this unnatural connection, till he had approved his
manhood by slaying, in single combat, a huge bear, or a wild boar of the
forest. But the most powerful auxiliaries of the Goths were drawn from
the camp of those enemies who had expelled them from their native seats.
The loose subordination, and extensive possessions, of the Huns and
the Alani, delayed the conquests, and distracted the councils, of that
victorious people. Several of the hords were allured by the liberal
promises of Fritigern; and the rapid cavalry of Scythia added weight and
energy to the steady and strenuous efforts of the Gothic infantry.
The Sarmatians, who could never forgive the successor of Valentinian,
enjoyed and increased the general confusion; and a seasonable irruption
of the Alemanni, into the provinces of Gaul, engaged the attention, and
diverted the forces, of the emperor of the West.

Chapter XXVI: Progress of The Huns.--Part IV.

One of the most dangerous inconveniences of the introduction of the
Barbarians into the army and the palace, was sensibly felt in their
correspondence with their hostile countrymen; to whom they imprudently,
or maliciously, revealed the weakness of the Roman empire. A soldier, of
the lifeguards of Gratian, was of the nation of the Alemanni, and of the
tribe of the Lentienses, who dwelt beyond the Lake of Constance. Some
domestic business obliged him to request a leave of absence. In a
short visit to his family and friends, he was exposed to their curious
inquiries: and the vanity of the loquacious soldier tempted him to
display his intimate acquaintance with the secrets of the state, and the
designs of his master. The intelligence, that Gratian was preparing to
lead the military force of Gaul, and of the West, to the assistance of
his uncle Valens, pointed out to the restless spirit of the Alemanni the
moment, and the mode, of a successful invasion. The enterprise of some
light detachments, who, in the month of February, passed the Rhine upon
the ice, was the prelude of a more important war. The boldest hopes
of rapine, perhaps of conquest, outweighed the considerations of timid
prudence, or national faith. Every forest, and every village, poured
forth a band of hardy adventurers; and the great army of the Alemanni,
which, on their approach, was estimated at forty thousand men by the
fears of the people, was afterwards magnified to the number of seventy
thousand by the vain and credulous flattery of the Imp