THE HUNS OF ATTILA. 213 



of fate which then was ringing in the clang of passing millions, 

 tolled out to old Home the periods of the progress of the Huns. 



The first of the tribes whose movements startled the quiet of 

 those early ages, was the Franks, a confederacy of the clans that 

 in their wild independence had roamed unmolested amidst the 

 Black Forests of Lower Germany. The dictator Caesar had 

 found them there and vainly attempted to track them in their 

 inaccessible wilderness ; and there they had continued to defy 

 the Roman legions. But now (about 175 A. D.), driven out 

 from this retreat by some resistless impulse from the regions 

 beyond, the Franks made haste to spread their desolating warfare 

 and plant their name on the plains of France. 



Next came down the tribes of upper or northern Germany, 

 confederated under the name of Alemanni all-men that is, 

 men of all races, and all fighting men. These with incredible 

 swiftness and in overwhelming numbers, overspread the northern 

 provinces of Italy, and celebrated their barbaric orgies almost in 

 sight of Rome. The city itself was preserved only by the most 

 energetic measures. The aged senators rushed to arms ; the 

 artisans and the populace hastened with one accord to swell the 

 unaccustomed army, and the tide of this appalling irruption w r as 

 rolled back on the forests of the north. For many years the 

 Alemanni hovered on the confines of the Roman territory, the 

 defeated of many a bloody battle, till at last they were scattered 

 and merged among the Franks of Gaul. 



Following hard upon these, came the ruthless Goths, the jnost 

 wide-spread and far-famed of the barbarians of the north. They 

 issued from the regions of the Baltic, and suddenly their count- 

 less hordes confronted the Romans on the banks of the Danube. 

 What may have been the original impulse of this eventful 

 migration, we are now unable to say. It may have been a 

 famine or a pestilence ; or more likely it may have been some 

 terrible defeat inflicted by. the on-pressing myriads of the north 

 on some battle field now hidden beneath the gloomy forests of 

 Russia. For it must have been about this time, near the year 

 250, that the Black Huns of Tartary poured down the Ural 

 mountains into Europe ; and through the chain of the tribes of 



