66 It has often been known to happen, that whilst two persons were contending together, some ill-disposed rogue has come up, and seized anything he could get, belonging to either. Perhaps he has been invited by one party to assist him against the other. It is a fine opportunity for a thief; he can steal easily from men who are so busy in their strife, that they forget to attend to their property. The same thing has occurred sometimes with regard to nations. So it was with Carthage, which after long struggles, had at length become the capital of the Roman dominions in Africa. The governor of the African provinces revolted against his masters at home, and the Vandals made their profit of the occasion to establish their own power there. "In this case they had been invited by the people of Carthage to come to their succour,-they came, but it was to seize the country for themselves. From my height I looked down, and saw the Vandals exulting in their success, and in having gained a new territory of so much importace; but their exultation was not very long. The Romans were not content to allow them empire there; for many years they struggled with them. "At length I saw the last Vandal king reduced to the extremity of distress. He had usurped the throne from the usurpers—a double usurpation; now the Romans would drive him from it; they had already taken from him his capital and deprived him of his chief power. He sought refuge in the town called Medamus, at the top of the Pappuan mountain, and there the Roman officer Pharas, under the renowned General Belisarius, laid siege to him. "I often looked upon him, and his garrison, and the citizens of Medamus, and saw them suffer terrible distress; they were soon in want of provisions, and presently the want was so great, that they were almost famished, for the enemy at the foot of the mountain watched them closely and they could not obtain fresh supplies. The ascent of the Pappuan was, however, steep, and the position of the garrison at its summit strong, and they held out a long time. For three winter months I had seen them suffering much, but quite determined still to resist. Then Pharas wrote to King Gilimer, a letter as kind as a besieging general could address to the man whom he wished to subdue. In this epistle he invited him to yield. The king took the letter well, though he would not consent to surrender. I saw him indite his reply. The room was lighted by lamps, but I peeped in through a chink at the window, between the curtains. He wept; his officers were around him; some of them tried to persuade him to surrender; it was in vain, he refused to do so; but he begged Pharas as a generous enemy, to send him a loaf of wheaten bread, a sponge, and a lute— the loaf because he longed again to taste the bread which men who were free to go where they would, ate the sponge he needed, to bathe a tumour on his eye; and he asked for a lute, because, barbarian as he was, he loved music. He could play, and had made some verses on his own misfortunes, which he wished to set to music. The letter was despatched, and Pharas sent the unhappy king the things which he desired. "I then often saw him strike the lute, for it was when my silver baptism' was spread over the mountains and the town, that he most wished for music; it seemed to soothe his captivity. His sister was with him in his mountain fastness, and she too, loved to touch it; he would listen quite entranced, as she caused the soft sounds to float upon the moon-lit air. "One day I beheld a fearful scene, not soft and musical, but harsh and jarring. It was a strife between two young boys, one of whom was his sister's son. They fought savagely; blood flowed, and death might have followed, but that the king hearing the fray, went to see what was the matter. He separated the boys. What had they battled for? It was for a morsel of baked dough which lay upon the coals; one boy seized it and would have eaten it; but the other tried to obtain it, and at length forced it from him. Gilimer was so shocked at the dreadful hunger which his relations and friends endured, and at the savage and selfish dispositions to which it tempted them, that he wrote that night to Pharas, and told him he would surrender; and so D |