Charles the Bald, who had bought off the
former expedition with silver, bought off this one with gold, offering
the bold adventurer a bribe of six hundred and eighty-five pounds of the
precious metal, to which he added a ton and a half of silver, to leave
the country.
From France, Hasting set sail for Italy, where his ferocity was aided by
a cunning which gives us a deeper insight into his character. Rome, a
famous but mystical city to the northern pagans, whose imaginations
invested it with untold wealth and splendor, was the proposed goal of
the enterprising Norseman, who hoped to make himself fabulously wealthy
from its plunder. With a hundred ships, filled with hardy Norse pirates,
he swept through the Strait of Gibraltar and along the coasts of Spain
and France, plundering as he went till he reached the harbor of Lucca,
Italy.
As to where and what Rome was, the unlettered heathen had but the
dimmest conception. Here before him lay what seemed a great and rich
city, strongly fortified and thickly peopled. This must be Rome, he told
himself; behind those lofty walls lay the wealth which he so earnestly
craved; but how could it be obtained? Assault on those strong
fortifications would waste time, and perhaps end in defeat.
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