rd incident
may provoke a smile amidst the horrors of war. Theobald, marquis of
Camerino and Spoleto, [13] supported the rebels of Beneventum; and his
wanton cruelty was not incompatible in that age with the character of a
hero. His captives of the Greek nation or party were castrated without
mercy, and the outrage was aggravated by a cruel jest, that he wished
to present the emperor with a supply of eunuchs, the most precious
ornaments of the Byzantine court. The garrison of a castle had been
defeated in a sally, and the prisoners were sentenced to the customary
operation. But the sacrifice was disturbed by the intrusion of a frantic
female, who, with bleeding cheeks dishevelled hair, and importunate
clamors, compelled the marquis to listen to her complaint. "Is it thus,"
she cried, "ye magnanimous heroes, that ye wage war against women,
against women who have never injured ye, and whose only arms are the
distaff and the loom?" Theobald denied the charge, and protested that,
since the Amazons, he had never heard of a female war. "And how," she
furiously exclaimed, "can you attack us more directly, how can you wound
us in a more vital part, than by robbing our husbands of what we most
dearly cherish, the source of our joys, and the hope of our posterity?
The plunder of our flocks and herds I have endured without a murmur, but
this fatal injury, this irreparable loss, subdues my patience, and calls
aloud on the justice of heaven and earth." A general laugh applauded her
eloquence; the savage Franks, inaccessible to pity, were moved by
her ridiculous, yet rational despair; and with the deliverance of the
captives, she obtained the restitution of her effects. As she returned
in triumph to the castle, she was overtaken by a messenger, to inquire,
in the name of Theobald, what punishment should be inflicted on her
husband, were he again taken in arms. "Should such," she answered
without hesitation, "be his guilt and misfortune, he has eyes, and a
nose, and hands, and feet. These are his own, and these he may deserve
to forfeit by his personal offences. But let my lord be pleased to spare
what his little handmaid presumes to claim as her peculiar and lawful
property." [14]

[Footnote 9: Calabriam adeunt, eamque inter se divisam reperientes
funditus depopulati sunt, (or depopularunt,) ita ut deserta sit velut in
diluvio. Such is the text of Herempert, or Erchempert, according to the
two editions of Carraccioli (Rer. Italic. Sc