ar was torn away from the shrine of St. Peter;
and if the bodies or the buildings were left entire, their deliverance
must be imputed to the haste, rather than the scruples, of the Saracens.
In their course along the Appian way, they pillaged Fundi and besieged
Gayeta; but they had turned aside from the walls of Rome, and by their
divisions, the Capitol was saved from the yoke of the prophet of Mecca.
The same danger still impended on the heads of the Roman people; and
their domestic force was unequal to the assault of an African emir. They
claimed the protection of their Latin sovereign; but the Carlovingian
standard was overthrown by a detachment of the Barbarians: they
meditated the restoration of the Greek emperors; but the attempt was
treasonable, and the succor remote and precarious. [86] Their distress
appeared to receive some aggravation from the death of their spiritual
and temporal chief; but the pressing emergency superseded the forms
and intrigues of an election; and the unanimous choice of Pope Leo the
Fourth [87] was the safety of the church and city. This pontiff was born
a Roman; the courage of the first ages of the republic glowed in his
breast; and, amidst the ruins of his country, he stood erect, like one
of the firm and lofty columns that rear their heads above the fragments
of the Roman forum. The first days of his reign were consecrated to the
purification and removal of relics, to prayers and processions, and to
all the solemn offices of religion, which served at least to heal the
imagination, and restore the hopes, of the multitude. The public defence
had been long neglected, not from the presumption of peace, but from the
distress and poverty of the times. As far as the scantiness of his means
and the shortness of his leisure would allow, the ancient walls were
repaired by the command of Leo; fifteen towers, in the most accessible
stations, were built or renewed; two of these commanded on either side
of the Tyber; and an iron chain was drawn across the stream to impede
the ascent of a hostile navy. The Romans were assured of a short respite
by the welcome news, that the siege of Gayeta had been raised, and that
a part of the enemy, with their sacrilegious plunder, had perished in
the waves.

[Footnote 86: One of the most eminent Romans (Gratianus, magister
militum et Romani palatii superista) was accused of declaring, Quia
Franci nihil nobis boni faciunt, neque adjutorium praebent, sed magis
qua