by throwing in arrows, stones, boiling water, and melted pitch; offensive arms, which the besieged, on their part, were not negligent in returning. With [Although the military art of these rude ages cannot be compared with the tactics of the Greeks and Romans, or even with the improved methods of warfare which the crusades gave rise to, there can be little doubt but that such as it was, the Scandinavians understood it as well, and probably better, than any people with whom they came in contact. They were not only unrivalled at sea, but, what is very remarkable, also excellent horsemen. They fought, in fact, equally well on foot, on horseback, and on board a vessel. In their naval engagements they generally lashed their vessels together, so as to form a floating rampart, with a row of shields placed along the sides of the ships for the protection of the combatants. Harald Hardráda, at the battle of Stamford Bridge, drew up his army much in the same manner as a general of the present day would do against an enemy superior in cavalry. both wings bent backwards until they met, the army formed an irregular square, in which Harald, with his chief officers, placed himself, beside his famous banner, called-very appropriately-the Land Ravager. The men stood close together, shield against shield, the first rank setting their spears on the ground, and the second holding theirs forward, thus forming a bristling rampart which the Anglo-Saxon cavalry tried in vain to break through*. The Scandinavians were probably also as well acquainted with the art of besieging towns as their contemporaries, although in their marauding expeditions they were generally unprovided with the engines necessary for carrying on a regular siege. We find, however, that when they invested Paris, in 886, they constructed a moveable platform, three stories high, on which they placed sixty men at arms, and brought it to bear against the tower of the bridge over the Seine, in which they attempted on the day following to make a breach with three battering rams +. Harald Hardráda, who commanded more disciplined troops than the leaders of these piratical bands, is said to have fought, during the ten years he was in the service of the Byzantine emperors, eighteen regular battles, and to have taken * Heimsk. ix. 92. † Depping, Liv. iii, ch. 1. eighty fortified places from the Saracens in Africa, besides several others in Sicily. He took one of these Sicilian towns by having recourse to a very singular expedient. The walls were so strong that he began to doubt whether it would be possible to make a breach in them, and the inhabitants had plenty of provisions and every thing that they required for their defence. Under these circumstances, Snorri informs us that "Harald ordered his fowlers to catch the small birds that nested in the town, and flew to the forest during the day in quest of food for their young. He then caused splinters of inflammable wood, smeared with wax and sulphur, to be fastened on their backs and enkindled. The birds, when set at liberty, flew immediately to their nests, under the roofs of the houses in the town, which were thatched with reeds and straw. The fire from the birds soon caught the thatch, and although each bird bore but a small quantity, their number was so great that one house after another began to burn until the whole town was in flames."* The inhabitants then came out and implored mercy, and Harald thus gained possession of the place, and increased his treasures by its plunder. During the siege of another of these Sicilian towns, Harald fell sick, and his sickness increased so rapidly that his life was despaired of. His men, knowing that the besieged had been informed by their spies of the dangerous state in which their commander lay, thought they might turn the circumstance to advantage, and gain possession of the town by a well-contrived stratagem. Demanding, therefore, a parley, they made known to the besieged that Harald was dead, and trusted that the clergy would allow his body to be brought into the town and buried with due solemnity. No proposal could have been more favourably listened to than this was by the churchmen. The burial of a wealthy and renowned prince was not an event of everyday occurrence, and large would be the sums, and costly the presents, they would receive for the due performance of their pious offices. Out accordingly they went, with cross and banner, shrine and reliquary, and found the Varangians ready to accompany them with a splendid coffin. Preceded by the monks and priests, chaunting their hymns and litanies, a chosen band of Varangians bore the coffin under a canopy of Heimsk. ix. 6. Olga, the widow of the Russian Scandinavian Czar Igor, is said to have set fire to a town by a similar expedient. the finest linen, and marched in solemn procession toward the town, but no sooner were they within the gateway than they set down the coffin right across the entrance, placed a bar to keep the gate open, drew their swords, and sounded to arms with their trumpets. The whole army, at this signal, rushed to the assault, soon made themselves masters of the town, and with the usual Scandinavian barbarity, massacred all the male inhabitants. The priests and monks, who had been so eager to offer their services, were in the worst plight, for the Varangians, says Snorri, "cut down every one around them, priest and layman, without distinction."