HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

2S+

A fleet, consisting of seventy gallies, being equipped, was put under the ordersof George, the same naval commander who had led the former expeditionagainst the cities of Africa. Corfu surrendered without contest ; Corinth,Athens, Thebes, and the whole of Greece, felt the force, and experienced theravages of the Norman army. The expedition was productive of other stillmore extraordinary events : the first was the deliverance from captivity ofLewis the Seventh, king of France, who had been most basely intercepted bythe Greeks in his return by sea from an unfortunate crusade, but falling intothe hands of the Sicilian Normans, was treated with all possible respect due tohis high rank, and conveyed in safety to his own kingdom : the second,an insult offered by the Sicilian fleet to the city of Constantinople itself.What must have been the dismay and terror of the inhabitants, their emperorabsent, and themselves totally destitute as well of naval, as of military forcecapable of protecting them from the attacks of their enemies, when theybeheld a formidable line of hostile gallies anchoring in front of their city.Their enemy, however, had no serious intention of making any attack, nor wasthe fleet furnished with any means adequate to the purpose. The intention wasmerely that of affront and insult: for the Sicilian admiral contented himself withlanding a few soldiers, whose depredations were solely confined to the pettyplunder of fruits from the royal gardens, and the discharge of a few arrowstipped with silver, or, according to some authors, with gold, (though Mr. Gib-bon, in opposition to both opinions, rather wishes to believe they were headedwith wild-fire) against the imperial palace. This outrage, which was certainlyeffected in an unexpected moment, and consequently proved successful, bore theappearance of an unmanly, childish act of petulant mischief, much strongerthan the dignified attempt of a brave and gallant foe. The emperor accordinglyaffected to treat it with contempt, though at the same time he prepared to chas-tise and revenge it. The Archipelago and the Ionian sea are reported, in his-toric metaphor, to have been covered with the fleets of the empire, and theauxiliary squadrons of Venice : but the stated extent of their numbers, takenin the ao-ore°ate, can scarcely be reconciled to belief, when that account raisesthem to the enormous number of fifteen hundred gallies.

So comparatively inconsiderable a force as that of the Sicilian, would havebeen too ignoble a prey to have given birth to such expensive exertions ; andthe contracted success which crowned them, though it served as almost a death

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