They requested leave to retire; their request was proudly rejected by the Italian king; and the lives of twenty thousand Christians paid the forfeit of his obstinacy and rashness. Among the cities of the West, the royal Pavia was conspicuous in fame and splendor; and the preeminence of Rome itself was only derived from the relics of the apostles. The Hungarians appeared; Pavia was in flames; forty-three churches were consumed; and, after the massacre of the people, they spared about two hundred wretches who had gathered some bushels of gold and silver (a vague exaggeration) from the smoking ruins of their country. In these annual excursions from the Alps to the neighborhood of Rome and Capua, the churches, that yet escaped, resounded with a fearful litany: "O, save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hungarians!" But the saints were deaf or inexorable; and the torrent rolled forwards, till it was stopped by the extreme land of Calabria. ^33 A composition was offered and accepted for the head of each Italian subject; and ten bushels of silver were poured forth in the Turkish camp. But falsehood is the natural antagonist of violence; and the robbers were defrauded both in the numbers of the assessment and the standard of the metal. On the side of the East, the Hungarians were opposed in doubtful conflict by the equal arms of the Bulgarians, whose faith forbade an alliance with the Pagans, and whose situation formed the barrier of the Byzantine empire. The barrier was overturned; the emperor of Constantinople beheld the waving banners of the Turks; and one of their boldest warriors presumed to strike a battle-axe into the golden gate. The arts and treasures of the Greeks diverted the assault; but the Hungarians might boast, in their retreat, that they had imposed a tribute on the spirit of Bulgaria and the majesty of the Caesars. ^34 The remote and rapid operations of the same campaign appear to magnify the power and numbers of the Turks; but their courage is most deserving of praise, since a light troop of three or four hundred horse would often attempt and execute the most daring inroads to the gates of Thessalonica and Constantinople. At this disastrous aera of the ninth and tenth centuries, Europe was afflicted by a triple scourge from the North, the East, and the South: the Norman, the Hungarian, and the Saracen, sometimes trod the same ground of desolation; and these savage foes might have been compared by Homer to the two lions growling over the carcass of a mangled stag. ^35
[Footnote 30: See Katona, Hist. Ducum Hungar. p. 321 - 352.]
[Footnote 31: Hungarorum gens, cujus omnes fere nationes expertae saevitium &c., is the preface of Liutprand, (l. i. c. 2,) who frequently expatiated on the calamities of his own times. See l. i. c. 5, l. ii. c. 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7; l. iii. c. 1, &c., l. v. c. 8, 15, in Legat. p. 485. His colors are glaring but his chronology must be rectified by Pagi and Muratori.]
[Footnote 32: The three bloody reigns of Arpad, Zoltan, and Toxus, are critically illustrated by Katona, (Hist. Ducum, &c. p. 107 - 499.) His diligence has searched both natives and foreigners; yet to the deeds of mischief, or glory, I have been able to add the destruction of Bremen, (Adam Bremensis, i. 43.)]
[Footnote 33: Muratori has considered with patriotic care the danger and resources of Modena. The citizens besought St. Geminianus, their patron, to avert, by his intercession, the rabies, flagellum, &c.
Nunc te rogamus, licet servi pessimi, Ab Ungerorum nos defendas jaculis.
The bishop erected walls for the public defence, not contra dominos serenos, (Antiquitat. Ital. Med. Aevi, tom. i. dissertat. i. p. 21, 22,) and the song of the nightly watch is not without elegance or use, (tom. iii. dis. xl. p. 709.) The Italian annalist has accurately traced the series of their inroads, (Annali d' Italia, tom. vii. p. 365, 367, 398, 401, 437, 440, tom. viii. p. 19, 41, 52, &c.)]
[Footnote 34: Both the Hungarian and Russian annals suppose, that they besieged, or attacked, or insulted Constantinople, (Pray,