* A somewhat similar story, though not mentioned in any of the Icelandic sagas, is told by the Norman chroniclers of the famous sea-king Hastings. This adventurer having heard of the wealth and splendour of the capital of the Christian world, entered the Mediterranean, about the year 857, with a fleet of one hundred vessels, and after plundering the coasts of Spain and Africa, and the Balearic Isles, appeared before the ancient Etruscan city of Luna †, which he mistook for Rome, when the inhabitants were celebrating the festival of Christmas. Finding the town well prepared for defence, Hastings had recourse to that perfidy which a Northman never scrupled to employ against an adversary. He accordingly sent some of his followers to inform the count and bishop that he had merely entered the port to repair his shattered fleet; and that being also weary of a sea-roving life, he was desirous of becoming a Christian, in order to find that repose in the bosom of the church which he had so long sighed for. Deceived by these fair words, the worthy bishop went to the camp of the Northmen and baptized Hastings. But although the Italians furnished their unwelcome visitors with provisions and other necessaries, they took care not to let them enter the city. Hastings, ever fertile in expedients, therefore pretended to be dangerously ill, and whilst his camp resounded with the lamentations of his followers, he made known his intention of leaving the rich booty he had acquired to the church, provided the bishop would allow him to be interred in one of the sacred edifices in the city. This was con *Heimsk. ix. 10. + Some traces of this ancient city are still discernible on the left bank of the Magra, near Carrara. ceded without much difficulty, and shortly afterward a chosen band of Northmen bore a coffin into the cathedral, supposed to contain the lifeless body of their chieftain. But no sooner had they set it down than Hastings started up, sword in hand, and killed without hesitation the poor bishop who had baptised him, whilst he was celebrating the sacred office at the altar for the repose of the soul of the remorseless sea-rover *. His followers then drew forth their concealed weapons, massacred all who were assembled in the cathedral, and made themselves masters of the city, which they set fire to, after committing their usual acts of ferocity. Hastings, we are told, then loaded his vessels with a rich booty, and set sail on his return home, not forgetting to take with him the handsomest women of Luna t. Although these stories of Harald and Hastings have no historical value, the events narrated are quite in accordance with the character of the Northmen, and may perhaps have actually. taken place. All that we know with certainty, however, is, that Harald took several towns in Sicily, and that the city of Luna was destroyed in the middle of the ninth century, by a band of Norman sea-rovers; a fact which is attested by several Italian writers as well as by the Norman chroniclers.] * The Norman Trouvère Benoit, in his rhymed Chronicle of the Dukes of Normandy, says t "E Hastenc est en pez sailli, Enz en sun poin s'espée nue Depping, Liv. ii. ch. 3. CHAPTER IX. OF THE MARITIME EXPEDITIONS OF THE ANCIENT How formidable soever the ancient Scandinavians were by land to most of the inhabitants of Europe, it must yet be allowed that their maritime expeditions occasioned still more destructive ravages and greater terror. We cannot read the history of the eighth, the ninth and the tenth centuries, without observing with surprise the sea covered with their vessels, and from one end of Europe to the other, the coasts of those countries, now the most powerful, a prey to their depredations. During the space of two hundred years, they almost incessantly ravaged England, and frequently subdued it. They often invaded Scotland and Ireland, and made incursions on the coasts of Livonia, Courland and Pomerania. Already feared, before the time of Charlemagne, they became still more terrible as soon as this great monarch's eyes were closed. He is known to have shed tears on hearing that these barbarians had, on some occasion, defied his name, and all the precautions he had made to oppose them. He foresaw what his people would suffer from their courage under his feeble successors. And never was presage better grounded. They soon spread, like a devouring flame, over Lower Saxony, Friesland, Holland, Flanders, and the banks of the Rhine as far as Mentz. They penetrated into the heart of France, having long before ravaged the coasts; they everywhere found their way up the Somme, the Seine, the Loire, the Garonne and the Rhone. Within the space of thirty years, they frequently pillaged and burnt Paris, Amiens, Orleans, Poitiers, Bourdeaux, Toulouse, Saintes, Angoulême, Nantes, and Tours. They settled themselves in Camargue, at the mouth of the Rhone, from whence they wasted Provence and Dauphiny as far as Valence. In short, they ruined France, levied immense tribute on its monarchs, burnt the palace of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle, and, in conclusion, caused one of the finest provinces of the kingdom to be ceded to |