o our hands. The Tyrant,
distrusting the fidelity of the citizens and the broken walls, had
prudently removed the royal treasure of the Vandals from the citadel of
Carthage, and placed it on a ship. He ordered Bonifacius, his private
secretary, in case the victory of the Vandals seemed uncertain, to sail
to Hispania to Theudis, the King of the Visigoths, with whom, if the
kingdom fell, Gelimer intended to seek refuge, perhaps with the
expectation of recovering the treasure by the aid of the Visigoths.

A violent storm drove the ship back into the harbor of Hippo, just
after Belisarius had occupied it. The treasure of the Vandals, gathered
by Genseric from the coasts and islands of three seas, will go into the
hands of the imperial pair at Constantinople. Theodora, your piety is
profitable!

Yet no; the royal treasure of the Vandals will not reach Constantinople
absolutely intact. And this is due to a singular circumstance, which is
probably worth relating. Perhaps, too, I may mention the thoughts which
the incident aroused in my mind. Of all the nations of whom I have any
knowledge, the Germans are the most foolish: these fair-haired giants
blindly follow their impulses and run to open ruin. True, these
impulses and delusions are in a measure honorable--for Barbarians. But
the excess, the fury with which they obey their impulses, must ruin
them, aided by their so-called virtues. "Heroism," as they term it,
they carry to the sheerest absurdity, even to contempt of death,
keeping their promises from mere obstinacy; for instance, when, in the
blind excitement of gambling, they stake their own liberty on the last
throw. They call this fidelity. Sometimes they manifest the most
diabolical craftiness, yet they often carry truthfulness to actual
self-destruction, when a neat little lie, a slight, clever manipulation
of the bald truth, or even a calm silence would surely save them. All
this is by no means rooted in a sense of duty, but in their tameless
pride, in arrogance, in defiance; and they call it honor. The key of
all their actions, their final unspoken motive is this: "Let none
think, far less be able to say, that a German does or fails to do
anything because he fears any man, or any number of men; he would
rather rush to certain death." Therefore, no matter what any one of
these stubborn fools may have set his heart upon, to go to destruction
for it is "heroic," "honorable." True, they often set their hearts on
their