 seven years Florence enjoyed domestic peace ; the Me- 
 dici, divided between their studies and the tastes of youth, 
 at one time entertained men the most distinguished in 
 art and letters, at another amused the people with brilliant 
 spectacles. But as they advanced to manhood, and took 
 the administration into their own hands, their rule be- 
 came more absolute, and their innovations on the consti- 
 tution more obvious. They appointed a body of five 
 electors, who named the magistracy without any reference 
 to the people : they converted the halla'^ into a permanent 
 council, in whose hands they placed the legislative, the 
 administrative, and judicial power ; and by its means 
 they got rid of their enemies without legal proceedings, 
 imposed new taxes at pleasure, and diverted the revenue 
 to the maintenance of their commercial credit and the 
 support of their luxury. Unwilling that any should 
 enjoy consideration, excepting as it was derived from his 
 own influence and favour, Lorenzo excluded from office, 
 and depressed to the utmost of his power, all those 
 whose rivalry seemed most to be feared, but especially 
 the Pazzi, one of the noblest and most powerful fiamilies 
 
 * Upon any emergency, real or pretended, it was usual 
 for the magistrates to convene the citizens, and procure the 
 appointment of a halia, or extraordinary council, which 
 possessed the absolute power of a Roman dictator.
 
 CONSPIRACY OF THE PAZZI. 183 
 
 of the state. At this period it contained nine men of 
 mature age, and of the first rank in the city : yet since 
 the death of Piero, but one of its members had been 
 admitted to the magistracy. This exclusion was the 
 more offensive because one of them had married Bianca, 
 the sister of the Medici. Giuliano, whose temper was 
 less ambitious, as his talents were inferior to his brother's, 
 expressed his dissatisfaction at this conduct, and said to 
 his brother, that he feared they should lose what they 
 had by grasping at too much. It was believed also 
 that Lorenzo had interfered with the course of justice to 
 deprive Giovanni de' Pazzi of a rich inheritance which 
 was justly his due ; and Francesco, one of the brothers- 
 in-law of Bianca, a man of violent and haughty temper, 
 withdrew from Florence, and established a bank at 
 Rome. 
 
 Sixtus IV., the reigning Pope, nourished also an 
 inveterate hatred against the Medici, and under his 
 auspices a conspiracy was formed to murder them and 
 place Florence under the power of the Pazzi, in which 
 Francesco Pazzi and Salviati, Archbishop of Pisa, were 
 the chief actors. 
 
 * "The design of the conspirators was to assassinate 
 both the brothers, Lorenzo and Giuliano, at the same 
 instant, for the murder of one would otherwise only have 
 the effect of putting the other on his guard. f The Pope 
 
 * It would have been more agreeable to the plan of this 
 book to translate from the original accounts of Machiavelli, 
 or Politiano, who was an eye-wituess of the conspiracy ; but 
 their accounts are long and minute, not to say tedious, 
 and would require much condensation ; and we gladly avail 
 ourselves of the brief and spirited narrative of Mr. Perceval. 
 
 t " Conspiring against one prince," says Machiavelli, " is 
 a doubtful and dangerous undertaking; but to conspire 
 against two at the same time must be either downright folly 
 or madness : " and he enforces his principle by the examples 
 of the Pazzi and of Harmodius and Aristogiton. " Pelopi- 
 das," he adds, " had ten tyrants instead of two to deal with :" 
 it would be very dangerous, however, for any man to build 
 on the success of this conspiracy, which, indeed, was almost
 
 184 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 therefore wrote to the Cardinal Riario, nephew of Count 
 Girolamo, a youth of only eighteen years of age, whom 
 he had just admitted into the sacred college, and who 
 was then studying at the University of Pisa, to desire 
 him to obey whatever directions he should receive from 
 the Archbishop of Pisa ; and Salviati accordingly carried 
 him to a seat of the Pazzi near Florence. The conspi- 
 rators knew that the new Cardinal must be welcomed! 
 with public entertainments, at which they ho])ed that 
 the Medici might be found present together, and de- 
 spatched while unsuspicious of danger. Jacopo de' 
 Pazzi gave a fete, to which both the brothers were ac- 
 cordingly invited : Lorenzo, however, alone came, for 
 Giuliano Mas indisposed. But Lorenzo, as had been 
 foreseen, made sumptuous ])reparations to receive the 
 Cardinal at his villa at Fiesole ; and there the conspira- 
 tors fully resolved to execute their purpose. The en- 
 tertainment took place, but still Giuliano was absent ; 
 and the Pazzi, thus again disappointed, and despairing 
 of securing the presence of the younger Medici, at a 
 second festival to be given by his brother, resolved to 
 defer their enterprise no longer than the following Sun- 
 day, when the Cardinal was to be present at high mass 
 at the cathedral of Florence ; an occasion at which it 
 was thought that neither of the Medici could with de- 
 cency absent himself. There it was determined that, ir> 
 the midst of the most solemn othces of religion, the 
 crime of assassination should be perpetrated ; that the 
 elevation of the host, as the kneeling victims bowed 
 their heads, should be the signal of murder ; and that at 
 the moment of the sacriiice, the Archbishop Salviati and 
 others should seize the palace of the signiory, while Jacopo 
 de' Pazzi was to raise the city by the cry of liberty. 
 Francesco de' Pazzi charged himself, together with Ber- 
 nardo Bandini, a daring and devoted partisan of his 
 house, with the assassination of Giuliano. Giovanni 
 
 miraculous, and is mentioned by all writers who speak of it, 
 as not only a rare, but almost unexampled event. — Political 
 Discourses, book iii. chap. 6.
 
 COXSPIRACY OF THE PAZZT. 185 
 
 Battista Montesccco, a condottiere in the papal service, 
 had boldly engaged with his single hand to despatch 
 Lorenzo, M'hile he understood that the murder was to 
 take place at a festival. But when Montesecco found 
 that it was before the altar of God that it was intended 
 he should shed the blood of a man whose hospitality he 
 had enjoyed, his courage failed him. The soldier de- 
 clared that he dared not add sacrilege to murder and 
 perfidy ; and his office was committed to two ecclesiastics, 
 who had not the same scruples. 
 
 " When the appointed morning arrived, the Cardinal 
 E-iario and Lorenzo de' Medici were already at the 
 cathedral, the church was rapidly filling with people, 
 and still Giuliano de' Medici did not appear. The con- 
 s})irators began to dread another disappointment, and 
 Francesco de' Pazzi and Bernardo Bandini left the 
 cathedral to seek for him, and to persuade him that his 
 absence would be insidiously remarked. Every feeling 
 which revolts at murder and treachery is strengthened, 
 w hen we learn the terms of familiarity on which these 
 men had just been living with him whom they were 
 hurrying to death. They passed their arms round his 
 waist, as if to draw^ him in playful violence towards the 
 church, but in reality to feel whether he had put on his 
 cuirass, which he wore with habitual timidity under his 
 garments. But Giuliano was indisposed ; he had dis- 
 carded his armour ; and so unsuspicious M'as he at that 
 hour of impending evil, that he even left at home the 
 dagger which usually hung at his side. As he entered 
 the church and approached the altar, the t^vo conspira- 
 tors kept close to him ; the two priestly assassins had 
 also fixed themselves in the throng beside Lorenzo ; and' 
 when the host was raised, and every knee was bending 
 in adoration, Bandini struck his dagger into the breast 
 of Giuliano. The victim staggered and fell, and Fran-, 
 cesco de' Pazzi threw himself upon him, with such blind 
 fury, that besides inflicting on him several bloAvs with 
 his dagger, the least a death, he grievously wounded 
 himself in the thigh. At the same moment the two 
 priests attacked Lorenzo. One of them struck at his.
 
 186 HISTOKICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 throat, but missed his aim ; and the blow, which grazec 
 the intended victim's neck, merely startled him to his 
 defence.* Rapidly throwing: his cloak about his left arm 
 for a shield, he drew his sword and courageously defended 
 himself until his attendants came to his aid. The priests 
 then lost courage and fled : but Bandini, his dagger reek- 
 ing with the blood of Giuliano, now endeavoured to rush 
 upon Lorenzo, and stabbed one of his train to the heart, 
 who interposed to defend him. Lorenzo, however, was 
 by this time suiTounded by his friends, who hastily sought 
 refuge with him in the sacristy, and closed its brazen 
 doors. Meanwhile the whole church was filled with 
 consternation ; and the first moment of surprise and 
 alarm had no sooner passed, than the friends of the Medici 
 collected from all quarters, and conveyed Lorenzo in 
 safety to his palace. 
 
 " During this scene in the cathedral, the Archbishop 
 Salviati, with a strong band of conspirators, attempted, 
 as had been concerted, to seize the palace of the signiory 
 and the persons of the magistrates. After filling the 
 outer apartments with his followers, the archbishop ob- 
 tained by his rank an easy admission to the presence of 
 the gonfaloniere and priors who were sitting. But in- 
 
 * Machiavelli has drawn a shrewd caution to conspirators 
 from the failure of the attack upon Lorenzo. " It is neces- 
 sary, in undertakings of this kind, to make use of men that 
 have been sufficiently hardened and tried, and to trust no 
 others, how courageous soever they may be accounted : for 
 no man can answer even for his own resolution, if he have 
 not thoroughly proved it before ; for the confusion he must 
 naturally be in at such a time may either make him drop the 
 dagger out of his hand, or say something which may have 
 the same effect. Lucilla, sister to Commodus, having spirited 
 up Quintianus to kill her brother, he waited for him as he 
 came to the amphitheatre, and stepping up towards him with 
 a drawn dagger in his hand, told him ' the senate had sent him 
 that :' upon which he was immediately seized before he got 
 near enough to stab him. Antonio de Volterra being fixed 
 upon to kill Lorenzo de' Medici, cried out, as he advanced to 
 kill him, ' Ha ! traitor ! ' which proved the preservation of 
 Lorenzo, and the ruin of the conspiracy." — Political Dis- 
 courses, b. iii. 6.
 
 CONSPIRACY OF THE PAZZI. 187 
 
 stead of immediately attacking them he hesitated ; and 
 his manner betrayed so much confusion, that the sus- 
 picion of the gonfaloniere being excited, he rushed from 
 the hall and assembled the guards and servants of the 
 palace. The doors were-secured, and the conspirators were 
 furiously assaulted by the magistrates and their attend- 
 ants with such motley weapons and instruments as the 
 furniture of the palace afforded. Dispersed and intimi- 
 dated, they made but a feeble resistance, and were all 
 either slaughtered on the spot, hurled from the win- 
 dows, or made prisoners. Jacopo de' Pazzi, followed by 
 a troop of soldiery, attempted to succour them, after an 
 abortive effort to excite the citizens to revolt by crying 
 liberty through the streets. But the magistrates held 
 the palace until numerous citizens came to their aid, and 
 Jacopo, seeing that the game was lost, fled into the 
 country. 
 
 " The fate of most of the conspirators was not long 
 delayed. The Archbishop Salviati was hanged from a 
 window of the public palace, even in his prelatical robes. 
 Francesco de' Pazzi, who, exhausted by loss of blood 
 from his self-inflicted wound, had been obliged to con- 
 fine himself to his uncle's house, was dragged from his 
 bed, and suspended from the same place of execution. 
 Jacopo himself, being discovered and arrested in the 
 country by the peasantry, was brought into the city a 
 few days afterwards, :and similarly executed, with another 
 of his nephews, whose knowledge of the conspiracy was 
 his only crime, for he had refused to engage in it : and 
 the whole of the devoted family of the Pazzi were con- 
 demned to exile, except Guglielmo, the brother-in-law 
 of Lorenzo. The priests who had attacked Lorenzo, the 
 condottiere Montesecco, and above seventy inferior 
 persons besides, suffered death ; and even Bernardo 
 Bandini, though he escaped for a time to Constantinople, 
 paid the forfeit of his crimes ; for Lorenzo had sufficient 
 interest with Mahomet II. to cause him to be seized and 
 sent to Florence for execution. The young Cardinal 
 Riario, rather an instrument than an accomplice in the 
 conspiracy, was with difficulty saved by Lorenzo from
 
 188 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 being torn to pieces by the fury of the Florentine mob ; 
 but his attendants were mercilessly butchered by them.'* 
 
 The conspiracy of the Pazzi strikingly displayed the 
 absoluteness of the Medician dominion over the will and 
 affections of the people of Florence. So far from shew- 
 ing any disposition to join the Pazzi in revolt, the popu- 
 lace were filled with grief and fury at the murder of 
 Giuliano, and at the peril in which Lorenzo had stood. 
 They had flown to arms to defend the Medici : and they 
 paraded Florence for whole days to commit every out- 
 rage upon the dead bodies of the conspirators which still 
 defiled the streets. The cry of " Palle, Palle ! " the 
 armorial device of the Medici,* continually resounded 
 through the city ; and the memory of the tragedy 
 wherein Giuliano had fallen, was always associated in the 
 public mind with a deepened and affectionate interest 
 for the safety of Lorenzo, and with an attachment to his 
 person which lasted to his death, 
 
 Vv^e might perhaps search history in vain to find two 
 families, whose fortunes, whose dispositions, and even 
 whose tastes were so faithfully reflected in each other, 
 as those of Pisistratus and Cosmo de' Medici. If we 
 consider the younger Medici as immediately succeeding 
 to their grandfather (and the concession is not import- 
 ant, for in the interval no political changes occurred in 
 Florence), the resemblance between their fortunes, so 
 far as we have traced them, is perfect. The founders 
 of either house, after similar reverses, established tyran- 
 nies in their native cities, and yet lived and died beloved 
 and respected by their countrymen, and delivered their 
 usurped sovereignty peaceably to their successors. These 
 successors were in either case two brothers, who instead 
 
 * The family arms of the Medici were six golden balls 
 (palle d' oro). They asserted that this bearing was derived 
 from the impressions left on the shield of one of their ances- 
 tors by a gigantic Saracen, who wielded a mace with six iron 
 globes hung from it. Their detractors said that they were 
 the arms of an apothecary, from whom the family derived 
 the name of Medici, and that the golden balls were nothing 
 better than gilded pills.
 
