the countless treasures which five centuries of rapine had accumulated round the capitol had become the prey of men clothed in sheepskins and horse hide and the sister of an emperor had found her beauty virtue and pride of race worthily matched by those of the hard handed northern hero who led her away from italy as his captive and his bride to found new kingdoms in south france and spain and to drive the newly arrived vandals across the straits of gibraltar into the then blooming coast land of northern africa