dy
of archers and targiteers; and as they advanced with rashness, they
retreated with loss and disgrace. In the same moment, the flying
squadrons of Alatheus and Saphrax, whose return was anxiously expected
by the general of the Goths, descended like a whirlwind from the hills,
swept across the plain, and added new terrors to the tumultuous, but
irresistible charge of the Barbarian host. The event of the battle of
Hadrianople, so fatal to Valens and to the empire, may be described in
a few words: the Roman cavalry fled; the infantry was abandoned,
surrounded, and cut in pieces. The most skilful evolutions, the
firmest courage, are scarcely sufficient to extricate a body of foot,
encompassed, on an open plain, by superior numbers of horse; but the
troops of Valens, oppressed by the weight of the enemy and their own
fears, were crowded into a narrow space, where it was impossible for
them to extend their ranks, or even to use, with effect, their swords
and javelins. In the midst of tumult, of slaughter, and of dismay, the
emperor, deserted by his guards and wounded, as it was supposed, with
an arrow, sought protection among the Lancearii and the Mattiarii,
who still maintained their ground with some appearance of order and
firmness. His faithful generals, Trajan and Victor, who perceived his
danger, loudly exclaimed that all was lost, unless the person of the
emperor could be saved. Some troops, animated by their exhortation,
advanced to his relief: they found only a bloody spot, covered with a
heap of broken arms and mangled bodies, without being able to discover
their unfortunate prince, either among the living or the dead. Their
search could not indeed be successful, if there is any truth in the
circumstances with which some historians have related the death of the
emperor. By the care of his attendants, Valens was removed from the
field of battle to a neighboring cottage, where they attempted to dress
his wound, and to provide for his future safety. But this humble retreat
was instantly surrounded by the enemy: they tried to force the door,
they were provoked by a discharge of arrows from the roof, till at
length, impatient of delay, they set fire to a pile of dry fagots,
and consumed the cottage with the Roman emperor and his train. Valens
perished in the flames; and a youth, who dropped from the window, alone
escaped, to attest the melancholy tale, and to inform the Goths of the
inestimable prize which they had lost