 CONSPIRACY OF THE PAZZI. 
 
 189 
 
 of running the usual course of jealousy and discord, ex- 
 ercised their joint power for years in harmony, and were 
 at length separated by conspiracies which succeeded 
 against the one, only to render more despotic the sway 
 of the other. With respect to personal character, the 
 resemblance between Pisistratus and Cosmo de' Medici 
 has been fully dwelt upon. That between the brothers 
 their descendants is necessarily less completely made 
 out, for we know very little of the political conduct of 
 the two Athenians ; but we may observe the same 
 hereditary love of art and literature, the same absence 
 of jealousy, and the same superiority of one brother 
 over the other in the cultivation of learning. The re- 
 semblance of their histories, so far as we have traced 
 that of the Medici, fails only in one respect : the 
 death of Hipparchus was due to his own intemperance^ 
 the murder of Giuliano de' Medici to the arbitrary 
 measures of his brother.
 
 ( 190 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Invasion of Scythia by Darius — Destruction of Crassus and 
 his army by the Parthians — Retreat of Antony — Retreat 
 and death of Julian— Retreat from Moscow. 
 
 Darius, son of Hystaspes, having 'gained possession of 
 the vast empire vi^hich had been established by Cyrus, 
 devoted his attention to the regulation of its internal 
 policy : a task which we are led to believe he exercised 
 with moderation and judgment. But the Persians were 
 a warlike nation, less advanced in civilization than their 
 sovereign ; hence his care of the finances of the empire 
 degraded him in their eyes, and comparing his cha- 
 racter with that of their former princes, while they called 
 Cyrus the father, and Cambyses the master, they deno- 
 minated Darius the broker of the empire. It was proba- 
 bly under the knowledge of these feelings, that his wife,
 
 DARIUS. 191 
 
 Atossa, daughter of Cyrus, thus addressed him:* "O 
 king, though possessed of such ample means, thou sittest 
 still, and gainest increase for the Persians neither of sub- 
 jects nor power. But it befits a young man who is the 
 master of vast resources, to manifest his worth in the per- 
 formance of some mighty act, that the Persians may fully 
 know they have a man for their king. Now, therefore, 
 it profiteth thee twofold to do thus, both that the Per- 
 sians may understand there is a man at their head, and 
 also that they may be harassed by war, and for lack of 
 leisure may not conspire against you. And now thou 
 mightest distinguish thyself during thy youth, for the 
 spirit groweth with the growing body ; but it ageth also 
 with the aging body, and is blunted towards all action." 
 Darius answered, " All these things which thou hast 
 suggested, I have resolved to perform, for I mean to 
 build a bridge from this mainland to the other, to march 
 against the Scythians, and within a little while all these 
 things shall be accomplished." Atossa replied, " Do 
 not go first against the Scythians, for they will be at 
 your disposal at any time ; but for my sake lead an army 
 against Greece. For I have heard reports of the Gre- 
 cian women, and wish much to have female slaves of 
 Lacedsemon, and Argos, and Corinth, and Athens." 
 
 Some time elapsed before Darius was at leisure to pur- 
 sue his schemes of conquest ; but after the Babylonian 
 rebellion was quelled, when the prosperity of Asia was 
 at its height, he determined to invade the Scythians under 
 pretence of revenging the desolating incursion of their 
 ancestors into Media, a century before. With this view 
 he sent orders throughout his dominions, to some nations 
 
 * Herod, iii, 134. — The style of Herodotus is highly dra- 
 matic, and we by no means intend to say that such a conver- 
 sation took place, though there are circumstances attendant 
 on the narrative which may satisfactorily answer the natural 
 question, how came it to be reported and known ? But whe- 
 ther we believe it to be genuine or not, it [embodies a plau- 
 sible reason for an expedition which seems at variance with 
 the character of Darius, and probably contains the gi'ounds on 
 which Herodotus accounted for it.
 
 192 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 that they should prepare infantry, others a fleet, others 
 construct a bridge across the Thracian Bosphorus, in 
 which a Grecian artist, Mandrocles of Samos, was em- 
 ployed. The fleet, M'hich was contributed by the Asiatic 
 Greeks, he sent on to the Ister, or Danube, with orders 
 to construct a bridge there also, which was done, two 
 days' sail from the mouth of the river ; the land forces* he 
 himself conducted through Thrace. Darius, though a 
 wise prince, was not exempt from that inordinate spirit of 
 boasting which has beset the eastern sovereigns in all ages. 
 At the source of the river Teams, where are hot and cold 
 medicinal springs issuing from the same rock, he caused 
 a column to be set up, with this inscription : — " The 
 fountains of Tearus pour forth the best and fairest water 
 of all rivers, and thither, on his march against the Scy- 
 thians, came the best and fairest of all men, Darius, son 
 of Hystaspes, King of the Persians, and of all the conti- 
 nent." Another instance of this spirit occurs, when he 
 ordered a pile of stones to be raised at the river Artiscus, 
 as a monument of the magnitude of his army, each indi- 
 vidual being- ordered to contribute one stone to the heap. 
 Passing onward, f he crossed the Ister, and entered Scy- 
 thia, leaving the lonians behind to protect his return, but 
 with permission to depart home, unless he should reap- 
 
 * They are said by Herodotus to have consisted oS 700,000 
 men, horse and foot ; the fleet of 600 ships. 
 
 t Some curious particulars remain concerning the Getre, 
 whom he encountered on his march. They believed in tlie 
 immortality of the soul, as taught them i)y their lawgiver 
 Zalmoxis, or as the name is otiierwise read, Zamolxis, and iu 
 a future state of happiness. Every fifth year they sent a 
 messenger to inform Zalmoxis, whom they had deified, of 
 their wants, in this manner. Choosing a man by lot, they 
 first give him full instructions as to the purport of his em- 
 bassy, and then certain men, taking him by the hands and 
 feet,' toss him in the air, others hold three spears placed so 
 that he might fall upon them. If he die immediateh-, Zal- 
 moxis is thought to be favourably disposed ; if not, they call 
 the messenger a scoundrel, and proceed to make trial of 
 somebody else.
 
 INVASION or SCYTHIA. 193 
 
 pear within sixty days. The Scythians did not attempt 
 open resistance ; they blocked up the wells and springs, 
 and destroyed the forage throughout the country ; and 
 tking advantage of their own wandering habits, harassed 
 the Persians by leading them a fruitless chase in pursuit 
 of an enemy who seemed always within reach, and yet 
 could never be overtaken. After wandering over a vast 
 extent of desert, Darius began to weary of so unprofitable 
 an occupation, and indulging a hope, perhaps, that the 
 enemy would be complaisant enough to change their tac- 
 tics for his own convenience, sent the following message 
 to Idanthyrsus, the Scythian king : " O wonderful man, 
 why wilt thou still fly, having the choice of these two 
 things ? If thou esteemest thyself capable to stand up 
 against me, abide, and do battle ; but if thou acknow- 
 ledgest thyself to be the weaker, even then desist from 
 flight, and come to my presence, bringing earth and wa- 
 ter, gifts due to your master." The proposal was con- 
 ceived, in the spirit of our own chivalrous ancestors, and 
 from them might have met with a prompt acquiescence ; 
 but Idanthyrsus was not to be piqued into an act of im- 
 prudence, and in truth more wisdom is visible in his re- 
 ply than in the request which led to it. "O Persian, 
 this is my way : hitherto I have never fled for fear of any 
 man, neither do I now fly before thee, nor act otherwise 
 than I am wont in peace. And I will tell thee where- 
 fore I decline a battle. We have neither towns nor tilled 
 land, in defence of which w^e are compelled to fight ; but 
 if it be of importance to thee to bring us to battle, lo, 
 there are the tombs of our ancestors ; find them out, and 
 endeavour to destroy them, and thou shalt then know 
 %yhether we will fight for our sepulchres, or whether we 
 will not. But, until this, unless we ourselves see reason, 
 we will not fight. So much for fighting. For masters, 
 we own none, save Jupiter, my ancestor, and Vesta, 
 Queen of the Scythians. And instead of sending earth 
 and water, I will send you such a present as befits the 
 occasion ; but as for calling thyself our master, I say, go 
 hang.'"* Now the Scythians were very angry at the bare 
 * The reader may compare the following passage [of
 
 194 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 mention of servitude, and sent one division to commune 
 with the lonians who guarded the bridge, while the rest 
 of them, instead of still retreating before the Persians, 
 began to harass them by desultory attacks, in which the 
 Scythians had always the advantage over the Persian 
 cavalry ; but when these fell back upon the infantry, they 
 were secure from further molestation. These attacks 
 were made continually by night and day. And now, 
 says Herodotus, I will mention a very strange thing, that 
 was of great service to the Persians against these assaults. 
 Scythia produces neither ass nor mule, neither are there 
 any such throughout the country, by reason of the cold. 
 The noise of the asses therefore disordered the Scythian 
 cavalry, and very often in a charge, when the horses 
 heard them bray, they would start and fly aside in terror, 
 pricking up their ears, for that they had never seen the 
 like, nor heard such a sound. At length, when the coun- 
 try was exhausted, and it was known that Darius was in 
 want, the Scythian princes sent a herald, bearing a pre- 
 sent of a mouse, a bird, a frog, and five arrows. The 
 Persians asked what was the meaning of this offering ; 
 
 Froissart, chap, xviii. The English army were in pursuit of 
 the Scots, then employed in ravaging Northumberland under 
 the Earl of Douglas, who was strongly posted upon a hill 
 side, with a deep and rocky river in his front. " And there 
 were harauldis of armes sent to the Sottis gy vyng them know- 
 ledge if that they would come and passe the ry ver to fight 
 with them in the playne felde, they wolde draw backe fro 
 the ryver, and gyve theym sufficient place to arraynge theyr 
 batelles, eyther the same day, or els the next, as they wolde 
 chuse them selfe, or els to lette them do lyke wyse, and they 
 wolde come over to them. And whan the Scottis harde this 
 they toke couusell among theymselfe : and anon they answered 
 the harauldis, how they wolde do nother the one nor the 
 other, and said, syrs, your kyng and his lordis se well how 
 we be here in this realme, and have burnt and wasted the 
 countrey as we have passed through, and if they be displeased 
 therwith, lette them amend it whan they wyll, for here we 
 wyll abide, as long as it shall please us." Challenges of this 
 sort were often given in the days of chivalry, and not unfre- 
 quently accepted.
 
 INVASION OF SCYTHIA. 195 
 
 but he replied, that his orders were merely to deliver it 
 and depart immediately ; and bade them, if they were 
 skilled in such things, discover what these gifts should 
 signify. Now Darius thought that the Scythians surren- 
 dered to him themselves, their land, and waters, arguing 
 thus : that a mouse dwells in the earth, living on the same 
 food as man, and a frog in the water, and that a bird is 
 likest to a horse, and the aiTOws meant that they delivered 
 up to him their power. But Gobryas conjectured that it 
 meant this : " tJnless, O Persians, you should become 
 birds and soar into the skies, or mice and sink beneath 
 the earth, or frogs and leap into the water, never shall 
 ye return home, being stricken by these arrows." Now 
 that division of Scythians which had been sent to confer 
 with the lonians, when they arrived at the bridge, said, 
 ** Ye men of Ionia, we bring you liberty, if you will 
 hearken to us. For we hear that Darius bade you depart 
 home, after you had watched the {bridge sixty days, if 
 he should not return within that time : now therefore 
 by so doing you will ,be free from blame, both towards 
 him and towards u»." And when the lonians had 
 promised to do so, the Scythians returned in all haste. 
 
 Idanthyrsus, after sending the above alarming inti- 
 mation, changed his tactics, and offered battle to Darius. 
 It chanced that while the hostile armies were drawn up, 
 waiting for the signal to engage, a hare jumped up from 
 among the Scythians, who broke their ranks and joined 
 unanimously in the chace. Darius inquired from what 
 cause such a tumult arose, and hearing that the enemy 
 were engaged in hunting the hare, he said to his con- 
 fidential advisers, " These men hold us in great con- 
 tempt ; and now methinks Gobryas has spoken rightly 
 concerning the Scythian presents. Since, therefore, 
 things are so, we need good advice, how may we retreat 
 in safety." Gobryas made answer, " O king, I was 
 pretty well acquainted by report with the poverty of 
 these men, and now I am the more convinced of it, 
 seeing how they make sport of us. Therefore it seems 
 best to me, to light our fires as usual, so soon as the 
 night comes on, and then shackling the asses, and leav-
 
