n unguarded moment, Manuel affected to despise, while his
martial spirit, and the forces of the empire, were awakened to revenge.
The Archipelago and Ionian Sea were covered with his squadrons and those
of Venice; but I know not by what favorable allowance of transports,
victuallers, and pinnaces, our reason, or even our fancy, can be
reconciled to the stupendous account of fifteen hundred vessels, which
is proposed by a Byzantine historian. These operations were directed
with prudence and energy: in his homeward voyage George lost nineteen of
his galleys, which were separated and taken: after an obstinate defence,
Corfu implored the clemency of her lawful sovereign; nor could a ship, a
soldier, of the Norman prince, be found, unless as a captive, within
the limits of the Eastern empire. The prosperity and the health of Roger
were already in a declining state: while he listened in his palace of
Palermo to the messengers of victory or defeat, the invincible Manuel,
the foremost in every assault, was celebrated by the Greeks and Latins
as the Alexander or the Hercules of the age.

Chapter LVI: The Saracens, The Franks And The Normans.--Part V.

A prince of such a temper could not be satisfied with having repelled
the insolence of a Barbarian. It was the right and duty, it might be
the interest and glory, of Manuel to restore the ancient majesty of the
empire, to recover the provinces of Italy and Sicily, and to chastise
this pretended king, the grandson of a Norman vassal. The natives of
Calabria were still attached to the Greek language and worship, which
had been inexorably proscribed by the Latin clergy: after the loss of
her dukes, Apulia was chained as a servile appendage to the crown of
Sicily; the founder of the monarchy had ruled by the sword; and his
death had abated the fear, without healing the discontent, of his
subjects: the feudal government was always pregnant with the seeds of
rebellion; and a nephew of Roger himself invited the enemies of his
family and nation. The majesty of the purple, and a series of Hungarian
and Turkish wars, prevented Manuel from embarking his person in the
Italian expedition. To the brave and noble Palaeologus, his lieutenant,
the Greek monarch intrusted a fleet and army: the siege of Bari was his
first exploit; and, in every operation, gold as well as steel was the
instrument of victory. Salerno, and some places along the western
coast, maintained their fidelity to the Norma