212 THE HUNS OF ATTILA. 



At length there came to the throne of China an emperor who 

 proved himself able to cope successfully with these barbarian 

 conquerors.* He bought over some w r ild Tartar tribes of the 

 north, and recruiting his army with these hardy mountaineers, 

 he sent it out to hunt up and give battle to the unsuspecting 

 Huns. This army pierced many hundred miles into the northern 

 wilderness, and at the dead of the night, while the stupor of riot 

 and drunkenness was brooding on the camp of the Huns, sur- 

 prised them in their tents and left fifteen thousand slain as the 

 mark of their victory. Though the Hunish chieftain bravely 

 cut his way through their murderous army and escaped, it was 

 only to renew the contest with the same bloody issue and disas- 

 trous result. From that ill-fated night the power of the Huns 

 in Asia began to wane. Long years they struggled against their 

 fate. But at last the time came when they were forced to bow 

 to the yoke of their ancient tributaries. With stern and haughty 

 reluctance were they whose Tanjous had reigned for thirteen 

 hundred years the sovereign lords of Upper Asia, compelled to 

 draw the bow and rein the steed with the mouthing soldiers of 

 China. The spirit of freedom that was fostered by the wild life 

 of the herdsman and huntsman, could not long brook a servitude 

 like that. With these rovers it must be absolute independence 

 at home, or a lawless and nomadic life in other lands. 



In the one hundredth year of our era the spirit of migration 

 broke out on the Highlands of Asia. The wild and unknown 

 regions of the west were open to nomadic adventure or conquest ; 

 and westward trended the wanderings of the greater portion of 

 the Huns, till they were lost on the tablets of history and their 

 journeyings were noted only by their results. For as in their 

 relentless march they expelled one tribe of barbarians from their 

 ancestral pasture grounds, these drove out a neighboring tribe, 

 who in their turn pressed upon another, till Europe received the 

 mighty impulse, and the world of barbarism was set in westward 

 motion. Tribe after tribe rolled on along the frontiers of the 

 Roman Empire, or pealed their war-songs at the gates of the city 

 that from its seven hills had ruled the world. The dismal bell 



*The Chinese Emperor Vouti, of the Dynasty of Han. B. C. 90. 



