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elector, voting first, in 1824, for Henry Clay as President, and John C. Calhoun as Vice President, and in 1844, for Mr. Clay and Mr. Frelinghuysen. The college of electors visited Mr. Clay in 1844, after their votes had been given, and Mr. Underwood delivered to him an address, having been selected for that purpose.

In a sketch like this, the different productions of Judge Underwood's mental labor cannot be noticed. To do so would extend this article far beyond the limits prescribed. It may be said, however, there is not an important political topic that has agitated Kentucky, or the people of the United States, since he entered public life, upon which he has not fully and freely delivered his opinions. The collection of his speeches and various addresses to his constituents, would, of themselves, form a large volume. His judicial opin

ions run through nine volumes of Reports, published by authority of the State of Kentucky.

Mr. Underwood has been twice married. First to Miss Eliza M. Trotter, of Glasgow, daughter of Mr. John Trotter, and granddaughter of the Rev. David Rice, a Presbyterian minister, who emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky in 1783. This lady died in 1835. During his Congressional service in the House of Representatives he was married the second time to Miss Elizabeth Cox, daughter of Colonel John Cox, of Georgetown, D. C.

In person, Judge Underwood is almost six feet high and well proportioned. He retains, to a remarkable degree, the vigor and elasticity of early manhood, and is one of the youngest looking men of his age in the United States.

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ADVENTURES AND CONQUESTS OF THE NORMANS IN ITALY,

DURING THE DARK AGES.*

THE narrative of the Icelandic historian, Snorro, in the Heimskringla, of the visit of King Sigurd the Palmer (Jorsala-far) to King Roger in Sicily, proves, that the Northmen at an early period had accustomed themselves to consider the Italian Normans as descendants of their own Scandinavian race. On that account the attention and researches of the Scandinavian historians have, during the last century and down to the present day, been directed to the achievements and conquests of the Normans in the South, although both those who participated in the emigrations to Italy, as well as those who followed William the Conqueror to England had already long ago adopted the Romanic, or French, language and

manners.

Ralph Ganger, who in the year 912 was invested with Neustria, and his companions, had married French women, and in the interval of two or three generations the Romanic, or French, element had nearly entirely superseded the Scandinavian. Even the Danish language, which certainly was the strongest memorial of the Scandinavial origin of the Normans, had already at the time of William Longsword, (932-943,) been so effectually supplanted by the French, that Benedict of More made the Duke of Normandy thus express himself in regard to the education of his son :

"Se à Roem le faz garder
Et norir gaires longement,
Il ne sara parler neient
Daneis; kar nul nel i parole.
Si voil kil seit à tele escole
Ke as Daneis sace parler.

Se ne serent neient forz romanz,

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Mer à Bajuez en a tanz,

Ki ne sevent parler se non Daneis
Et pur ço Sire quens Boton,
Voil ke vos l'aiez ensemble ad vos,
Et de li enseigner curios."

The great bulk of the Normans in France may thus be considered already at that time to have been essentially Romanized, yet it cannot be regarded as an accident, that Normandy happened to be that province of France from which the expeditions to Italy and England were undertaken. These expeditions were eminently called forth by the same ardent desire to acquire renown and dominion, which at an earlier period had inspired the roving Sea-kings of Scandinavia to brave the dangers of the ocean; they

were the last undulations of that immense

swell, which burst forth from the low shores of Denmark and the rocky coasts of Norway and Sweden. These wars, too, were undertaken by heroes, who fought in the true spirit of Old Scandinavia, and, as a Danish poet says, "who cleared the battle-field and terrified the dwarfs."

It is particularly the expeditions of the Normans to Italy, and their early conquests in Naples and Sicily, which so strongly remind us of their genuine Scandinavian spirit. This part of their history will perhaps the more attract our attention, as the chroniclers of Italy, who wrote their conquests and settlements, have chiefly dwelt upon the relations into which they soon entered with the Roman Pontiffs, and the wars which they carried on beyond the Adriatic against the Emperors of the Eastern Roman Empire.' Finally may be added, that many new and interesting features, highly illustrative of

*Views on the Emigrations from Normandy to Italy, and on the earliest Conquests of the Normans in Naples and Sicily, from the Danish of F. Schiern.

For this and the succeeding notes see the end of the article.

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this primitive history of the Italian Normans, have appeared a few years ago by the discovery of the Chronicle of a contemporary Benedictine Monk of the convent of Monte Casino, an outline of which we here present to our readers.'