 196 HISTORICAL, PARALLELS. 
 
 ing them behind, with such as are least able to bear 
 fatigue, to depart before the Scythians can reach the 
 Danube to destroy the bridge, and before such a plan, 
 which might be our ruin, can be resolved upon by the 
 lonians." This advice gave Gobryas : and when it 
 was night, Darius left in the camp all those who were 
 wearied, and of whose death least account was made, 
 together with the asses, under pretence that he would 
 himself attack the enemy with the flower of the army, 
 and that the others should remain to protect the camp. 
 So the Scythians seeing the fires, and hearing the asses 
 -as usual, suspected nothing : but the next morning, when 
 the deserted Persians came and made submission, they 
 set out with all speed, and arrived at the Danube before 
 Darius, who had wandered from the direct way. Then 
 they said, " Ye men of Ionia, ye act unjustly in staying 
 here after the days that were numbered have passed 
 away. Hitherto you have remained through fear ; but 
 now, destroy the bridge, and depart with all haste, re- 
 joicing in your freedom, and acknowledging your obli- 
 gation to the gods and the Scythians. And him that 
 was heretofore your master we will so handle, that from 
 henceforth he shall wage war upon no man." Therefore 
 the lonians took counsel ; and Miltiades the Athenian 
 {the same who afterwards commanded at Marathon) 
 that was their leader, and ruler over the Thracian 
 Chersonese, was minded to take the counsel of the 
 Scythians, and thus set free Ionia. But Histiaeus, of 
 Miletus, said, on the contrary, that now each of them 
 that were in council was ruler over his own city through 
 the influence of Darius, which being destroyed, neither he 
 himself nor any of them would retain his sovereignty, for 
 every city would choose the'government of the many rather 
 than of one. Those, therefore, that had adopted Miltiades' 
 opinion, now came over to that of Histiseus, and it was 
 resolved to break u]) the Scythian end of the bridge for the 
 distance of a bowshot, that they might appear to comply 
 with what had been requested, and thus be secured from 
 all attempts to destroy it. Histiaeus therefore replied, 
 ^' O Scythians, you bring good advice, and urge it at a
 
 rSVASIOX OF SCYTHIA. 197 
 
 seasonable moment, and as your proposition guides us 
 to our advantage, even so we are inclined to follow it 
 carefully. For, as you see, we are breaking up the 
 bridge, and we will manifest all zeal, desiring to be free. 
 But while we are thus employed, it is fit time for you 
 to go in search of the Persians, and to exact the ven- 
 geance that is due both to us and to you." So the Scy- 
 thians, a second time giving credit to the lonians for 
 speaking the truth, returned in quest of the Persians, 
 but missed their track ; so that the latter arrived at the 
 passage without interruption, but coming there by night, 
 and finding the bridge broken, they were thrown into 
 much alarm lest the lonians should have deserted them. 
 There was in Darius's train an Egyptian, whose voice was 
 louder than that of any known man. Darius bade him 
 stand on the bank, and call Histioeus the Milesian, who 
 heard him at the first shout, and reconstructed the bridge, 
 so that the army passed over in safety. And the Scy- 
 thians, judging of the lonians from these transactions, 
 say, on the one hand, that they are the basest and most 
 unworthy of all freemen ; and on the other, reckoning 
 them as slaves, that of all such they best love their mas- 
 ters, and are least disposed to run away.* 
 
 If Darius's real object was to extend his empire, or 
 take revenge upon the Scythians, his failure was complete 
 and humiliating ; if undertaken on the ground suggested 
 by Atossa as a measure of policy, a safety-valve to guard 
 against the explosion of Persian turbulence, his purpose 
 probably was fully answered in the loss and suffering 
 which the army underwent. But whatever were his mo- 
 tives, he escaped more easily and creditably than most 
 generals who have presumed to contest the possession of 
 their deserts with the numerous and active cavalry of 
 Tartary and Persia. Troops of the highest character, 
 irresistible where their proper arms and discipline can be 
 made available, have often sunk under the fatigue and 
 hardships of warfare against a new enemy, under a new 
 sky, and have been conque^-ed by circumstances, almost 
 * Herod, lib. iv. c. 83—142.
 
 198 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 without the use of the sword. By varying the climate and 
 natural features of the earth — by giving man a frame 
 which, notwithstanding the wonderful flexibility which 
 adapts it equally for the snows of Greenland and the 
 vertical splendour of the torrid zone, is ill calculated for 
 violent and sudden changes, Providence has set bounds 
 in some degree to the march of ambition, and often turned 
 the triumph of the conqueror into mourning. We shall 
 devote the rest of this chapter to relating a few of the 
 most striking disasters which have occurred from the 
 neglect of these considerations, and the rash invasion of 
 regions where the elements, the face of the country, 
 or the manners of its inhabitants have presented in- 
 vincible obstacles to the success of the attacking army. 
 
 The unfortunate expedition of Crassus against the Par- 
 thians furnishes us with a second testimony to the valour 
 of the Scythian hordes. Expelled or emigrating from 
 Scythia Proper, that tribe long dwelt to the eastward of 
 the Caspian Sea, and successively obeyed the Mede, the 
 Persian, and the Macedonian dynasties, until at length 
 they shook off the yoke of the last, and planted a new 
 race upon the throne of Cyrus. The motives of ava- 
 rice and ambition which led Crassus to the fatal enter- 
 prise in which he fell, are well known. From the first 
 he M-as marked out for destruction by superstitious terrors : 
 as he quitted Rome he was solemnly devoted by a tribune 
 to the infernal gods ; ill-omened prodigies attended the 
 passage of the Euphrates, and even the exhortations of 
 the general were so equivocally worded, that, instead of 
 raising, they damped the courage of his soldiers. Instead 
 of penetrating through the friendly country of Armenia, 
 where the mountains would have protected him from the 
 enemy's cavalry, and the king had promised not only a 
 large reinforcement, but to provide food for the con- 
 sumption of the Romans, Crassus was induced, by the 
 treachery of a pretended friend, to plunge into the deserts 
 of Mesopotamia, the region of all others best adapted to 
 the operations of his enemies. We shall not detain the 
 reader with the particulars of his advance, which for some
 
 CKASSUS. 1D9 
 
 time was unopposed ; but when he was fairly involved 
 in that inhospitable region, the enemy was not long in 
 making his appearance. 
 
 " The enemies seemed not to the Romans at the first 
 to be so great a number, neither so bravely armed as 
 they thought they had been. For concerning their 
 great number, Surenas* had of purpose hid them with 
 certain troops he sent before ; and to hide their 
 bright armour he had cast cloaks and beasts' skins over 
 them ; but when both the armies approached near the 
 one to the other, and that the sign to give charge was 
 lift up in the air, first they filled the field with a 
 dreadful noise to hear ; for the Parthians do not encourage 
 their men to fight with the sound of a horn, neither 
 with trumpets, but with great kettle-drums, hollow 
 within, and about them they hang little bells and copper 
 rings, and with them they all make a noise everywhere 
 together ; and it is like a dead sound mingled as it were 
 with the braying or bellowing of a wild beast, and a 
 fearful noise as if it thundered, knowing that hearing is 
 one of the senses that soonest moveth the heart and 
 spirit of ,'any man, and maketh him soonest beside 
 himself. The Romans being put in fear with this dead 
 sound, the Parthians straight threw the clothes and 
 coverings from them that hid their armour, and then 
 showed their bright helmets and cuirasses of Margian 
 tempered steel, that glared like fire, and their horses 
 barbed with steel and copper. And Surenas also, 
 general of the Parthians, who was a goodly personage 
 and valiant as any other in all his host, though for his 
 beauty somewhat effeminate, showed small likelihood of 
 such courage : for he painted his face and wore his hair 
 after the fashion of the Medcs, when the other Parthians 
 drew their hair back from the forehead in the Scythian 
 manner to look more terrible. The Parthians at the 
 
 * This seems to be not a name, but a title of office, be- 
 longing to the commander-in-chief of the Parthian army, as 
 the appellation Brennus is supposed to have denoted a similar 
 office among the Gauls. 
 
 k2
 
 200 HISTORICAL. PARALLELS. 
 
 first thought to have set upon the Romans with their 
 pikes, to see if they could break their first ranks. But 
 when they drew near, and saw the depth of their battell 
 standing close together, firmly keeping their ranks, then 
 they gave back, making as though they fled, and dis- 
 persed themselves ; and yet, before they were aware, 
 environed them on every side ; whereupon Crassus com- 
 manded his shot and light-armed men to assail them ; 
 the which they did : but they went not far, they were 
 so beaten in by arrows, and driven to retire to their force 
 of the armed men. And this was the first beginning 
 that both feared and troubled the Romans when they 
 saw the vehemency and great force of the enemy's shot, 
 which brake their armours, and ran through everything 
 it hit, were it never so hard or soft. The Parthians, 
 thus still drawing back, shot altogether on every side at 
 adventurc : for the battell of the Romans stood so neare 
 together, as, if they would, they could not miss the 
 killing of some. These bowmen drew a great strength, 
 and had much bent bowes, which sent the arrows from 
 them with a wonderful force.* The Romans by means of 
 
 * This description will bring to the reader's recollection 
 the skill of our own ancestors in the use of this destructive 
 weapon, which mainly contributed to many of their most 
 celebrated victories. The following extract relates to the 
 battle of Crecy. " Ther were of the genowayes (a) cros- 
 bowes about a fiftene thousand, but they were so wery of 
 goying a fote that day, a six leages, armed with their cros- 
 bowes, that they sayde to their constables, we be nat well 
 ordred to fyght this day, for we be nat in the case to do any 
 grete dede of arms, we have more nede of rest: — these 
 wordes came to the erle of Alencon, who sayd, a man is 
 well at ease to be charged with such a sort of raskalles, to 
 be faynt, and fayle nowe at most nede. . . .When the 
 genowayes were assembled toguyder, and beganne to ap- 
 proche, they made a grete leape, and crye, to abasshe 
 thenglysshemen, but they stode styll, and styredde nat for 
 all that : than the genowayes agayne the second tyme made 
 another leape, and a fell ci-ye, and stepped forward a lyttell, 
 
 (a) Genoese.
 
 CRASSUS. 201 
 
 these bowes were in hard state, for if they kept their 
 ranks they were grievously wounded : again, if they left 
 them, and sought to run upon the Parthians to fight at 
 hand with them, they suffered none the less, and were 
 
 and thenglysshemen remeued nat one fote : thirdly agayne 
 they leapt, and ci-yed, and went forth tyll they came within 
 shotte ; than they shotte feersly with their crosbowes ; than 
 thenglysshe archers stept forth one pase, and lette fly their 
 arowes so holly and so thycke, that it seemed snow : when 
 the genowayes felte the arowes persynge through heedes, 
 armes, and brestes, many of them cast downe their cros- 
 bowes, and dyde cut their strings, and retourneddyscomfited. 
 When the French kynge sawe them flye away, he sayd, slee 
 these raskalles, for they shall let and trouble us without 
 reason : than ye shulde have seen the men at armes dasshe 
 in amonge them, and kylled a grete nombre of them : and 
 ever styll the englysshemen shot whereas they saw thickest 
 preace ; the sharp arowes ranne into the men of armes, and 
 into their horses, and many fell, horse and men, amonge the 
 genowayes : and whan they were downe, they coulde nat 
 relyve again, the preace was so thicke that one overthrewe 
 another." — Froissart, chap. 130. 
 
 So at the battle of Homildoun, Percy wished to charge 
 the Scots, who were drawn up upon a hill, but the Earl of 
 March retained him, and bid him open their ranks by 
 archery. " Then the English archers marching against the 
 Scots, stitched them together with arrows, and made them 
 bristle like a hedgehog, as it were with thorns and prickles ; 
 the hands and arms of the Scots they nailed to their own 
 lances, so that with that sharp shower of arrows some they 
 overthrew, others they wounded, and very many they slew. 
 Upon which the valiant Sir John Swinton exclaimed, as 
 with the voice of a herald, ' My noble fellow-soldiers, what 
 has bewitched you, that you give not way to your wonted 
 gallantry : that you rush not to the mellay, hand to hand, 
 nor pluck up heart like men, to attack those who would 
 slaughter you with arrows, like hinds in a park. Let such 
 as will go down with me, and in God's name we will break 
 into the enemy and so either come off with life, or else fall 
 knightly with honour.' "—^(^Fordun, Scotichr. lib. xv. cap. 
 14.) One manuscript adds, " I have'never heard nor read 
 that the English in fair field beat an equal number of Scots
 
 202 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 no nearer to effecting anything. For the Parthians, in 
 retreating, yet cease not from their shot, which no nation 
 but the Scythians could better do than they. And it is 
 an excellent contrivance that they do fight in their 
 flight, and thereby shun the shame of flying. The 
 Romans still defended themselves, and held it out so 
 long as they had any hope that the Parthians would 
 leave fighting when they had spent their^ arrowes, or 
 would joyne battel with them. But after they under- 
 stood that there were a great number of camels laden 
 with quivers full of arrowes, M'here the first that had 
 bestowed their arrowes fetched about to take new 
 quivers ; then Crassus, seeing no end to their shot, 
 began to faint, and sent to Publius his son, willing him 
 to charge upon the enemies before they were compassed 
 in on every side. For it was on Publius' side that one of 
 the wings of the enemies battell was nearest unto them, 
 and where they rode up and down to compasse them 
 behind. Whereupon Crassus' sonne, taking thirteene 
 hundred horsemen with him (of the which a thousand 
 were of the men of armes whom Julius Cassar sent) and 
 five hundred shot, with eight ensignes of footmen having 
 targets, wheeling about, led them unto the charge. But 
 they seeing him coming, turned straight their horses and 
 fled, either because of the steadiness of his array, or else 
 of purpose to beguile this young Crassus, inticing him 
 thereby as far from his father as they could. Publius 
 Crassus seeing them flie, cryed out, ' These men will 
 not abide with us ;' and so spurred on for life after them. 
 Now the horsemen of the Romans being trained out thus 
 to the chase, the footmen also were not inferior in hope, 
 joy, or courage. For they thought all had been won, 
 and that there was no more to do but to follow the chase : 
 till they were gone far from the army, and then they 
 
 by charge of lance, but very often by the thunder-shower 
 (Jfulminatione) of their arrows. Let the latter therefore 
 bewai-e of waiting the flight of archery, but hasten to close 
 combat, even as Sir John Swinton then did." This is the 
 story which Sir Walter Scott has worked up into his poem 
 of Halidon Hill
 
 CRiSStJS. 
 
