chief of the Visigoths, caring more for the safety of his own tribe than for the welfare of the entire Gothic nation, had taken up on the banks of the Danube a position which offered great facilities of defence, and which he strongly fortified. The warlike astuteness of the Huns, however, deceived the watchfulness of Athanaric's warriors. The Huns had led their adversaries to believe that they would attack them on the bank of the river; but, instead of doing so, a powerful division of horsemen forded the Danube by moonlight and took the Visigoths in rear. It was with the greatest difficulty that their leader cut his way through his enemies and managed to retreat to the mountains. Here the undaunted Athanaric had already devised a fresh and skilful mode of defensive warfare, and would probably have prevented the devastating invasions of the Huns had he not been forced to give up its execution by the cowardly impatience of his people, who did not think themselves safe till they had passed to the other bank of the Danube. His plan seems to have been to carry on a sort of mountain warfare, and it would have been next to impossible for the Huns to operate against him with any chance of success, on account of their want of knowledge of the country, coupled with the fact that the greater and best part of their army consisted of horsemen, who would have here been perfectly useless. A separation of the Visigoths now took place. Athanaric, at the head of a few of his most devoted followers, retired into the mountainous districts of Transylvania, whilst the greater part, under the command of Fritiger and Alavius, hastened to implore the protection of the Byzantine Emperor Valens. The immense extent of country over

1 In 376 we find those two leaders proceeding to Adrianopol in quest of the assistance which the Roman Emperor had promised them. But it seems that they not only did not receive any help in men or money, but the Roman commissioners did not give them sufficient provisions to supply their daily

which the Huns and the Alani held sway, the distance of the tribes from each other, and the power which each of the chiefs possessed, joined with their mutual jealousy, prevented their coming to any settled plan with reference to a united advance into Europe. Some of the tribes, induced by the promises of Fritiger, fought together with the Visigoths against the Romans, and their excellent cavalry successfully supported the efforts of the Gothic infantry. The part which they now played was a very inferior one. Their victorious hordes ruled over that vast extent of land which lies between the Volga and the Danube, but their power was split in two by the quarrels of their independent leaders. Their valour was spent in insignificant predatory excursions, and their national dignity was greatly diminished by the fact that from mere desire for booty they often joined the standards of their conquered enemies. Thus, as we have before said, several tribes, under Huldin, joined Alaric, King of the Visigoths, and forced the Romans to abandon to their possession certain territories, whilst others became mercenaries of the Romans, and obtained, about the year 384, permission to settle in Pannonia (at present Hungary). Several of their tribes traversed Asia Minor, robbing and sacking both town and country, and the Eastern Roman Empire was forced to purchase their forbearance. In the year 408 about 10,000 Huns entered the service of the Eastern Romans as mercenary troops; the remainder seem to have settled down amongst the Germans and Sarmatians, occupying that territory which extends from

wants; and, in order to preserve themselves from starving, they attacked the Romans, traversed the country, pillaging and laying waste all the towns, and defeated the Emperor Valens in a pitched battle near Adrianopol in August 378. They then advanced into the Peloponesus, and overran the East Roman Empire, but were at last induced, by money and promises, to discontinue plundering the inhabitants.

the northern shores of the Black and Caspian Seas, and from the Volga to the Oural, probably Moldavia, Transylvania, and Wallachia, and were broken up into a number of semi-independent tribes, the names of which only became known after the death of Attila.

The Hungarians state that Attila was one of their kings, and that the tribes which were under the sway of his uncle Roas or Rugilas had established their camps in the precincts of the present Hungarian kingdom, which possessed everything that could be required by a nation of hunters and shepherds. Rugilas, through his skill and bravery, in a short time became so formidable that he held the balance of power between the Roman Empires of the East and West. His connexion with the latter was rendered still stronger by his personal friendship with the Roman general Aëtius.1

Rugilas appears to have rendered himself the terror of the East Roman Empire, for he not only invaded their territory, but threatened their capital. The Emperor Theodosius, to induce the King of the Huns to retire, was obliged to pay him a yearly tribute of 350 pounds

