OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

171

derbeg died a fugitive at Lissus on the Venetianterritory . 11 His sepulchre was soon violated bythe Turkish conquerors; but the janizaries,whowore his bones enchased in a bracelet, declared,by this superstitious amulet, their involuntaryreverence for his valour. The instant ruin of hiscountry may redound to the hero’s glory; yet,had he balauced the consequences of submissionand resistance, a patriot perhaps would have de-clined the unequal contest, which must dependon the life and genius of one man. Scanderbeg might indeed be supported by the rational,though fallacious hope, that the pope, the kingof Naples, and the Venetian republic, would joinin the defence of a free and Christian people,whoguarded the sea coast of the Adriatic, and thenarrow passage from Greece to Italy . His in-fant son was saved from the national shipwreck ;the Castriots y were invested with a.Neapolitandukedom, and their blood continues to flow inthe noblest families of the realm. A colony ofAlbanian fugitives obtained a settlement in Ca-labria , and they preserve at this day the lan-guage and manners of their ancestors . 2

In the long career of the decline and fall ofthe Roman empire, I have reached at length the

* Spondanus , from the best evidence and the most rational criti-cism, has reduced the giant Scanderbeg to the human size (a. d. 1461,No. 20, 1463, No. 9, 1465, No. 12, 11, 1467, No. 1). His own letterto the pope, and the testimony of Pliranza (I. iii, c. 28), a refugee in theneighbouring isle of Corfu , demonstrate his last distress, which is awk-wardly concealed by Marinus Barletius (1. x).

r See the family of the Castriots, in Ducange (Fam. Dalmaticae, &c,xviii, p. 348-360).

* This colony of Albanese is mentioned by Sir. Swinburne (Travelsinlo the two Sicilies, vol. i, p. 350 354).

CHAP.

LXVII.

and death,A. d. 1467,Jan. 17.