 203 
 
 found the deceit. For the horsemen that fled before 
 them suddenly turned again, and a number of others 
 besides came, and set upon them. Whereupon they 
 stayed, thinking that the enemies, perceiving they were 
 so few, would come and fight with them hand to hand. 
 Howbeit the Parthians drew up again them their men 
 at armes, and made their other horsemen wheele round 
 about them, keeping no order at all : who gallopping up 
 and down the plain, whirled up the sand-hills from the 
 bottom with their horses' feet, which raised such a won- 
 derful dust, that the Romans could scarce see or speak to 
 one another. For they being shut up into a little 
 roome, and standing close one to another, were sore 
 wounded with the Parthian arrowes, and died of a cruell 
 lingering death, crying out for anguish and paine they 
 felt ; and being still harassed by the shot thereof, they 
 died of their wounds, or striving by force to pluck out 
 the forked arrow-heads that had pierced farre into their 
 bodies through their veines and sinewes, thereby they 
 opened their wounds wider, and so injured themselves 
 the more. Many of them died thus, and such as died 
 not were not able to defend themselves. Then when 
 Publius Crassus prayed and besought them to charge the 
 men at armes with the barded horse, they shewed him 
 theirs hands fast nailed to the targets with arrowes, and 
 their feet likewise shot through and nailed to the ground ; 
 so as they could neither flie, nor yet defend themselves. 
 Thereupon himself encouraging his horsemen, went and 
 gave charge, and did valiantly set upon the enemies, 
 but it was with too great disadvantages, both for offence 
 and also for defence. For himself and his men, with 
 weak and light staves, brake upon them that were armed 
 with cuirasses of Steele, or stiff leather jackes. And the 
 Parthians, in contrary manner, with mighty strong pikes 
 gave charge upon these Gaules, which were either un- 
 armed, or else but lightly armed. Yet those were they 
 in whom Crassus most trusted, and with them did he 
 wonderful! feates of war. For they seized hold of the 
 Parthians' pikes and took them about [the middles and 
 threw them off their horse, being scarce able to stir for
 
 204 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 the weight of their harnesse ;* and there were divers of 
 them also that lighting from their horse crept under their 
 enemies' horse bellies, and thrust their swords into them, 
 which flinging and bounding in the aire for very paine, 
 trampled confusedly both upon 'their masters and their 
 enemies, and in the end fell dead among them. Moreover 
 extream heat and thirst did marvellously comber the Gauls, 
 who were used to abide neither of both : and the most 
 part of their horses were slain, charging with all their 
 power upon the Parthian pikes. 
 
 "At the length, they were driven to retire towards 
 their footmen, and Publius Crassus among them, who 
 was very ill by reason of the wounds he had received. 
 And seeing a sand-hill by chance not farre from them, 
 they went thither, and setting their horses in the middest 
 of it, compassed it in round with their targets, thinking 
 by this means to cover and defend themselves the better 
 from the barbarous people : howbeit, they found it con- 
 trary. For the country being plain, they in the fore- 
 most ranks did somewhat cover them behind, but they 
 that were behind standing higher than they that stood 
 foremost (by reason of the nature of the hill that was 
 highest in the middest) could by no means save them- 
 selves, but were all hurt alike, as well the one as the 
 other, bewailing their inglorious and unavailing end. At 
 that present time there were two Grecians about Publius 
 Crassus, Hieronymus and Nicomachus, who dwelt in 
 those quarters, in the city of Carrhse : they both coun- 
 selled Publius Crassus to steale away with them, and flie 
 to a city called Ischnae, that was not farre from thence, 
 and took the Romans' part. But Publius answered them, 
 that there was no death so cruel as could make him for- 
 sake those that died for his sake.f When he had so 
 
 * In European warfare, overthrown knights were often 
 unable to rise from the incumbrance of their ponderous 
 defences, and not very unfrequently suffocated by dust, heat, 
 and want of air. 
 
 t Examples of a similar high sense of honour might be 
 multiplied from the history of chivalry. Once during his 
 crusade Richard Coeur-de-Lion saw a party of Templars sur-
 
 CEASSUS. 206 
 
 said, wishing them to save themselves, he embraced 
 them, and took his leave of them : and being very sore 
 hurt with the shot of an arrow through one of his hands, 
 commanded his shield-bearer to thrust him through with 
 a sword, and so turned his side to him for the purpose. 
 And most part of the gentlemen that were of that com- 
 pany, slew themselves with their own hands. And for 
 those that were left alive, the Parthians got up the sand- 
 hill, and fighting with them thrust them through with 
 their speares and pikes, and took but five hundred pri- 
 soners. After that, they struck off Publius Crassus' head, 
 and thereupon returned straight to set upon his father, 
 Crassus, who was then in this state. 
 
 " Crassus, the father, after he had willed his son to 
 charge the enemies, and that one brought him word he 
 had broken them, and pursued the chase ; and perceiv- 
 ing also that they that remained in their great battell, 
 did not presse upon him so neare as they did before, be- 
 cause that a great number of them were gone after the 
 
 rounded and overmatched by Saracens, and being unarmed, 
 sent some of his barons to support the Christians until he 
 himself should be ready for combat. " Meanwhile an over- 
 powering force of the enemy came up, and when he arrived 
 at the field, the danger appeared so imminent, that he was 
 entreated not to hazard his own person in the unequal con- 
 test. The king replied, his colour changing with his boil- 
 ing blood, ' Sith I have sent dear comrades to battle with a 
 promise of following to assist them, if, as I have engaged, I 
 do not defend them with all my strength, but being absent, 
 and wanting, which Heaven forbid, they should meet death, 
 I will never again usurp the name of king.' So with no 
 more words, rushing into the midst of the Turks like a thun- 
 derbolt, he pierced through, and cut them down and dis- 
 persed them, and then with many prisoners and his friends 
 delivered, he returned to the camp." — {Broad Stone of Ho- 
 nour, book iv. p. 1 74.) — So also the Marquis de Villena, a 
 distinguished warrior of the court of Ferdinand of Arragon, 
 being asked by Queen Isabella why he had exposed his own 
 life to save a trusty servant nearly overpowered by odds, 
 replied, " Should I not peril one life to serve him, who would 
 have adventured three, had he possessed them, for me ?' 
 
 k3
 
 206 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 other ; he then took courage, and keeping his men close, 
 retired with them the best he could by a hill's side, look- 
 ing ever that his sonne would not be long before that he 
 returned from the chase. But Publius seeing himselfe 
 in danger, had sent divers messengers to his father, to 
 advertise him of his distresse, whom the Parthians inter- 
 cepted, and slew by the way ; and the last messengers 
 he sent escaping very hardly, brought Crassus newes that 
 his sonne was but cast away, if he did not presently aid 
 him, and that with a great power. But in the meane 
 time the enemies were returned from his son's over- 
 throw with a more dreadfull noise, and cry of victory 
 than ever before, and thereupon their deadly sounding 
 drummes filled the air with their wonderful noise. The 
 Romans then looked straight for a hot alarme ; but the 
 Parthians that brought Publius Crassus' head upon the 
 point of a lance, coming neere to the Romans, showed 
 them his head, and asked them, in derision, if they knew 
 what house he was of, and who were his parents : for it 
 is not likely, said they, that so noble and valiant a young 
 man should be the son of so cowardly a father as Crassus. 
 This sight killed the Roman hearts more than any other 
 danger throughout all the battell. For it did not set 
 their hearts on fire, as it should have done, with anger 
 and desire of revenge, but far otherwise, made them 
 quake for fear. Yet Crassus selfe shewed more glorious 
 in this misfortune than in all the warre beside. For 
 riding by every band, he cried out aloud, ' The grief 
 and sorrowe of this losse, my fellowes, is no man's but 
 mine, mine onely : but the mighty fortune and honour 
 of Rome rcmaineth still unvincible, so long as you are 
 yet living. Now, if you pity my losse of so noble and 
 valiant a son, my good soldiers, shew this in fury against 
 the enemy ; make them dearly buy the joy they have 
 gotten ; be revenged of their cruelty, and let not my 
 misfortune fear you. For why ! aspiring minds some- 
 time must needs sustaine losse.' 
 
 *' Crassus, using these persuasions to encourage his 
 soldiers for resolution, found that all his words wrought 
 none effect ; but contrarily, after he had commanded
 
 CRASSUS. 207 
 
 them to give the shout of battell, he plainly saw that 
 their heartes were done, for that their shout rose but 
 faint, and not all alike. The Parthians on the other 
 side, their shout was greate, and lustily they rang it out. 
 Now when they came to joyne, the Parthians' horsemen 
 wheeling all round the Romans, still galled them with 
 their archery, while their men at armes, giving charge 
 upon the front of the Romans' battell, with their great 
 lances compelled them to draw into a narrow roome, a 
 few excepted that valiantly and in desperate manner ran 
 in among them, as men desiring, though they could do 
 the enemy but little harm, rather to die quickly by a 
 mortal wound. So were they soone dispatcht, with the 
 great lances that' ranne them through, head, wood and 
 all, with such a force as oftentimes they ranne through 
 two at once. Thus when they had fought the whole day, 
 night drew on, and made them retire, saying that they 
 would give Crassus that night's respite, to lament and 
 bewaile his Sonne's death : unlesse that otherwise he, 
 wisely looking about him, thought it better for his safety 
 to come and offer himself to King Arsaces' mercy, than 
 to tarry to be brought to him by force. So the Par- 
 thians camping hard by the Romans, were in very good 
 hope to overthrow them the next morning." 
 
 In this miserable condition the only hope of safety 
 lay in the immediate prosecusion of their retreat under 
 cover of the night ; and this measure was accompanied 
 by the melancholy necessity of abandoning their wounded 
 men to the mercy of an implacable enemy. Crassus, 
 overcome with sorrow, laid himself down with his head 
 covered, and would see no man. His chief officers, 
 therefore, among whom was Cassius, afterwards cele- 
 brated as one of the murderers of Ctesar, held a council 
 of war, and resolved upon immediate departure ; a step 
 which held out the greater prospect of security, as the 
 Parthians never attacked by night, nor indeed took up 
 their quarters in near neighbourhood even to the weakest 
 enemy, for they used no sort of fortification or defence, 
 and if attacked in the dark their cavalry was difficult to
 
 208 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 be equipped and their skill in archery useless.* Those 
 of the Romans who were capable of marching, retreated 
 without further loss to the town of Carrhae ; but the 
 Parthians slew all that were left, to the number of 
 4000 and upwards. Surena, lest the fugitives should 
 outstrip hira by immediate flight, had recourse to a fraudu- 
 lent negotiation, which was insultingly broken off as soon 
 as his end was answered, and his troops collected before 
 the city. Escape, therefore, was now more difficult 
 than ever, and Crassus' evil fortune, or want of penetra- 
 tion, led him again to place confidence in a traitor, who 
 informed the enemy of the period fixed for departure, 
 and completed his villainy by entangling the army in a 
 morass. Cassius, mistrusting this man, returned to 
 Carrhas. His guides advised him to remain there until 
 the moon were out of the sign of Scorpio ; but he 
 answered, " I fear the sign of Sagittarius (the archer) 
 more," and, departing immediately, escaped to Assyria 
 with 500 horsemen. Crassus, and the main body of 
 the army, after long struggling, had overcome the diffi- 
 culties in which they were involved, and were within a 
 few furlongs of the hills, when they were overtaken and 
 attacked by the Parthians. 
 
 " Then compassing Crassus in the middest of them, 
 covering him round with their targets, they spake nobly, 
 that never an arrow of the Parthians should touch the 
 body of their general, before they were slain, one after 
 another, and that they had fought it out to the last man 
 in his defence. Hereupon Surena, perceiving the Par- 
 thians were not so courageous as they were wont to be, 
 and that if night came upon them, and that the Romans 
 
 * So Xenophon says, in the Anabasis, that the Persians 
 never encamped less than 60 stadia (6 or 7 miles) from 
 the Greeks. " The Persian army is a bad thing by night. 
 For their horses are tethered, and shackled also for the 
 most part, that they may not run away if they get loose : 
 and if there be any disturbance, the Persian has to saddle 
 and bridle his horse, and mount him loaded with his armour, 
 which is all difficult by night, especially in any tumult. 
 For these reasons they encamped away from the Grecians."
 
 CEASSUS. 209 
 
 did once recover the high mountains, they could never 
 possibly be met vi^ithall againe : he thought cunningly 
 to beguile Crassus once more by this device. He let 
 certain prisoners go of purpose, before whom he made 
 his men give out this speech, that the King of Parthia 
 would have no more mortal war with the Romans ; but 
 far otherwise ; he rather desired their friendship, by 
 shewing them some notable favour, as to use Crassus 
 very courteously. And to give colour to this bruit, he 
 called his men from fight, and going himself in person 
 towards Crassus with the chiefest of the nobility of his 
 hoast, in quiet manner, his bow unbent, he held out his 
 right hand, and called Crassus to talk with him of peace, 
 and said unto him, ' Though the Romans had felt the 
 force and power of their king, it was against his will ; 
 howbeit that now he was very willing and desirous to 
 make them taste of his mercy, and was contented to 
 make peace with them, and to let them go where they 
 would.' All the Romans besides Crassus, were glad 
 of Surena's words. But Crassus, that had been deceived 
 before by their crafty fetches and devices ; considering 
 also no cause apparent to make them change thus sud- 
 denly, would not hearken to it, but first [consulted with 
 his jfriends. Howbeit the [soldiers, they cried out on 
 him to go, and fell at words with him, saying that he 
 would fain set them to fight with an enemy, with whom 
 he had not the heart to talk unarmed. Crassus tried 
 entreaty first, saying that if they would but persevere 
 for the remainder of the day, they might depart at night 
 through the mountaines and straight passages, where 
 their enemies would not follow them : and pointing 
 them the way with his finger, he prayed them not to 
 be faint-hearted, nor ,to despair of their safety, seeing 
 they were so neare it. But in the end, Crassus per- 
 ceiving that they fell to mutiny, and, beating of their 
 hamesse, did threaten him if he went not, feainng there 
 they would do him some villainy, went towards the 
 enemy, and coming backe a little, said only these words : 
 ' O Octavius, and you, Petronius, with all you Roman 
 gentlemen that have charge in this army, you all see
 
 210 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 now how I against my will am enforced to go to the 
 place I would not, and can witnesse with me how I am 
 driven with shame and force ; yet ' I pray you, if your 
 fortunes be to escape this danger, that ye will report 
 wheresoever you come, that Crassus was slaine, not 
 delivered up by his own soldiers into the hands of the 
 barbarous people, but deceived by the fraud and subtilty 
 of his enemies.' 
 
