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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

and his dominions, to the will of the emperor; but he requested a truce oflive days to regulate the terms of his submission ; and it was universally be-lieved, that his secret liberality contributed to the success of this public nego-ciation. Instead of obstinately refusing whatever indulgence his enemy soearnestly solicited, the guilty, or the credulous Basiliscus consented to thefatal truce; and his imprudent security seemed to proclaim, that he alreadyconsidered himself as the conqueror of Africa. During this short interval, thewind became favourable to the designs of Genseric. He manned his largestships of war with the bravest of the Moors and Vandals; and they towed afterthem many large barks, filled with combustible materials. In the obscurity ofthe night, these destructive vessels were impelled against the unguarded andunsuspecting fleet of the Romans, who were awakened by the sense of theirinstant danger. Their close and crowded order assisted the progress of thefire, which was communicated with rapid and irresistible violence; and thenoise of the wind, the crackling of the flames, the dissonant cries of the soldiersand mariners, who could neither command, nor obey, increased the horror ofthe nocturnal tumult. Whilst they laboured to extricate themselves from thefireships, and to save at least a part of the navy, the gallies of Genseric assailedthem with temperate and disciplined valour; and many of the Romans whoescaped the fury of the flames, were destroyed or taken by the victoriousVandals. Among the events of that disastrous night, the heroic, or ratherdesperate, courage of John, one of the principal officers of Basiliscus, has re-scued his name from oblivion. When the ship, which he had bravely defended,was almost consumed, he threw himself in his armour into the sea, disdainfullyrejecting the esteem and pity of Genso, the son of Genseric, who pressed himto accept honourable quarter, and sunk under the waves ; exclaiming, with hislast breath, that he would never fall alive into the hands of those impious dogs.Actuated by a far different spirit, Basiliscus, whose station was the most remotefrom danger, disgracefully fled in the beginning of the engagement, returned toConstantinople with the loss of more than half of his fleet and army, and shel-tered his guilty head in the sanctuary of St. Sophia, till his sister, by her tearsand entreaties, could obtain his pardon from the indignant emperor. Heracliuseffected his retreat through the desert, Marcellinus retired to Sicily, where hewas assassinated, perhaps at the instigation of Ricimer, by one of his owncaptains, and the king of the Vandals expressed his surprise and satisfaction,

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