1 Aëtius, a Roman patrician and general under the Emperors Honorius and Valentinian III., may be considered the last hero of the West Roman Empire. He was the son of Gaudentius, who held the chief command of the cavalry. Aëtius, when yet a boy, was enrolled among the imperial body guards. In his youth he was given as hostage, first to the Goths and then to the Huns. In time he became commander-in-chief of the army, and the real sovereign of the empire. On the death of the Emperor Honorius, the privy secretary of the empire, John the Usurper, relying upon the support of 60,000 Huns, whom Aëtius had induced to join his standards, seized the throne. But at a later period, when the Emperor of Byzantium, Theodosius, had conquered and executed John, and caused the infant son of Honorius to be made Emperor under the guardianship of his mother Placida, Aëtius took office under the new Power, after having obtained large sums of money for the Huns, to induce them to return to their country. It seems that Pannonia was made over to them. Aëtius rendered his name celebrated by the great defeat which he inflicted on Attila in 451, near Châlons-surMarne.

of gold. In order to save his dignity, this tribute was paid to Rugilas as the pay of a Roman general, the Emperor having conferred this title upon him; but this did not preserve the Empire from constant molestation on the part of the Hunish tribes. Four independent nations, the chief being the Bavarians, instigated by the intrigues of the Roman Court, refused to submit to the rule of Rugilas; but the instructions which this daring leader gave to his ambassador Estaw were of so threatening a character that the Court of Rome considered it advisable to induce their friends to obey the dictates of Rugilas. The Roman Senate, in common with the Emperor, knew but too well the character of the man against whom they had intrigued, and, fearing the effects of his revenge, they determined if possible to conclude a lasting treaty with him. While the negotiations were going on Rugilas died, and was succeeded by his two nephews Attila and Bleda, sons of his brother Mundzac, who concluded a treaty on horseback, in a plain near the town of Margus, with the Byzantine ambassador, who, to induce them to sign that treaty, had to double the tribute which had been paid to Rugilas. Attila, whose ambition was unbounded, saw that the first step to power was the death of his brother, whom he unhesitatingly murdered, for he knew that as long as Bleda lived he could never reckon upon the union of the tribes owing allegiance to the Huns. It was not only the East Roman Empire which trembled before this ferocious leader, but, under his rule, the Huns became the terror of the whole Western world. It was his great genius and undaunted spirit which alone kept together the machinery of that conglomeration of tribes and countries which he brought under his

sway.

Attila was born in the year 406. To give a true picture of his character would be, owing to the many and evident

misrepresentations of the authors who wrote shortly after his time, a matter of impossibility. The following, however, may be taken as a pretty true delineation of his character. He was by nature endowed with those manners which have enabled great men like Cæsar and Napoleon to inspire all those with whom they came in contact with feelings of unbounded fear and admiration, and who have, as if compelled by destiny, exercised their power for destruction only. He was adored by his own people, leading them invariably to victory, and was, in a word, the long-wished chief so ardently desired by all those warlike nations who hated peace and delighted in war. As to his person, his walk was proud, his looks terrifying, while his eyes glowed with that peculiar fire indicative of an immense superiority, to which we instinctively and invincibly feel bound to yield. He was without doubt far superior to any other leader of the Huns; his three great animal attributes were obstinacy, cunning, and bulldog-like ferocity. He did not for one moment scruple as to the means to be employed for obtaining his object, and the lives of human beings were no bar to his ambition, although cruelty was by no means a predominant feature in his character; but he considered it a good policy to strike terror into his people, though he fully understood the necessity of acknowledging civilisation, for towards the Romans and the Greeks he displayed a degree of moderation which seems unaccountable, when compared with his conduct towards his own subjects. Although the possessor of a large number of wives, and the father of a multitude of children (for it is said his children formed a small army), he preserved his mental capacity and bodily strength to the day of his death, nor was he in the least jealous. Attila was no doubt looked upon by his subjects with love and awe, simply because his justice was regulated by the social condition of his people. The