tyled by the more early of the
French writers. It came flying through the air, says Joinville, like a
winged long-tailed dragon, about the thickness of a hogshead, with the
report of thunder, and the velocity of lightning; and the darkness of
night was _dispelled by this deadly illumination_."--_Hist. Rome_, vol.
III., pp. 465-467.

Its use is thus described by the same author, when the Greeks turned its
power against the Saracens, at the siege of Constantinople, A. D. 718:

"The Greeks would gladly have ransomed their religion and empire, by a
fine or assessment of a piece of gold on the head of each inhabitant of
the city; but the liberal offer was rejected with disdain, and the
presumption of Moslemah was exalted by the speedy approach and invincible
force of the natives of Egypt and Syria. They are said to have amounted to
eighteen hundred ships: the number betrays their inconsiderable size; and
of the twenty stout and capacious vessels, whose magnitude impeded their
progress, each was manned with no more than one hundred heavy-armed
soldiers. This huge armada proceeded on a smooth sea and with a gentle
gale, towards the mouth of the Bosphorus; the surface of the strait was
over-shadowed, in the language of the Greeks, with a moving forest, and
the same fatal night had been fixed by the Saracen chief for a general
assault by sea and land. To allure the confidence of the enemy, the
emperor had thrown aside the chain that usually guarded the entrance of
the harbor: but while they hesitated whether they should seize the
opportunity or apprehend the snare, the ministers of destruction were at
hand. The fireships of the Greeks were launched against them: the Arabs,
their arms and vessels, were involved in the same flames, the disorderly
fugitives were dashed against each other, or overwhelmed in the waves; and
I no longer find a vestige of the fleet, that had threatened to extirpate
the Roman name."--_Ib._, p. 464.

It deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by its miracles. This deception
resulted in the creation of:

The Image of the Beast.

"And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the wild
beast, that the image of the wild beast should even speak, and to
cause, that as many as would not worship the image of the wild
beast, should be killed. And he causeth all, the small and the
great, and the rich and the poor, and the free and the bond, to
receive a mark on their rig