In the beginning of the eleventh century the present kingdom of the Two Sicilies was dismembered in many parts. The Greek cities of Naples, Amalfi and Gaeta, had succeeded nearly in the same manner as Venice, in detaching themselves from the Eastern Roman Empire, and in gradually enlarging their dominion. The principalities of Benevento, Capua and Salerno, were then the only remains of the once powerful kingdom of the Longobards. Apulia and Calabria, the last possessions of the Byzantine Emperors in Italy, were governed by a Catapan, or viceregent, with a severity, the danger and folly of which the experience of centuries had not yet revealed. The Byzantine Catapan, the three Longobard princes, and the independent Greek dukes of Naples, Amalfi, and Gaeta, all aspired to the supremacy, and were thus continually involved in wars, which were carried on almost in the same manner as the ancient feuds between the early Romans and their neighbors; border forays into the territories of the enemy being undertaken during harvest, when the crops were burnt down and the cattle carried off. The poor inhabitants lamented, and expected their deliverance with an ardor, which, at the time, did not only proceed from the ordinary desire of innovation, but might be sufficiently explained by the havoc of endless wars, and the impossibility, at once, of satisfying the rapacity of seven ambitious rulers. To these grievances might be added the annual depredations of the Saracens, who, either as pirates or as auxiliaries of the Italian princes, crossed over from Sicily, landed on the coasts and pillaged the country.

Sicily had already for a long time. been exposed to the piratical descents of the Arabs, before they were invited as auxiliaries of the Greek general, Empedocles, in the year 826, during his rebellion against the Emperor Michael the Stammerer. They readily answered to this appeal. Has san Ben-el-Ferath landed on the island, and a bloody war commenced, which con

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tinued for nearly a century, and terminated with the conquest of Palermo and Syracuse by the Aglabites of Tunis, who changed the whole island into an Arabic province. An Emir was appointed governor, according to the custom of the Saracens, and Alcaldes had the subordinate command of the different cities and districts; yet the inhabitants retained their old rights and privileges, and soon acquired an affection for their victors on account of their just and creditable government, and unusually liberal views in religious matters. Beneath the mild sway of the Aglabites and Fatimites, a multitude of Arabic cities and castles rose in the island; excellent manufactures were established, and the rich soil cultivated on a hitherto unknown scale. The sugar-cane was transplanted from Egypt; manna from Persia, and cotton from Asia Minor; the olive tree was sedulously tended and propagated, all over the island. Commerce flourished; numbers of merchant vessels daily arrived or departed from the different Sicilian ports, laden with rich cargoes. The objects of magnificence and luxury which commerce brought together, served in part to embellish the Saracen castles, which were moreover enriched with the treasures and precious booty carried home by the corsairs from their predatory incursions into Italy."

Among these expeditions, which were undertaken with great regularity, and many of which are mentioned by the Italian annalists, few have been more remarkable than one which happened in the beginning of the eleventh century. In the year 1016 a large Saracen fleet departed from Sicily and sailed for the Italian coasts. The fleet entered the bay of Salerno, and anchored off the city. Here, a numerous host of Arabs disembarked, and encamped on a grassy plain between the city and the sea, and despising an enemy whom they had so often vanquished, they cared only for refreshment and repose. Gaimar the Great, at that time ruler of Salerno, had refused to pay the tribute, which the Salernitan princes were annually accustomed to pay the Saracens. But now, fearing to expose the country and city to depredation and destruction, he at last thought it necessary to yield to the demands of the Arabs, and had already

given orders to collect and send off the money, when forty tall and handsome pilgrims presented themselves before him. They had arrived the day before from Palestine in an Amalfitan ship, and were going to leave Italy and return to Normandy, their native country. They strenuously represented to Gaimar the impropriety of Christians paying tribute to infidels, an action unworthy of brave men, and requested him to furnish them with horses and arms to fight the Saracens. The Longobard prince, highly pleased with this generous proposal, granted their request; and, followed by the warriors of Gaimar, the Norman pilgrims fell suddenly upon the Arabs, numbers of whom perished, and the rest with difficulty saved themselves by swimming to their ships."

This was the first time that Lower Italy became acquainted with the Normans. Carried back triumphantly to the city, they received rich presents from the Prince of Salerno, who, with admiration, had witnessed their strength and prowess. Gaimar wished to persuade the pilgrims to remain in his service, but longing for their native country, from which they had been absent so long, they did not yield to his splendid promises, and returned to the North. Yet as they had told the prince that their country possessed men as valiant as themselves, "men who had been victors on every battle-field, and never turned their backs upon an enemy," he resolved to send ambassadors to Normandy, in order to invite the young warriors to come down to Italy. Nor did he execute this resolution without artifice: "like another Narses," as the old chronicler from Monte Casino says, "he ordered his envoys to present purple cloaks, bridles ornamented with precious stones, oranges, almonds and other southern fruits, which have always excited the avidity of the northern nations, and which did not fail now to inspire the young men with the ardent desire to become acquainted with the magnificence of the South."

The Italian ambassadors, on their arrival in Normandy, were astonished at what they saw there, all things were so different from what they hitherto had had an opportunity of observing. They found "on the outer edge of France a plain covered with trees and various fruits; in this limited region

lived in great numbers a tall and stout nation, who formerly had inhabited an island called Nora, and were therefore named Nor-mants, men from Nora; man signifying people, in the German language. And the population augmenting at such a rate, that neither the fields nor the trees were able any longer to yield the necessaries of life to so numerous a nation, they migrated to various parts of the world. Thus did these people depart from their native country, and abandon small things to acquire great; and they did not imitate others, who wander out into the world to serve strangers, but they were like the heroes of antiquity, and desired to subdue the nations and bring them beneath their sway.

