walls had been levelled, and most probably, from the poverty of the empire, not rebuilt during the dominancy of the Genoese at Pera. This may be supposed from a double reason to be the fact:-first, that, the Genoese being all powerful at sea, the sea wall was less necessary than many other repairs which the city required on the restoration of the Greeks; secondly, that no attempt on the part of the emperors to repair the fortifications on that side was likely to meet with the approval of their oppressive protectors; who naturally would wish to leave the city entirely at the mercy of their own flourishing colony at Pera. That such was the fact, may be inferred from the facility with which Roseo del Final landed his troops on the day of the contest within the walls. Almost all the characters are to be found in the Chronicle, with the exception of Melec the Koord, who is, of course, purely imaginary. I have now only to add, that, if the perusal of "The Almugavars" give as much pleasure to the reader as following out their " strange eventful history" has done to the writer, neither will have any reason to complain. THE AUTHOR. I have frequently made use of the word Cavalier in the following pages-more especially as applied to Ximenes. Ranke makes a distinction, perhaps a just one, between the words Knight and Cavalier, and seems to think that the latter superseded the former about the period of Charles the Fifth. I think, nevertheless, that any reader of the Spanish ballads will bear me out, that the term was applied to the Spanish gentleman and soldier in much earlier times. THE FORTUNES OF ROGER DE FLOR; OR THE ALMUGAVARS. CHAPTER I. MESSINA. "A king sat on the rocky brow And ships in thousands lay below, And men in nations. All were his : He counted them at the close of day, But when the sun rose where were they?" Byron. Ir was the close of a splendid day in the midautumn of 1302. Evening was falling fast over the lovely shores of Sicily, and Ætna threw its vast shadows almost to the bay of Messina ; which had all day long re-echoed to the sounds of military preparation. From shore to shore the harbour was crowded with vessels of every description, varying in size from the light shallop, carrying messages from one to the other, to the heavy troop ship of that day, with its high poop and higher forecastle, looking like a floating fortress. The greater number of craft that filled that crowded port were galleys; long low vessels, generally one hundred and twenty or one hundred and thirty feet in length, about eighteen broad, and nine or ten deep. They were furnished with two short masts, stepped well forward, each of which upon favourable occasions carried a huge latteen sail; but their more usual mode of progression was by oars. For this purpose they were furnished with twenty-five banks or benches, each bank for two oars, and each oar pulled by at least four men, generally slaves, and chained to the bench. The merchantships stood higher from the water, and having greater stowage were useful in carrying troops upon distant expeditions. The sun was fast declining, and his nearly level rays were reflected from the bright |