 " Octavius would not tarry behind on the hill, but 
 went down with Crassus : but Crassus sent away his 
 sergeants that followed him. The first that came from 
 the Parthians unto Crassus were two mongrell Grecians, 
 who, dismounting from their horse, saluted him, and 
 prayed him to send some of his men before, and Surena 
 would shew them, that both himself and his train came 
 unarmed towards him. Crassus thereto made him 
 answer, that if he had made any account of his life, 
 he would not have put himself into their hands. Not- 
 withstanding he sent two brethren before, called the 
 Roscii, to know what number of men, and to what 
 end they met so many together. These two brethren 
 came no sooner to Surena but they were staid, and 
 himselfe in the mean time kept on his way a horse- 
 backe, with the noblest men of his army. Now when 
 Surena came neare to Crassus, * ' Why, how now,' 
 quoth he, ' what meaneth this ? a consul and lieu- 
 tenant-generall of Rome on foot, and we on horse- 
 back ! * Therewithal he straight commanded one of 
 his men to bring him a horse. Crassus answered Surena 
 again : ' In that neither of them offended, each coming 
 to the meeting according to the custom of his country.' 
 Surena replied, 'As for the treaty of peace, that. was 
 already agreed upon between the king Hyrodes and 
 the Romans : howbeit that they were to go to the river 
 and there to set down the articles in writing ; for you 
 Romans,' said he, ' do not greatly remember the capitu- 
 lations you have agreed upon.' With those words, he 
 gave him his right hand. As Crassus was sending for 
 a horse ; You shall not need, saith Surena, for, look, 
 the king doth present you with this. And straight one
 
 ANTOXr. 211 
 
 was brought him, with a golden bridle ; upon which his 
 grooms mounted Crassus immediately, and following 
 him behind, lashed his horse to make him run the 
 swifter. Octavius, seeing that, first laid hand on the 
 bridle, then Petronius ; and after them, all the rest of 
 the Romans also gathered about Crassus to stay the 
 horse, and to take him from them by force, that pressed 
 him on of either side. So they thrust one at another at 
 the first very angrily, and at the last fell to blowes. 
 Then Octavius drew out his sword, and slew one of the 
 barbarous noblemen's horsekeepers ; and another came 
 behind him, and slew Octavius, and on the other side 
 came Pomaxsethres, one of the Parthians, and slew 
 Crassus. As for them that were there, some of them 
 were slain in the field fighting for Crassus, and others 
 saved themselves by flying to the hill. The Parthians 
 followed them, and told them that Crassus had paid the 
 paine he deserved, and for the rest, that Surena bad 
 them come down with safety. Then some of them 
 yielded to their enemies; and others dispersed them- 
 selves when night came, and of them very few escaped 
 with life. Others being followed and pursued by 
 the natives, were all put to the sword. So as it is 
 thought there were slain in this ■ overthrow above 
 twenty thousand men, and ten thousand taken pri- 
 soners."* 
 
 Not many years subsequent to this signal overthrow 
 the Roman eagle again swooped upon Assyria, and was 
 again compelled to wing back its disastrous flight to a 
 more congenial soil and climate. Encouraged by the 
 Syrian victories of his lieutenant Ventidius (the only 
 Roman down to the time of Trajan who ever celebrated 
 a triumph over the Parthians), and desirous' to effiace 
 the stain upon the empire's honour by extorting the 
 
 * North's Plutarch ; Life of Crassus. This statement of 
 numbers, though large, is not incredible, since the army ori- 
 ginally consisted :of seven legions, besides 4000 horse and as 
 many light-armed infantry ; and few appear to have effected 
 their escape.
 
 212 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 restoration of the captured standards and prisoners* 
 Antony led into Media an army of 100,000 men. Bu^ 
 his enterprise, like those of his predecessors, proved 
 barren alike of profit or renown : lor if he could boast 
 that the enemy, far from gaining any advantage over his 
 veteran troops, were uniformly baffled and repulsed du- 
 ring a long and dangerous retreat, yet that retreat proved 
 as calamitous as the advance had been useless ; and the 
 hardships of the desert were scarce less fatal to him 
 than the Parthian arrows to Crassus. 
 
 '' When they came to go down any steep hills, the 
 Parthians would set upon them with their arrowes, be- 
 cause they could go down but fair and softly. But 
 then again, the soldiers of the legion, that carried 'great 
 shields, returned back and enclosed the light-armed in 
 the middest amongst them, and did kneel one knee upon 
 the ground, and so set downe their shields before them ; 
 and they of the second rank also covered them of 
 the first rank, and the third also covered the second ; 
 and so from ranke to ranke all were covered. Inso- 
 much that this manner of covering and shading them- 
 selves with shields was devised after the fashion of lay- 
 ing tiles upon houses, and to sight was like the steps of 
 a theatre, and is a most strong defence and bulwarke 
 against all arrowes and shot that falleth on it. When 
 the Parthians saw this countenance of the Roman 
 soldiers of the legion which kneeled on the ground in 
 that sort upon one knee, supposing that they had beene 
 wearied with travel, they laid down their bowes, and 
 took their spears and launces, and came to fight with 
 them man for man. Then the Romans suddenly rose 
 upon their feete, and with the darts that they threw 
 from them they slew the foremost, and put the rest to 
 flight, and so did they the next day that followed. But 
 by means of these dangers and letts, Antonius' army 
 could win no way in a day, by reason whereof they suf- 
 ferred great famine : for they could have but little come, 
 and yet were they daily driven to fight for it ; and be- 
 sides that, they had no instruments to gi'ind it, to make 
 bread of it. For the most part of them had been left
 
 AX TONY. 213 
 
 behind, because the beasts that carried them were either 
 dead or else employed to carry them that were sore and 
 wounded. For the famine was so extream great, that 
 the eighth part of a bushell of wheate was sold for fifty 
 drachmas,* and they sold barley bread by the weight of 
 silver. In the end they were compelled to live on herbes 
 and roots ; but they found few of them that men do 
 commonly eat of, and were enforced to taste of them 
 that were never eaten before : among the which there 
 was one that killed them, and made them out of their 
 wits. For he that had once eaten of it„his memory went 
 from him, and he knew not what he did, but only busied 
 himself in moving and turning over every stone that he 
 found, as though it had been a matter of great weight. 
 All the campe over, men were busily stooinng to the 
 ground, digging and carrying off stones from one place 
 to another ; but at the last, they cast up a great deal of 
 bile, and suddenly died, because they lacked wine,which 
 was the only sovereigne remedy to cure that disease."f 
 
 Such were their suffering till they crossed the Araxes 
 and gained the rich and friendly country of Armenia. 
 The retreat from Phraata, or Phraaspa, the extreme 
 point of advance, a distance of three hundred miles, had 
 occupied twenty-seven days, and been signalized by 
 eighteen battles. On mustering the army it was found 
 that twenty thousand infantry and four thousand horse, 
 nearly a quarter of the whole force, had perished by 
 the joint effects of sickness and the sword. 
 
 After a long series of wars waged with various success 
 during a period of four hundred years, the plains of 
 Assyria again beheld the destruction of a Roman army 
 under circumstances of still greater interest. The emperor 
 Julian, redoubted for his brilliant victories in Gaul and 
 Germany, advanced with a veteran army of sixty-five 
 thousand soldiers, to avenge the insulted majesty of the 
 
 * Nominally about 1^. 13s. ; but calculations of this sort 
 convey little instruction, miless the relative value of the pre- 
 cious metals, then and now, were known. 
 
 f North's Plutarch ; Life of Antony.
 
 214 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 empire, and retaliate upon the Persian monarch (for a 
 Persian dynasty again occupied the throne of Darius, 
 long held by a Grecian, and then by a Parthian con- 
 queror) for the invasion of Mesopotamia, in the reign 
 of his predecessor Constantius. He directed his march 
 towards Ctesiphon,* where he crossed the Tigris, and 
 advanced into the central provinces, in hope, like Alex- 
 ander at Arbela, to rest the issue of the war on the event 
 of a single battle. Up to this point success attended his 
 arms ; but now the evils which had destroyed his pre- 
 decessors began to work their fatal effect on him ; where- 
 cver he turned the country was laid waste, the treachery 
 of his guides caused him to spend several days in fruitless 
 wandering, which diminished the already scanty stores 
 of the army, and at length, without a blow being struck, 
 he found himself compelled to give the signal for re- 
 treat. 
 
 "The very morning, however, upon which the army 
 began to retrace its steps, a cloud of dust appeared in the 
 distant horizon. Many thought that it was caused by 
 the troops of wild asses which abound in those regions ; 
 others more justly augured from it an enemy's approach. 
 Being thus uncertain and fearful lest by advancing they 
 should fall into some snare, the emperor put an early 
 stop to their march, and the night was spent in watchful- 
 ness and continual alarm. At sunrise, the glitter of 
 distant armour announced the presence of the royal 
 forces,.'and the day was spent in a succession of desultory 
 and unsuccessful attacks. In the evening the Romans 
 
 * A city founded by the Parthians as the capital of their 
 empire, on the eastern bank of the Tigris, nearly opposite to 
 Seleucia, which was built shortly after the death of Alexander 
 by Seleucus Nicator, and intended as the capital of the East. 
 The history of Julian's campaign is full of interest, and will 
 repay the perusal. It has, however, no particular connex- 
 ion with the subject of this chapter, which has already 
 reached length sufficient to preclude the introduction of ex- 
 traneous matter, and we therefore are compelled to take up 
 the narrative of Julian's proceedings only at the point where 
 his misfortunes commenced.
 
 JULIAX. 215 
 
 arrived at a small town abounding in provisions, where 
 they spent two days. Resuming their march, upon the 
 first day they were exposed only to the same inter- 
 ruptions as before, but upon the third day, when the 
 army had reached the district called Maranga, about 
 dawn there appeared a vast multitude of Persians, with 
 Merenes, general of the cavalry, two sons of the king, 
 and many of the chief nobility. 
 
 '',A11 the troops were armed in iron, every limb being 
 protected by thick plates, the rigid joinings of which, 
 were adapted to the joints of the body; and a mask, 
 fashioned to resemble the face, was so carefully fitted 
 upon their heads, that, their w hole bodies being plated 
 with metal, the darts which struck them could pierce 
 nowhere, except 'at the eyes or nostrils, before which 
 there were narrow apertures for sight and breathing. 
 Those who were armed with lances remained immoveable, 
 as if fixea with brazen chains : while near them the 
 archers (from its very cradle the nation has grown 
 powerful by its great reliance on that art) stretched their 
 supple bows, with disparted arms, till the string touched 
 their right breasts, while their left hands were in contact 
 with the arrow head ; and the shafts, thus skilfully 
 driven, flew shrilly whistling, charged with deadly wounds. 
 After them the affrighted mind could hardly bear the 
 fearful aspect and savage yawns of the glittering ele- 
 phants ; by whose roar and smell, and unusual appearance, 
 the horses were yet more terrified. Those who guided 
 them wore hafted knives tied to their right hands, remem- 
 bering the injury received from these animals at Nisibis ;* 
 that if the frantic animal became unmanageable by his 
 driver, to prevent his carrying destruction into the ranks 
 of his own army, as then happened, they might pierce 
 the spine, where the skull is connected with the neck. 
 For it was long ago discovered by Hasdrubal, the brother 
 of Hannibal, that such was the speediest way of killing 
 
 * At the siege of Nisibis, in the invasion of Mesopotamia 
 above mentioned, the elephants being brought up to the 
 attack of a breach, became unmanageable from pain and ter- 
 ror, and did much damage to the assaulting force.
 
 216 . HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 these beasts. All this being observed, not without much 
 dread, the emperor proceeded with all confidence to 
 draw up the infantry for battle in a half-moon with 
 curving flanks ; * and lest the advance of the archers 
 should scatter our close array, he broke the efficacy of 
 their arrow-flight by a rapid onset; and the word to 
 engage being as usual given, the dense infantry of Rome 
 dashed in the firm front of the enemy by a most spirited 
 charge. The conflict growing hot, the clang of shields, 
 and the melancholy crash of men and armour, leaving 
 now no room for inactivity, covered the ground with 
 gore and corpses ; but the slaughter of the Persians was 
 the greatest, who being often slack and faint in close 
 conflict, fought at heavy disadvantage when foot was 
 opposed to foot ; though they use to battle bravely at 
 a distance, and if they find themselves compelled to give 
 way, deter the enemy from pursuit by a shower of arrows 
 shot behind them. The Parthians then being routed by 
 their overpowering strength, our soldiery, long since 
 relaxed by a blazing sun, at the signal of recall went 
 back to their tents, inspirited to higher daring for the 
 future. In this battle the Persian loss apj^eared, as I 
 have said, to be the greater ; our own was very light." 
 Milton has a gorgeous description of the Parthian power 
 and method of making war, in which his immense learn- 
 ing is profusely introduced to illustrate this subject 
 
 *' The Parthian king 
 In Ctesiphonf hath gathered all his host 
 Against the Scythian, whose incursions wild 
 Have wasted Sogdiana ; to her aid 
 He marches now in haste: see though from fa 
 His thousands, in what martial equipage 
 They issue forth ; steel bows and shafts their arm 
 Of equal dread in flight, or in pursuit ; 
 All horsemen, in which fight they most excel ; 
 
 * Lunari acie, siuuatisque lateribus occursuros hosti 
 manipulos instruebat. 
 
 t Ctesiphon — see note, p. 214. Sogdiana, the northern 
 province of the Parthian empire, adjoining Scythia.
 
