uage to the Gallic colony. The first
leader of the Normans was Count Rainulf; and, in the origin of society,
preeminence of rank is the reward and the proof of superior merit.

Since the conquest of Sicily by the Arabs, the Grecian emperors had been
anxious to regain that valuable possession; but their efforts, however
strenuous, had been opposed by the distance and the sea. Their costly
armaments, after a gleam of success, added new pages of calamity and
disgrace to the Byzantine annals: twenty thousand of their best troops
were lost in a single expedition; and the victorious Moslems derided the
policy of a nation which intrusted eunuchs not only with the custody
of their women, but with the command of their men After a reign of two
hundred years, the Saracens were ruined by their divisions. The emir
disclaimed the authority of the king of Tunis; the people rose against
the emir; the cities were usurped by the chiefs; each meaner rebel
was independent in his village or castle; and the weaker of two rival
brothers implored the friendship of the Christians. In every service of
danger the Normans were prompt and useful; and five hundred _knights_,
or warriors on horseback, were enrolled by Arduin, the agent and
interpreter of the Greeks, under the standard of Maniaces, governor of
Lombardy. Before their landing, the brothers were reconciled; the union
of Sicily and Africa was restored; and the island was guarded to the
water's edge. The Normans led the van and the Arabs of Messina felt the
valor of an untried foe. In a second action the emir of Syracuse was
unhorsed and transpierced by the _iron arm_ of William of Hauteville.
In a third engagement, his intrepid companions discomfited the host of
sixty thousand Saracens, and left the Greeks no more than the labor of
the pursuit: a splendid victory; but of which the pen of the historian
may divide the merit with the lance of the Normans. It is, however,
true, that they essentially promoted the success of Maniaces, who
reduced thirteen cities, and the greater part of Sicily, under
the obedience of the emperor. But his military fame was sullied by
ingratitude and tyranny. In the division of the spoils, the deserts
of his brave auxiliaries were forgotten; and neither their avarice nor
their pride could brook this injurious treatment. They complained by
the mouth of their interpreter: their complaint was disregarded; their
interpreter was scourged; the sufferings were _his_; the