At last the Normans arrived at the harbor formed by the river Seine, where it discharges itself in the sea. They ascended the river, and advancing into the country, discovered that it surpassed in beauty and fertility all the countries along the shores of which they hitherto had sailed. They then conquered this fine region, which has numerous rivers abounding with fish, and immense forests, and is as proper for hawking as convenient for agriculture and cattle-breeding. Such was the country. As to the people, it possesses great cunning and ability; it shows hospitality to foreigners, takes bloody vengeance at all affronts, and devotes itself with zeal to eloquence and learning. The chieftains are fond of arms and fighting, and often encourage the youth, who, like the whole race, are covetous of gain and glory, to abandon their home and go abroad to foreign regions, where there is a prospect of acquiring greater wealth. They all delight to ride on noble steeds, to go hunting and hawking,' to wear beautiful armor and costly dresses;-but in the hour of trial they can endure with incredible fortitude the inclemency of every climate, and all the dangers and hardships of a military life."

The forty Norman pilgrims on their return had related what they had seen and heard on their long wanderings, the dangers they had encountered, the heroic deeds they had achieved, and the precious gifts they had received. Thus they had already excited the desire of many to try the same fortune, and when the messen

gers

It has generally been assumed, that the Normans went by sea from Normandy through the strait of Gibraltar," to Italy, and this opinion is upon the whole not without probability. Those authors who remembered that the Normans had arrived in Neustria with numerous fleets, and that they, after their final settlement in Normandy, for centuries continued to nourish the predilection of their ancestors for a sea-faring life and the dangers of the deep, were easily tempted to suppose that the migrations of the Norman warriors to Italy were undertaken in the same manner as the former expeditions from the Baltic to France. Others, who knew something about the fortunes of the Normans in Italy, were at a loss, except by adopting this opinion, to account for the sudden appearance of so many ships, with which the Normans, a short time after their first descent into Italy, were swarming along the coasts of Calabria and Sicily. To this may still be added, that the sources of their history generally express themselves so very indistinctly, that in many places it is nearly impossible to distinguish if the travels were undertaken by land or by water. This is for instance the case in Aimé, the chronicler from Monte Casino, where he mentions the migration of William, Drogo, and Humfrey. Nor is Arnolfo of Milan, or William of Apulia, more clear in their relation of the expedition of those bands, who on the invitation of Rainulf departed from Normandy for Apulia. Jeffrey (Galfridus) Malaterra repeatedly speaks of the wanderings of the eldest sons of Tancred, of Robert Wiscard and Roger the Generous, without any indication of the direction of their route; and this is generally the case too with William of Jumièges and Ordelicus Vitalis.

of Gaimar returned to Italy, they not | the following year, 1017, on their march only were accompanied by several of those to Italy nearly at the same time when the Normans who at Salerno had fought the wild rovers of Scandinavia made their Saracens, but also by many others, bold last predatory descent upon the coasts of and valiant men. Among these were the France." brothers Asmund Drengot," Ralph, Rainulf, and Anquetil of Quarrel. A favorite of Duke Richard the Good, William Repostel, had in an assembly of high-born Normans boasted of having dishonored the daughter of Asmund, who, burning with revenge, sought and found a favorable moment to slay his enemy, while the latter, in company with the Duke, was hunting in one of the dense forests of Normandy. Asmund, fearing the resentment of the Duke, fled with his brothers to the Anglo-Saxons in England, whence he now returned to France in order to join the Salernitan ambassadors and leave his native country forever. Having overcome all the dangers and hardships which at that time were still inseparable from a journey through France and Italy, the envoys of Gaimar and their companions at last in safety reached the end of their wandering. In Salerno the greater part of the Normans remained in the military service of Gaimar; but Asmund and his brothers left the city again and went on a pilgrimage to Mount Gargano, where they intended to visit the sanctuary of Saint Michael," of high repute even in the far North, and to offer their thanks to the Saint for his protection during the misfortunes of their exile and toilsome wanderings. On the wood-clad summit of the mountain they met a stranger, dressed and armed in the Oriental style, with whom they became acquainted. It was Melo, a distinguished citizen of Bari, who a few years before had placed himself at the head of an insurrection against the Greeks, but being forced to flee, was now wandering about as an exile. Between him and the Normans so close an alliance was now formed on the summit of Mount Gargano, that Asmund Drengot and his brothers, instead of entering the service of the prince of Salerno, sent a message to their relations and friends in Normandy, requesting them to leave their home, and with Melo for their leader, to wage war against the wealthy but cowardly Greeks of Apulia. About three thousand Normans gladly accepted the offer, and were

Nevertheless, we do not hesitate here at once to contest and reject the opinion, that the Normans arrived in Italy by water, as inconsistent with distinct and clear evidence in the sources. By a closer investigation of the latter we find several of these expeditions mentioned in such a manner as to let us infer, that they were made by

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