 JULIAN. 217 
 
 See how in warlike muster they appear, 
 In rhombs and wedges, and half-moons and wings. 
 "He looked, and saw what numbers numberless 
 The city gates out-poured, light-armed troops 
 In coats of mail and military pride ; 
 In mail their horses clad, yet fleet and strong. 
 Prancing their riders bore, the flower and choice 
 Of many provinces from bound to boun'' 
 From Arachosia,* from Candaor east, 
 And Margiana to the Hyrcanian cliffs 
 Of Caucasus, and dark Iberian dales. 
 From Atropatia, and the neighbouring plains 
 Of Adiabene, Media, and the south 
 Of Susiana, to Balsara's haven. 
 He saw them in their forms of battle ranged. 
 How quick they wheeled, and flying, behind them shot 
 Sharp sleet of arrowy showers against the face 
 Of their pursuers, and overcame by flight ; 
 The fields, all iron, cast a gleaming brown : 
 Nor wanted clouds of foot, nor on each hom 
 Cuirassiers all in steel for standing fight, 
 Chariots or elephants indorsed with towers 
 Of archers, nor of labouring pioneers 
 A multitude, with spades and axes armed 
 To lay hills plain, fell woods, or valleys fill 
 Or where plain was raise hill, or overlay 
 With bridges rivers proud, as with a yoke ; 
 Mules after these, camels, and dromedaries, 
 And^ waggons fraught with utensils of war. ; 
 
 * Arachosia, now Arakhaj, one of the eastern provinces 
 of Persia, separated by Candahar (Candaor) from the Indus. 
 Margiana, a province of Parthia, south of the Oxus, and rather 
 between that river and the Caspian Sea. Iberia lies between 
 the Caspian and Black seas, south of Caucasus. Atropatia 
 is south of Iberia, separated from Armenia by the Araxes. 
 Adiabene is the western part of Babylonia. The poet pro- 
 ceeds southward through Media to Susiana, the province of 
 Susa, on the lowest part of the eastern bank of the Tigris, to 
 Balsora, a celebrated city and emporium of the East; having 
 completed the circuit of the Parthian empire, except the 
 deserts forming its southern boundary, between the Persian 
 Gulf and Arachosia, where he began.
 
 218 KISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp 
 
 When Agrican with all his northern powers 
 
 Besieged Albracca, as romances tell, 
 
 The city of Gallaphrone, from thence to win 
 
 The fairest of her sex, Angelica 
 
 His daughter, sought by many prowest knights 
 
 Both Paynim and the peers of Cliavlemain. 
 
 Such and so numerous was their chivalry."* 
 
 ''After the battle," Ammianus continues, "throe 
 days being passed in repose, that each mignt cure his 
 own or his neighbour's wounds, intolerable want of vic- 
 tuals began to afflict us ,• and the burning both of corn 
 and green crops having reduced men and horses to the 
 extremity of distress, a large part of the provisions 
 brought by the chief officers of the army for their own 
 use was distributed to the indigent soldiery. And the 
 emperor, who, in place of delicacies prepared with regal 
 luxury, satisfied his hunger under a small tent, widi a 
 scanty portion of meal and water, which even the 
 labouring common soldier would have disdained ; care- 
 less of his own safety, performed whatever services 
 were required in the tents of his poor comrades. Then 
 having withdrawn awhile to an anxious and uncertain 
 repose, devoted not to sleep, but to some literary work, 
 written in the camp, and under the tent-skins, in emu- 
 lation of Julius Cassar, in the dead of night, while 
 deeply meditating upon some philosopher, he beheld, as 
 he acknowledged to his friends, that vision of the genius 
 of theempire which he had seen in Gaul, when about to 
 reach the dignity of Augustus,! pass sorrowfully from 
 the tent in mourning habit, his head and horn of abund- 
 ance covered with a veil. For a moment he was fixed 
 
 * Paradise Regained, iii. 300 — 344. 
 
 t The night before Julian consented to accept the impe- 
 rial purple at the hands of his rebellious army, he saw in a 
 vision (so at least he told his friends) one with the attributes 
 of the tutelary genius of the empire. The phantom com- 
 plained that hitherto his desire to serve the sleeper had been 
 frustrated, and warned him to accept the proifered. dignity 
 as he valued tlie continuance of liis care and protection.
 
 JULIAN. 219 
 
 in amazement ; yet, superior to all fear, he commended 
 futurity to the gods. As he rose from his lowly couch, 
 to supplicate the powers of heaven with the rites de- 
 precatory of misfortune, a blazing torch appeared to 
 flash across the sky, and vanished, leaving him filled 
 with horror lest it were the star of Mars which thus 
 openly menaced him."* 
 
 Belbre daybreak he consulted the Etruscan sooth- 
 sayers, who still retained the monopoly of this profitable 
 art, concerning the meaning of this portent. They 
 replied that on no account should anything be com- 
 menced, in obedience to the rules of their science, which 
 forbade the giving battle, or undertaking military ope- 
 rations, subsequent to the appearance of such a meteor : 
 but the emperor neglected their predictions, and gave 
 order to march. Taught by experience not rashly to 
 close with the firm ranks of the legions, the Persians 
 hovered all around, and while Julian, unarmed by reason 
 of the heat, advanced to reconnoitre in front, he was 
 alarmed by tidings of an attack upon the rear. Forget- 
 ful or careless of his want of armour, he hurried to the 
 spot, which was scarcely reached when a fresh alarm 
 came that the van, which he had quitted, was similarly 
 menaced, and at the same moment the iron-clothed Par- 
 thian cavalry, supported by elephants, dashed in upon, 
 the flank. The light-armed troops, encouraged by their 
 sovereign's presence, rushed forwards, and put to flight 
 these formidable assailants ; and while Julian, forgetting 
 the prudence of a general in his ardour, cheered them 
 on, a dart grazed his uplifted arm, and penetrated deep 
 into his unprotected side. He tried to draw it out, but 
 the sharp edges cut the tendons of his fingers ; and fall- 
 ing in a swoon from his horse, he was borne back by 
 his attendants to the camp. The prince being withdrawn, 
 it is scarce credible with what ardour the soldiery, heated 
 by rage and anger, flew to their revenge, and though 
 the dust blinded them, and the heat relaxed their sinews, 
 yet, as if released from discipline by the fall of their 
 
 * Ammianus JMarceliinus, lib. xxv. 2.
 
 220 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 leader, they rushed prodigal of life upon the enemies' 
 steel. The Persians, on the other hand, shot still more 
 eagerly, till they were almost hidden by the constant 
 arrow flight ; while the bulk and nodding plumes of the 
 elephants stationed in their front struck terror into horse 
 and man. Night put an end to a bloody and indecisive 
 contest, in which fifty of the chief Persian nobility fell, 
 including the two generals, Merenes and Nohodares. 
 
 This success, however, was dearly purchased by the 
 death of Julian, which occurred soon after he reached 
 the camp. He made a short address to those officers 
 who surrounded his bed, expressing his willingness to 
 die, and a hope that the empire would devolve on a 
 worthy successor, declining to interfere, or in any way 
 direct their choice ; and breathed his last while arguing 
 upon the nature of the soul. Among the tumult and 
 intrigues consequent upon the election of a new emperor, 
 Jovian, a household officer of the highest rank, was 
 chosen, rather as a means of reconciling the disputes of 
 others of higher pretensions, than for his personal merits, 
 which rose not above mediocrity. The news of Julian's 
 death was carried to Sapor the Persian king by deserters, 
 and he, inspirited by the death of his most formidable 
 enemy, pursued the retreating army with increased 
 vigour. On one occasion the heavy-armed horse and 
 elephants broke the Jovian and Herculean legions which 
 had been trained to war in the able school of Diocletian ; 
 on another the Persian cavalry broke into the camp, and 
 penetrated almost to the emperor's tent. At length, 
 after five days of constant harass and alarm, they reached 
 the town of Dura on the Tigris. Four days were here 
 consumed in repelling the unceasing attacks of the Per- 
 sians, until the army, impatient of this daily annoyance, 
 hopeless of bringing the enemy to battle, and stimulated 
 by a notion that the Roman frontier was at no great 
 distance, impatiently demanded permission to recross the 
 Tigris. The emperor and his officers in vain pointed 
 out to them the river swollen by the summer floods, and 
 entreated them not to trust it dangerous whirlpools : they 
 represented that most of the troops were unable to swim,
 
 JULIAN. 221 
 
 and showed the enemy, who lined the opposite bank of 
 the overflowed river. But when these arguments proved 
 vain, and dissatisfaction seemed ready to end in mutiny, 
 a rehietant order was given that the Gauls and Germans, 
 trained to the passage of rapid rivers from their youth, 
 should first risk the attempt ; in expectation that the 
 others' obstinacy would be overcome by the spectacle of 
 their fate, or else that their success would embolden and 
 encourage the less able. Accordingly, as soon as the 
 fall of night concealed their purpose, they passed the 
 river, swimming or supported by skins, occupied the 
 opposite bank, and made slaughter of the Persians, who 
 had been lulled to sleep by the fancied security of their 
 position. Their comrades, informed of their success by 
 signal, M'ere only restrained from emulating their courage 
 and success by the engineers undertaking to construct a 
 bridge upon inflated hides. But these attempts were 
 baffled by the strength of the stream, and at the end of 
 two days, all sorts of food being consumed, the soldiery, 
 reduced to want and desperation, were loud in complaint 
 of the ignoble death for which they were reserved. 
 
 This would have been the time for a vigorous and 
 decisive blow ; but the Persian king was staggered in 
 his confidence by the Romans' obstinate and successful 
 resistance. The destruction among his troops had been 
 severe ; the loss of elephants unequalled in any former 
 war : while his foes were seasoned and encouraged by a 
 continuance of successful resistance, and, instead. of being 
 intimidated by the death of their noble general, seemed 
 rather to consult revenge than safety, careless whether 
 they were extricated from their difficulty by a brilliant 
 victory or a memorable death. These considerations, 
 and the yet unbroken power of the empire, induced him 
 to send ambassadors to treat of peace. But the con- 
 ditions proposed were hard and humiliating, and four 
 days were spent amid the agonies of famine in fruitlessly 
 discussing what was best to be done, which if diligently 
 employed would have brought the army into the fruitful 
 district of Corduene, distant but a hundred and fifty 
 miles from the scene of their sufferings. Five provinces 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 222 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 situated east of the Tigris were to be given up, together 
 with three important fortresses in Mesopotamia, Castra 
 Maurorum, Singara, and Nisibis, the latter uncaptured 
 since the Mithridatic wars, and regarded as the especial 
 key of the East. The strong expression of Aramianus 
 is, that it would have been better to have fought ten 
 battles, than to have surrendered one of these things. 
 But a crowd of flatterers surrounded the timid prince ; 
 they urged the necessity of a speedy return, lest other 
 pretenders to the empire should start up, and his weak 
 and easy temper was readily ])ersuaded to acquiesce. 
 
 The delay occasioned by these negotiations, in which, 
 in return for such important concessions, even the safe 
 passage of the Tigris was not provided for, proved fatal 
 to numbers, who, impatient of the sufferings which they 
 endured, plunged secretly into the stream, and were 
 swallowed up by its eddies, or, if they reached the shore, 
 were slain or sold into a distant captivity by the Saracens 
 and Persians. And when at last the trumpet gave the 
 signal of passage, it was wonderful to see ho\v every one 
 hurried to escape the danger which they still feared upon 
 the eastern bank. Wicker vessels hastily constructed, to 
 which their beasts of burthen were attached, or the hides 
 of sheep and oxen, were the precarious means of trans- 
 port to which most were reduced : the emperor and his 
 suite crossed in a few small boats which had laboriously 
 accompanied the march, and continued to ply backwards 
 and forwards, as long as any remained upon the farther 
 shore. News c^me meanwhile that the Persians were 
 constructing a bridge, with intent of falling suddenly and 
 secretly upon the exhausted enemy ; but either the in- 
 telligence was false, or the beti'ayal of their intention 
 caused the Persians to desist from the meditated treachery, 
 and Jovian, released from this apyjrehension, arrived by 
 long and fatiguing marches at the town of Hatra, of 
 ancient fame in the wars of Trajan and Severus, From 
 hence, for seventy miles, an arid plain extended, offering 
 only salt, fetid water, and the bitter, nauseous herbs of 
 the desert : and such provision as opportunity afforded 
 was made for the further inarch by filling the water
 
 JULIAN. 223 
 
 vessels, and slaughtering camels and other beasts of bur- 
 then. But a six days' march, through a country where 
 not even grass was to be found, reduced them to extre- 
 mity ; and it was with no small joy that they hailed a 
 convoy of provisions, doubly welcome as providing for 
 the relief of present distress, and assuring the fidelity of 
 Procopiusand Sebastian, the powerful officers whom Julian 
 had sent to co-operate with him in Armenia. Passing 
 Thilsaphata the army at length reached Nisibis, and 
 found an end of its distresses under the w'alls of the city, 
 which the emperor was unwilling, perhaps ashamed, to 
 enter. 
 
 In all these cases the thirst of conquest worked its own 
 punishment by subjecting its votaries to the guidance of 
 will instead of reason, and like all other passions, when 
 indulged, misleading them both as to the character and 
 the probable consequence of their actions. The expedi- 
 tion of Darius is said, indeed, to have been prompted by 
 policy ; but we look in vain for prudence and sound 
 judgment in his unavailing pursuit of the Scythians, in 
 his protracted stay, in the treacherous abandonment of a 
 part of his army, or in his hurried retreat ; while his resolu- 
 tion (if Herodotus be credited) of destroying the bridge, 
 and thus, in case of reverses, cutting off all hope of es- 
 cape, could only have been suggested by a frantic pre- 
 sumption in his own power and fortune. In the other 
 cases an eager desire and hope of terminating the war by 
 one decisive blow, and a well-grounded confidence that 
 in fair field no troops would stand the shock of the Roman 
 legions, stifled the voice of common sense, of wisdom and 
 of experience, which concurred in teaching that the 
 desired opportunity was attainable only by the enemy's 
 misconduct, and that the failure of success necessarily 
 involved severe misfortune. We may draw from hence 
 a lesson touching the pernicious influence of power and 
 prosperity upon the mind. The warning of Amasis to 
 roly crates* contains valuable instruction, though we re- 
 
 * Polycrates, tyrant of Samos, 'was remarkable for the 
 favourable issue of all his undertakings. Amasis, king of
 
 224 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 ject the superstitious and unworthy notion of the Deity 
 upon which it is founded, and the equally superstitious 
 remedy proposed. It is true that a life of unbroken 
 prosperity is frequently terminated by some memorable 
 reverse, but the effect of such prosperity upon ourselves 
 is the greatest of evils, and the parent of all the others 
 which may befall us : and this chapter may be considered 
 as a supplement to the one which has been devoted to 
 the eftects of absolute power upon the morals and intel- 
 lect ; for the judicial blindness produced by an inferior 
 degree of grandeur and good fortune resembles that spe- 
 cies of insanity which we have noticed, and differs from 
 it rather in degree than in nature. History abounds in 
 examples of such infatuation ; the most striking and per- 
 haps the most important of them, it has been reserved 
 for our own age to witness. 
 
