45
XIV. SPIRITS OF THE AGE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
XV. THE MAN FROM CORSICA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
XVI. "GOD AND THE PEOPLE" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
XVII. "FOR ITALY AND VICTOR EMMANUEL!" . . . . . . . . . . 195
XVIII. THE THIRD NAPOLEON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
XIX. THE REFORMER OF THE EAST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
XX. THE HERO IN HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233

Illustrations

LEO TOLSTOY IN HIS BARE APARTMENTS
AT YASNAYA POLYANA (_Repin_). . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

DANTE IN THE STREETS OF FLORENCE (_Evelyn Paul_) . . . . . . . 22

THE LAST SLEEP OF SAVONAROLA (_Sir George Reid, P.R.S.A._) . . 60

PHILIP II PRESENT AT AN AUTO-DA-FE (_D. Valdivieso_) . . . . . 78

LAST MOMENTS OF COUNT EGMONT (_Louis Gallait_) . . . . . . . . 90

AN APPLICATION TO THE CARDINAL FOR HIS FAVOUR (_Walter Gay_) 124

FREDERICK THE GREAT RECEIVING HIS PEOPLE'S HOMAGE
(_A. Menzel_) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152

THE MEETING OF VICTOR EMMANUEL AND GARIBALDI (_Pietro Aldi_) 204

{9}

Heroes of Modern Europe

Chapter I

The Two Swords

In the fourth century after Christ began that decay of the Roman Empire
which had been the pride of the then civilized world. Warriors of
Teutonic race invaded its splendid cities, destroyed without remorse
the costliest and most beautiful of its antique treasures. Temples and
images of the gods fell before barbarians whose only fear was lest they
should die "upon the straw," while marble fountains and luxurious
bath-houses were despoiled as signs of a most inglorious state of
civilization. Theatres perished and, with them, the plays of Greek
dramatists, who have found no true successors. Pictures and statues
and buildings were defaced where they were not utterly destroyed. The
Latin race survived, forlornly conscious of its vanished culture.

The Teutons had hardly begun to impose upon the Empire the rude customs
of their own race when Saracens, bent upon spreading the religion of
Mahomet, bore down upon Italy, where resistance from watchtowers and
castles was powerless to check their cruel depredations. Norman
pirates plundered the shores of the Mediterranean and sailed up the
River Seine, {10} always winning easy victories. Magyars, a strange,
wandering rac