Norway with piratical descents, was at length defeated and banished by
Harold, king of Denmark. He fled for safety to the Scandinavian island
of Soderoe, where finding many outlaws and discontented fugitives, he
addressed their passions, and succeeded in placing himself at their
head. Instead of measuring his sword with his sovereign again, he
adopted the wiser policy of imitating his countrymen, in making his
fortune by plundering the more opulent places of southern Europe. The
first attempt of this powerful gang was upon England, where, finding
Alfred 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