gencies, their warriors were so conscious of their ignorance, that
they chose to dismount from their horses and fight on foot. Unpractised
in the use of pikes, or of missile weapons, they were encumbered by
the length of their swords, the weight of their armor, the magnitude of
their shields, and, if I may repeat the satire of the meagre Greeks, by
their unwieldy intemperance. Their independent spirit disdained the
yoke of subordination, and abandoned the standard of their chief, if
he attempted to keep the field beyond the term of their stipulation
or service. On all sides they were open to the snares of an enemy less
brave but more artful than themselves. They might be bribed, for the
Barbarians were venal; or surprised in the night, for they neglected the
precautions of a close encampment or vigilant sentinels. The fatigues of
a summer's campaign exhausted their strength and patience, and they sunk
in despair if their voracious appetite was disappointed of a plentiful
supply of wine and of food. This general character of the Franks was
marked with some national and local shades, which I should ascribe to
accident rather than to climate, but which were visible both to natives
and to foreigners. An ambassador of the great Otho declared, in the
palace of Constantinople, that the Saxons could dispute with swords
better than with pens, and that they preferred inevitable death to the
dishonor of turning their backs to an enemy. [92] It was the glory of
the nobles of France, that, in their humble dwellings, war and rapine
were the only pleasure, the sole occupation, of their lives. They
affected to deride the palaces, the banquets, the polished manner of the
Italians, who in the estimate of the Greeks themselves had degenerated
from the liberty and valor of the ancient Lombards. [93]

[Footnote 90: In the xviiith chapter of his Tactics, the emperor Leo
has fairly stated the military vices and virtues of the Franks
(whom Meursius ridiculously translates by Galli) and the Lombards
or Langobards. See likewise the xxvith Dissertation of Muratori de
Antiquitatibus Italiae Medii Aevi.]

[Footnote 91: Domini tui milites (says the proud Nicephorus) equitandi
ignari pedestris pugnae sunt inscii: scutorum magnitudo, loricarum
gravitudo, ensium longitudo galearumque pondus neutra parte pugnare
cossinit; ac subridens, impedit, inquit, et eos gastrimargia, hoc est
ventris ingluvies, &c. Liutprand in Legat. p. 480 481]

[Footnote 92: I