vais, are again transmuted into gold.]

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.--Part V.

A prince of such a temper could not be satisfied with having repelled
the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and duty, it might be
the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the ancient majesty of the
empire, to recover the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastise
this pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal. [112] The natives
of Calabria were still attached to the Greek language and worship, which
had been inexorably proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss of
her dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of
Sicily; the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his
death had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of his
subjects: the feudal government was always pregnant with the seeds of
rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the enemies of his
family and nation. The majesty of the purple, and a series of Hungarian
and Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from embarking his person in the
Italian expedition. To the brave and noble Palaeologus, his lieutenant,
the Greek monarch intrusted a fleet and army: the siege of Bari was his
first exploit; and, in every operation, gold as well as steel was the
instrument of victory. Salerno, and some places along the western
coast, maintained their fidelity to the Norman king; but he lost in
two campaigns the greater part of his continental possessions; and the
modest emperor, disdaining all flattery and falsehood, was content
with the reduction of three hundred cities or villages of Apulia and
Calabria, whose names and titles were inscribed on all the walls of
the palace. The prejudices of the Latins were gratified by a genuine or
fictitious donation under the seal of the German Caesars; [113] but
the successor of Constantine soon renounced this ignominious pretence,
claimed the indefeasible dominion of Italy, and professed his design of
chasing the Barbarians beyond the Alps. By the artful speeches, liberal
gifts, and unbounded promises, of their Eastern ally, the free cities
were encouraged to persevere in their generous struggle against the
despotism of Frederic Barbarossa: the walls of Milan were rebuilt by the
contributions of Manuel; and he poured, says the historian, a river
of gold into the bosom of Ancona, whose attachment to the Greeks was
fortified by the jealous enmity of the Venetians.