 If ever there was an instance of a powerful mind 
 
 Egypt, wrote thus to him : " It is pleasant to bear of the 
 good fortune of a friend and connexion ; but your extraor- 
 dinary prosperity pleases not me, knowing, as I do, that the 
 Deity is envious : and I would have those for whom I am 
 interested meet both with success and failure, and think a 
 chequered life better than unclouded fortune. For I have 
 never heard of any man who, being prosperous in all things, 
 has not at last perished miserably, root and branch. Be per- 
 suaded, then, and take this precaution against your good 
 fortune; select whatever you have most valuable, and would 
 most regret to lose, and so bestow this that it shall never 
 come to man again ; and if, in future, good and evil fortune 
 are not blended, remedy it in the manner which I now pro- 
 pose." Polycrates took the advice and cast into the sea an 
 engraved gemof extraordinary value; and within a few days 
 a fish was presented to him within which the gem was found. 
 Amasis, hearing of it, renounced all friendship and connexion 
 with him, as a man predestined to an evil fate. The event 
 must have strongly confirmed the notion from which the 
 advice proceeded ; for Polycrates having given offence to the 
 satrap of Sardis, or, as is more likely, being considered too 
 powerful and dangerous a neighbour to remain on the Ionian 
 coast, was entrapped into thaf nobleman's power, and cruci- 
 fied by him. — Herod, iii. 40.
 
 RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. 225 
 
 delivered over for its ruin to a strong delusion, it is to 
 be found in Napoleon's campaign in Russia. An unpa- 
 ralleled series of victories appears to have confirmed 
 the turn of his mind to fatalism, and to have inspired a 
 belief that no difficulties w^ere insuperable by his genius 
 and fortune. It is in such a belief, and in his natural 
 resoluteness of purpose, aggravated into inflexibility by 
 the habit of dictating to all w^ho came within his widely 
 extended sphere, that we must look for the expla- 
 nation of conduct into which no man would have been 
 betrayed while in the full and sane possession of his 
 judgment, however just and unbounded his confidence in 
 himself and his troops. That he was fully aware 
 of the difficulties which he was about to meet (it is 
 impossible that they should have escaped his penetration) 
 is evident from his own declarations. " For masses like 
 those we are about to move, if precautions be not taken, 
 the grain of no country can suffice. The result of my 
 movements will be to assemble four hundred thousand 
 men on a single point. There will be nothing to expect 
 irom the country, and it will be necessary to have every- 
 thing within ourselves."* Immense preparations were 
 accordingly made, but made in vain, for a very small 
 portion of them ever reached the borders of Russia, and 
 those too late to supply the needs of the army. It is 
 here that the obstinacy and infatuation of which we 
 have spoken first appear. Too impatient to wait for the 
 supplies which he had declared indispensable, and unable 
 to resist the temptation of endeavouring to gain his 
 object by one decisive stroke. Napoleon plunged 
 headlong into a savage country, without a commissariat, 
 and with a most insufficient hospital department, and 
 suftered grievous loss before an enemy was even seen. 
 Without anything approaching to a general action, the 
 eftective force under his immediate command was reduced 
 in six weeks, between the passage of the Niemen and 
 his departure from Witepsk, from two hundred and 
 ninety-seven thousand to one hundred and eighty-five 
 
 * Scott, vol. vii. p. 215.
 
 226 HISTORICAL PARALLELS 
 
 thousand ; and was besides in so shattered and unsoldier- 
 like a condition, that a fortnight later, at Smolensk, Na- 
 poleon himself declared halt or retreat to be impractica- 
 ble. "This army cannot stop: with its composition, 
 and in its disorganized state, movement alone supports 
 it. We may advance at its head, but not stop or retreat. 
 It is an army of attack, not of defence ; of operation, not 
 of position."* The desperate enterprise was therefore 
 pursued, and the nominal victory of Borodino, which 
 cost in killed and wounded thirty thousand men, gave 
 Moscow into his hands — the specious prize which he 
 hazarded so much to gain. But the advantages hoped 
 from its possession vanished when in liis grasp, and thig 
 seeming success proved but a snare to disguise his failure, 
 and ensure destruction by delaying retreat. 
 
 We probably shall never be satisfied as to the real 
 origin of the conflagration of Moscow. If the voluntary 
 act of the Russian })Cople, it deserves to be classed, with 
 the abandonment of Athens, among the noblest acts of 
 patriotism recorded ; but with this difterence, that th^ 
 Athenians trusted their propert}^ to the victor's mercy,* 
 the Russians inflicted on themselves the utmost losses of 
 war, rather than allow an invader to profit by the shelter 
 of their homes. That a rugged but deep love of their 
 country did animate even those among them who had 
 least to love, is certain. Palaces and hamlets were alike 
 committed to the flames ; the serf and the prince were 
 equally indignant at their national injuries. " It is an 
 admitted fact, that when the French, in order to induce 
 their refractory prisoners to labour in their service, 
 branded some of them in the hand with the letter N. as 
 a sign that they were the serfs of Napoleon, one peasant 
 laid his hand upon a block of wood, and struck it oft' 
 with the axe which he held in the other, in order to free 
 himself from the supposed thraldom. "f 
 
 Napoleon depended on the possession of Moscow as a 
 sure means of dictating peace to Russia on his own terms. 
 As formerly at Vienna and Berlin, he expected to give 
 
 * Segur, liv. \i. chap. 6. f Scott, p. 301.
 
 EETEEAT FKOM MOSCOW. 227 
 
 laws in the Kremlin to a conquered nation ; and his dis- 
 appointment in finding this vantage-ground crumble 
 under his feet was extreme. It was lost, however, irre- 
 coverably lost, for the Russians had no longer anything 
 to hope or fear lor their capital, and Moscow, ruined and 
 deserted, was no place for the invader to pass a five- 
 months' winter in. Policy therefore prompted an imme- 
 diate retreat, sufficient time being allowed to refresh and 
 re-organize the army ; but Napoleon still clung with ob- 
 stinacy to his original plan of dictating a peace to Alex- 
 ander from his capital, and sacrificed a fortnight of pre- 
 cious time to this deceitful hope. It was frustrated ; the 
 Russian monarch refused to listen to any overtures of 
 peace, and the French, who on the 12th of September 
 had hailed Moscow as the goal of their labours, quitted 
 it on the 19th of October, to retrace their steps over a 
 ravaged country through a numerous and exasperated 
 enemy. 
 
 We must touch very lightly upon the horrors of the 
 retreat, confining ourselves to a brief statement of the 
 leading facts, and of the results of the whole. Famine, 
 cold, and the sword combined to punish an unjust ag- 
 gression. When the French left Moscow they num- 
 bered one hundred and twenty thousand men under arms, 
 with an immense train of baggage and camp followers : 
 in twenty-six days, from October 19th to November 
 13th, when the Emperor quitted Smolensk, their orga- 
 nized force was reduced to thirty-six thousand men, and 
 they had lost three hundred cannon. Napoleon's par- 
 tisans have tried to shelter him from blame, by alleging 
 the premature rigour of winter as the cause of this whole- 
 sale destruction. No doubt cold was the main agent in 
 it, but the nature of a Russian winter was well known, 
 and should have been considered in the scheme of the 
 campaign ; and so far was it from being premature, that 
 the frost did not begin till November 7th, only three 
 days before the French van and the Emperor arrived at 
 Smolensk. Other causes aided to produce this result. 
 Napoleon intended to return to the above-named town 
 by the un wasted route of Kalouga and Medyn, but the
 
 228 HISTORICAL PARALLELS, 
 
 Russian army barred his way, and, after an obstinate 
 contest,* turned him back on the ravaged country 
 through which he had already passed. Here neither 
 food, shelter, nor clothing could be procured, and thou- 
 sands fell victims rather to the want of all appliances to 
 bear it, than to the intolerable severity of the winter 
 itself. Numbers fell in battle, or were intercepted and 
 slain, or made prisoners by the ever active hostility of 
 the Cossacks who hovered round their march : still the 
 loss sustained in warfare was small in comparison to that 
 "which resulted from the combined operation of hunger 
 and cold. The appearance of this new enemy, and its 
 effects, moral and physical, are powerfully, though rather 
 theatrically, described by the Comte de Segur, himself 
 a sharer in the miseries which he describes. 
 
 " On the 6th of November the sky declared itself. 
 Its azure disappeared. The army marched enveloped in 
 cold vapours, which soon thickened into a vast cloud, 
 and descended in large flakes of snow upon us. It 
 seemed as if the sky were coming down, and uniting with 
 this hostile land and people to complete our ruin. All 
 things are indistinguishable ; while the soldier struggles 
 to force his way through the drifting whirlwind, the 
 driven snow fills up all hollows, and its surface conceals 
 unknown depths which yawn under our feet. The men 
 are swallowed by them, and the weakest, resigning them- 
 selves to fate, there find a grave. Those who follow 
 turn aside, but the storm dashes in their faces the snow 
 from heaven and the drift from the earth, and seems to 
 oppose itself rancorously to their march. The Russian 
 winter under this new form attacks them from all sides; 
 it pierces their thin dress and torn shoes. Their wet 
 clothes freeze on them, a sharp and strong wind impedes 
 their breath, which at the instant of expiration forms 
 round the mouth icicles depending from the beard. The 
 
 * It is curious that Kutusoff and Napoleon were actually 
 retreating from Malo-Yarowslavitch, the scene of the battle, 
 at the same moment ; the one fearing another attack, the 
 other despairing of success in forcing the position.
 
 RETREAT PROM MOSCOW. 229 
 
 wretches, shivering, still drag themselves on, till the 
 snow which clogs their feet, or some chance obstacle, 
 causes them to stumble and tall. There they groan in 
 vain : the snow soon covers them ; slight elevations alone 
 distinguish them : behold their graves ! Everywhere 
 the road is strewn with these undulations like a burial- 
 ground : the most fearless, the most unfeeling are 
 moved, and turn aside their eyes as they pass in haste. 
 But before, around, every thing is snow — the sight is 
 lost in this immense and sad uniformity ; the imagination 
 is astounded : it is like a huge winding-sheet, with 
 which nature envelops the army. The only objects 
 which appear from out it are sombre pines, trees of the 
 tombs, with their funereal verdure ; and the gigantic 
 fixedness of their black trunks and their deep gloom 
 complete this desolate aspect of a general mourning, 
 and of an army dying amid the decease of nature. . , . 
 Then comes the night, a night of sixteen hours ! But 
 on that snow which covers all things, one knows not 
 where to stop, where to rest, where to iind roots for food, 
 or dry wood for firing. However, fatigue, darkness, 
 and repeated orders stop those whom their own physical 
 and moral force, and the efforts of their officers, have re- 
 tained together. They seek to establish themselves ; 
 but the ever-active storm scatters the first preparations 
 for a bivouac. The pines, laden with hoar-frost, resist 
 the flames ; and the snow upon them, mixed with that 
 which falls continually from the sky, and that lying on the 
 earth, which melts with the efforts of the soldier and the 
 first eff*ect of the fires, extinguishes those fires and the 
 strength and courage of the men. 
 
 " When the fiame at length is raised, officers and 
 soldiers prepare around it their sad meal, composed of 
 lean and bloody fragments of flesh, torn from wornout 
 horses, and, for a very few, some spoonfuls of rye flour 
 diluted with snow-water. The next day soldiers, laid 
 stone-dead in circles, mark the bivouacs, and the ground 
 about them is strewed with the bodies of many thousand 
 horses. 
 
 " From this day, men began to reckon less upon each 
 
 JL 3
 
 230 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 other. In this army, lively, susceptible of all impres- 
 sions, and inclined to speculate from its advanced civili- 
 zation, disorder soon gained footing, discouragement and 
 insubordination spread rapidly, the imagination wander- 
 ing without bounds in evil as well as good. Hence- 
 forward at every bivouac, at every difficult passage, 
 some portion of the yet organized troops detached itself, 
 and fell into disorder. Yet there were some who resisted 
 this mighty contagion : they were the officers, subalterns, 
 and seasoned soldiers. These were extraordinary men ; 
 they encouraged themselves by repeating the name of 
 Smolensk, which they felt they were approaching, and 
 where everything had been promised to them. 
 
 "Thus since this deluge of snow, and the redoubled 
 cold which it announced, all, officers and soldiers alike, 
 preserved or lost their strength of mind, according to 
 their age, their character, and temperament. He of 
 our chiefs, whom till then we had seen the strictest in 
 maintaining discipline, now found himself no longer 
 in his element. Thrown out of all his fixed ideas of 
 regularity and method, he was reduced to despair by so 
 universal a disorder, and judging sooner than others 
 that all was lost, he felt himself ready to abandon all."* 
 
 The army quitted Smolensk in four divisions : that 
 under the command of the Emperor, which led the way, 
 marched on the 14th November. Ney, who throughout 
 this long retreat brought up the rear, who distinguished 
 himself amid its horrors by indomitable courage and con- 
 stancy, and was hailed by the general voice as the hero 
 of the army, remained behind until the 17th. On the 
 20th all were once more united at Oreza, after seven 
 days of almost continued fighting, in which nothing but 
 the sluggishness of the Russian general saved the French 
 from destruction, and Napoleon from captivity or death. 
 Opposed with fifteen thousand men, half starved and 
 half armed, to a force ti'cble that number, and in good 
 condition, the Russians must have overthrown him by 
 mere physical force, had they ventured upon a vigorous 
 attack ; but even in his distresses the presence of Napo- 
 * Seo-ur, ix. 1 1
 
 RETREAT FBOM MOSCOW 231 
 
 leon inspired awe. At no time do the brilliant qualities 
 of the French troops appear more conspicuous than in 
 this disastrous retreat : headed on all sides, inclosed by 
 an overwhelming force, every general outmanoeuvred or 
 cut his way through the enemy,* fortunate if it cost him 
 but half of his corps to preserve the remainder from the 
 disgrace of surrender. Between Smolensk and Oreza 
 the army was still further reduced to twelve thousand 
 men, who still preserved their arms and their discipline, 
 encumbered with thirty thousand stragglers, who griev- 
 ously increased its wants and its embarrassments, with- 
 out adding a single bayonet to its strength. 
 
