too powerful to be coped with, he stood over to the mouth of the
Seine, and availed himself of the state to which France was reduced.
Horolf, however, did not limit his ambition to the acquisition of booty;
he wished permanently to enjoy some of the fine countries he was
ravaging, and after many treaties made and broken, received the dutchy
of Normandy from the lands of Charles the Simple, as a fief, together
with Gisla, the daughter of the French monarch, in marriage. Thus did a
mere pirate found the family which in a few years gave sovereigns to
England, Naples, and Sicily, and spread the fame of their talents and
prowess throughout the world.

Nor was Europe open to the depredations of the northern pirates only.
Some Asiatic moslems, having seized on Syria, immediately invaded
Africa, and their subsequent conquests in Spain facilitated their
irruption into France, where they pillaged the devoted country, with but
few substantial checks. Masters of all the islands in the Mediterranean,
their corsairs insulted the coasts of Italy, and even threatened the
destruction of the Eastern empire. While Alexis was occupied in a war
with Patzinaces, on the banks of the Danube, Zachas, a Saracen pirate,
scoured the Archipelago, having, with the assistance of an able
Smyrniote, constructed a flotilla of forty brigantines, and some light
fast-rowing boats, manned by adventurers like himself. After taking
several of the surrounding islands, he established himself sovereign of
Smyrna, that place being about the centre of his newly-acquired
dominions. Here his fortunes prospered for a time, and Soliman, sultan
of Nicea, son of the grand Soliman, sought his alliance, and married his
daughter, about AD. 1093. But in the following year, young Soliman being
persuaded that his father-in-law had an eye to his possessions, with his
own hand stabbed Zachas to the heart. The success of this freebooter
shows that the Eastern emperors could no longer protect, or even assist,
their islands.

Maritime pursuits had now revived, the improvement of nautical science
was progressing rapidly, and the advantages of predatory expeditions,
especially when assisted and masked by commerce, led people of family
and acquirements to embrace the profession. The foremost of these were
the Venetians and Genoese, among whom the private adventurers,
stimulated by an enterprising spirit, fitted out armaments, and
volunteered themselves into the service of those nat