(^30) THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
arrival loosened the limbs and loins of the population and sent their
leaders, including their spiritual guides, in headlong flight, carrying
their movable wealth with them. The clerics did leave their parish
ioners some newly composed prayers for protection by the Almighty,
but the altar was not a good refuge, for the Vikings knew where the
plunder lay and headed straight for churches and casdes.
Also coming from the sea, across the Mediterranean, were Saracens
(Moors), who set up mountain bases in the Alps and on the Côte
d'Azur, and went out from these to raid the trade routes between
northern and southern Europe. These fastnesses, hard of access and yet
linked to Muslim lands by the sea, were inexpugnable, and folk legend
has it that to this day some villagers in the high Alps carry the color and
appearance of their Maghrébin origins.
Finally, from the east overland, but highly mobile for all that, rode
the Magyars or Hungarians, one more wave of invaders from Asia, pa
gans speaking a Ural-Altaic language (a distant cousin of Turkish),
sweeping in year after year, choosing their targets by news of European
dissensions and dynastic troubles, swift enough to move in a single
campaign from their Danubian bases into eastern France or the foot of
Italy. Unlike the Norsemen, who were ready to settle into base camps
for a period of years, the better to hunt and find, or who even estab
lished themselves quasi-permanently as rulers in part of England, in
Normandy (which took their name), and in Sicily, the Hungarians
went out and back, hauling their booty and slaves along with them in
wagons or on pack animals.
No one will submit to that kind of abuse indefinitely. The Europeans
learned to counter these thrusts, with or without the help of their lead
ers, who were only too quick to make their own deals with the invaders
on the backs of their peasants. Instead of trying to keep the Norsemen
out, the villagers let them in, trapped them, fell on them from all
sides.* The Hungarians, too swift to deal with when they came in,
were slow going out; a few ambushes of the overproud, overloaded
trains convinced them that there must be better ways to make a living.
As for the Saracens, the solution lay, as in Muslim lands, in military es
corts for mule and wagon trains (caravans). In short, the Europeans
raised the price of aggression. In all these instances, ironically, the Eu
ropeans were assisted by enemy headquarters. Over the years, the
northern tribes and the Hungarian invaders settled down and became
- This is the theme of, though not the inspiration for, the film The Magnificent Seven.
Comparable situations lead to comparable tactics.