 Hitherto its retreat had been unopposed, the Russian 
 army having been unwilling or unable to head the French 
 and compel them to force a passage by the sword ; and 
 being in possession of Oreza, it passed the river Dnieper 
 at that town without opposition. But Admiral Tchitcha- 
 goif, the general in command of the Moldavian army, 
 which was opposed to the Austrians on the south-eastern 
 end of the French base of operation, finding them slack 
 and unenterprising in the cause of an ally, or master 
 rather, to whom in truth they owed little good will, left 
 merely a division in the duchy of Warsaw to observe 
 their movements, and himself marched upon Minsk 
 and Borizoff, to cut off Napoleon's retreat. At the latter 
 town there was a bridge over the Beresina, the place it- 
 self being on the eastern bank, and on the possession of 
 the town and command of the bridge depended the means 
 of crossing that river. TchitchagofF however, owing to 
 some mistake of the French general opposed to him, had 
 taken that town, and though afterwards expelled, had 
 made the bridge impassable in his retreat. It was neces- 
 sary, therefore, to seek a passage elsewhere, and a place 
 above Borizoff, called Studzianka, was selected, where 
 the river was only fifty-five fathoms across. The chance 
 
 * During 'the whole retreat only one corps grounded arms 
 to the enemy, and that not until it was surrounded and cut 
 off from the main army, and reduced to extremity. This 
 occurred just before the passage of the Beresina.
 
 232 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 seemed desperate, for the opposite heights were occu- 
 pied by six thousand Russians, and bridges were to be 
 built, and the army was to defile across them under their 
 fire ; but desperate as it was, this seemed their only hope, 
 and Napoleon quitting the highway plunged into the 
 thick pine-woods which border the Beresina, to conceal 
 his march. The joy of the army may well be imagined, 
 when, in traversing these forests, they met the division 
 of Victor, of fifty thousand men, in good order, which 
 had been employed in checking Wittgenstein upon the 
 western flank. " They were ignorant of our disasters, 
 which had been carefully hidden even from their chiefs. 
 So that when, instead of a gi*and victorious column re- 
 turning from Moscow, they saw behind Napoleon no- 
 thing but a train of squalid sj)cctres, covered with rags, 
 with women's pelisses, pieces of carpet, or squalid cloaks 
 scorched red and burnt into holes by the fires, their feet 
 wrapped up in tatters of all sorts, they stopped in terror. 
 They saw with aftright these poor fleshless soldiers file 
 past, with faces like the grave, bristled with ghastly 
 beards, without arms, without shame, marching in dis- 
 order with downcast heads, eyes fixed on the earth, and 
 silent like a troop of captives."* So contagious was this 
 spectacle, that on the first day two corps of Victor's army 
 fell into the same state of disorganization. 
 
 Among other attempts to deceive TchitchagofF and 
 make him believe that a passage would be attempted 
 elsewhere, some Jews had been interrogated concerning 
 the passes of the river ; and to secure the breach of their 
 faith, they had been sworn to meet the army on the 
 Beresina, below Borizofi", with intelligence of the enemy. 
 The stratagem succeeded ; they carried a false report to 
 the Admiral, and he and Napoleon turned their backs 
 on each other, and while the latter marched up the river 
 to Studzianka, the former marched down it to a ford at 
 Oukoholda. All night the French laboured to construe t 
 a bridge, expecting momentarily the first salvo of the 
 Russian artillery. Napoleon passed a restless and 
 
 * Se;;ur, xi. 3
 
 RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. 233 
 
 agitated night in a chateau near the river, continually 
 repairing to the spot on which his last hope of escape 
 rested. At morning, when all were prepared for a 
 desperate and almost hopeless struggle, they were equally 
 astonished and delighted to see the Russian watch-fires 
 abandoned and the opposing force in full retreat. Napo- 
 leon would scarce believe the tidings, and when at 
 last convinced by the evidence of his own eyes, he 
 cried in transport, " Then I have outwitted the Ad- 
 miral."* 
 
 That day, November 26th, two bridges were com- 
 pleted, and the opposite bank was occupied by Ney. 
 Two days and two nights elapsed before the Russians 
 came up, but this valuable respite was lost, owing to the 
 breaking of the bridge for artillery, and the insubordina- 
 tion of the stragglers, which rendered it impossible to 
 force them across. On the night of the 26th they were 
 dispersed among the neighbouring villages ; on the 27th 
 men, horses, and carriages rushed in an overwhelming 
 mass, and choked the narrow entrance of the bridges : 
 all efforts to restore order were fruitless, and it was 
 necessary to employ force to clear a passage for the 
 Emperor. A corps of grenadiers of the Guard declined 
 from mere pity to open for themselves a way through 
 these wretches. On the approach of night another 
 simultaneous movement drove them all to seek shelter 
 in the village of Studzianka, which was torn down to 
 furnish materials for fires, from which they could not be 
 moved ; and thus another night was lost. 
 
 On the 28th, while Tchitcjaagoff on the right bank in 
 vain endeavoured to drive Ney back upon the bridges, 
 Wittgenstein, with vastly superior forces, attacked Victor, 
 who still remained on the left bank with 6000 men to 
 cover the retreat of his unhappy comrades. The first 
 thunder of the artillery drove this confused mass pell-mell 
 from their bivouacs to the bridge, and the first Russian 
 bullet which fell among them seemed the signal of dis- 
 
 * Segui', xi. 5.
 
 234 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 traction and despair. The horrors of the scene which 
 ensued are almost too great for description. The more 
 desperate forced a way sword in hand through the 
 crowd ; others, prompted by a horrible avarice, crushed 
 their fellow-creatures under their carriage- wheels, rather 
 than abandon the booty hitherto preserved with such 
 labour ; while those who felt themselves unequal to the 
 struggle sat apart in silence, their eyes fixed on the snow 
 which was soon to be their tomb. Once driven from 
 the direct passage, men struggled in vain to climb the 
 sides of the bridge ; they were mercilessly forced back 
 into the river : even women, their infants in their arms, 
 shared this fate. 
 
 In the midst of this disorder the bridge for artillery 
 broke, and all upon it, hurried on by the press, were 
 ingulfed in the stream. The shriek of the perishing 
 multitude rose high above the storm and the battle : a 
 witness of the scene declared that for weeks that horrible 
 sound never quitted his cars. Artillery and waggons 
 then poured to the other bridge, and on the steep and 
 icy bank whole ranks were prostrated under their wheels, 
 or crushed between their unmanageable weights. The 
 noise of the storm, the roaring of cannon, the combined 
 whistling of the wind and bullets, the bursting of shells, 
 the cries, the groans, the fearful imprecations of the 
 crowd, united in as horrible a concert as ever was pre- 
 sented to human cars. At nine at night Victor, who 
 till then had kept Wittgenstein in check, commenced 
 his retreat, and opened a dreadful passage through the 
 wretches whom he had hitherto defended. A rear-guard 
 was still left, and the bridges were allowed to stand that 
 night, but in vain ; men seemed to lose their reason with 
 their discipline, and to be stupified by the horrors of 
 their situation. The baggage and plunder, to which they 
 clung so obstinately, was burnt : still it was impossible to 
 drive them on. The next morning the French set fire 
 to the bridge, and numbers lost their lives in a final 
 eifort of despair, endca^'ouring to swim the icy river or 
 to cross upon the burning rafters. After the thaw,
 
 RETREAT FROM MOSCOW. 235 
 
 according to the Russian reports, 36,000 bodies were 
 found in the Beresina.* 
 
 The French, having forced back and defeated Tchitcha- 
 gofF, were now delivered from all immediate danger ; and 
 Napoleon, who had hitherto refused to quit the army, 
 hastened to Paris, where internal affairs called for his pre- 
 sence, leaving Murat his successor in command. From 
 this time forward the Russians, except Platoff and his 
 Cossacks, desisted from the pursuit ; but this alleviation 
 of their misfortunes was fully compensated by other evils. 
 A change had already taken place in the weather ; the 
 storms which had hitherto been experienced were suc- 
 ceeded by a still more dreadful calm. Icy needles were 
 seen floating in the air ; the very birds fell stiff and 
 frozen, everything possessing life or motion seemed con- 
 gealed by the intensity of cold. 
 
 " In this empire of death we passed on like unhappy 
 spirits. The dull, uniform sound of our march, the 
 crackling of the snow, the low groans of dying men, 
 alone broke this mighty melancholy silence. There 
 was no more anger, no more imprecations, nothing to 
 indicate a trace of heat ; strength scarce remained even 
 for prayer, and the majority fell even without complaint, 
 whether through weakness or resignation, or that men 
 only complain when they hope to move, and believe that 
 they are pitied. 
 
 * To get at the exact truth is no easy matter, even where 
 the means of ascertaining it seem most ample. General 
 Gourgaud, who also served in 1812, has published an ela- 
 borate criticism of the Comte de Segur's work, in which he 
 maintains that the difficulties and losses of the passage of 
 the Beresina have been excessively exaggerated, — that the 
 French had 250 guns, which commanded the opposite bank, 
 and 45,000 men under arms, — and that of, women and 
 children, whom Segur is always fond of introducing, there 
 were next to none. Throughout the narrative we have 
 followed Segur's account, as generally considered most 
 authoritative, though he seems fond of writing for effect, 
 and his accounts, as far as disparity of numbers in this latter 
 part of the retreat is concerned, are somewhat startling.
 
 236 HISTORICAL PARALLELS. 
 
 " In fact, when for an instant they stopped through 
 exhaustion, the winter laid her icy hand on them, and 
 seized them as her prey. It was in vain then that, feel- 
 ing themselves numbed, they arose, and speechless, 
 stupified, advanced some paces like automatons : the 
 blood freezing in their veins checked the beating of 
 their hearts, and thence rushed to the head ; then stricken 
 by death, they staggered like drunken men. Real tears 
 of blood dropped from their eyes, inflamed by the un- 
 varied glare of snow, by want of sleep, and by the smoke 
 of the bivouacs ; deep sighs burst from their breasts ; 
 they looked to heaven, to us, and to the earth with a 
 dismayed, fixed, and wild eye ; it was their last adieu, 
 perhaps a reproach to that savage nature which so 
 tormented them. Soon they dropped, on their knees 
 first, then on their hands ; their heads wandered still 
 some moments to right and left ; a few sounds of agony 
 escaped from the gasping mouth, which in its turn fell 
 on the snow, and reddened it with livid blood, and their 
 sufferings were over. 
 
 "Such were the last days of the grand army; its last 
 nights were still more dreadful. When surprised by the 
 dark at a distance from all dwellings, they stopped on 
 the border of same wood ; there they lighted fires, 
 before which they spent the night, upright and im- 
 moveable as spectres. Unable to get enough of heat, 
 they crowded so close to them, that their clothes and 
 even frozen portions of their bodies were burnt. Then 
 a horrible pain compelled them to enlarge their circle, 
 and on the morrow they endeavoured in vain to rise."* 
 
 We trace no further the details of suffering too great 
 for human endurance. Sixty thousand men are computed 
 to have crossed the Bcrcsina. Loison, with 15,000, 
 advanced from Wilna to meet and protect them ; he lost 
 12,000 by three days of frost. Other reinforcements 
 joined the retreat ; yet of this total, amounting fully to 
 80,000 men, there recrossed the Niemen but 20,000 
 stragglers, nine cannon, and 1000 infantry and cavalry 
 
 Segur, xii. 2.
 
 KETREAT TROM MOSCOW. 
 
 237 
 
 under arms, and the merit of preserving this remnant 
 belongs to Ney alone. Murat, to whom Napoleon at 
 his departure intrusted the command-in-chief, and other 
 marshals, had ceased to issue orders, or commanding, had 
 ceased to be obeyed : Ney alone retained some influence 
 and authority. Ever last in the retreat, with a rear- 
 guard sometimes of twenty men, he opposed a bold front 
 to his pursuers, and pre-eminently merited the title of 
 " bravest of the brave," when the tried valour of others 
 was changed into confusion and despair 
 
 Scott's summary of the total loss in the campaign runs 
 thus : — 
 
 Slain in battle 125,000 
 
 Died from fatigue, hunger, and) -.^^ qoo 
 
 the severity of the climate . . J ' 
 
 Prisoners, comprehending 48^ 
 
 generals, 3000 officers, andi 193,000 
 upwards of 190,000 soldiers] 
 
 450,000 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 London : Printed by W. Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.
 
 ( 239 ) 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 Battle between Theseus and a Centaur, from a design of 
 
 Flaxman 11 
 
 . 39 
 
 . ib. 
 
 . 114 
 
 . 152 
 
 . 153 
 
 . 189 
 
 . 189 
 
 Warrior, in the undress of the heroic age . 
 Head of Hercules, from a Camarinsean coin 
 Medal of Caligula ..... 
 Profile of the Emperor Paul . . • 
 Cosmo de' Medici, from a Florentine medal 
 Lorenzo de' Medici, from ditto . 
 Giuliano de' Medici, from ditto . • 
 Head of Napoleon, from the series of Napoleon medals 190 
 Medal struck by Napoleon after the retreat from Mos- 
 cow, from ditto 237 
 
 All the medals have been engraved from the originals pre- 
 served in the British Sluseum.
 
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