s
new subjects were skilled in the art of navigation and ship-building; he
animated his daring Vandals to embrace a mode of warfare which would
render every maritime country accessible to their arms; the Moors and
Africans were allured by the hope of plunder; and, after an interval of
six centuries, the fleet that issued from the port of Carthage again
claimed the empire of the Mediterranean. The success of the Vandals, the
conquest of Sicily, the sack of Palermo, and the frequent descents on the
coast of Lucania, awakened and alarmed the mother of Valentinian, and the
sister of Theodosius."

"The naval power of Rome was unequal to the task of saving even the
imperial city from the ravages of the Vandals. Sailing from Africa, they
disembarked at the port of Ostia, and Rome and its inhabitants were
delivered to the licentiousness of Vandals and Moors, whose blind passions
revenged the injuries of Carthage. The pillage lasted fourteen days and
nights; and all that yet remained of public and private wealth, of sacred
or profane treasure, was diligently transported to the vessels of
Genseric. In the forty-five years that had elapsed since the Gothic
invasion, the pomp and luxury of Rome were in some measure restored; and
it was difficult either to escape, or to satisfy the avarice of a
conqueror, who possessed leisure to collect, and ships to transport, the
wealth of the capital."--_Gibbon._

The Third Trumpet.

"And the third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven,
burning like a torch, and it fell on the third part of the rivers,
and on the fountains of waters; and the name of the star is called
Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and
many men died by the waters, because they were made bitter."--Rev.
8:10, 11.

The sounding of the third trumpet marks the advent of a third invader of
the Roman empire. And such was Attila, the king of the Huns, who invaded
Gaul A. D. 451. Gibbon says:--

"The kings and nations of Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to
the Danube, obeyed the warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village
in the plains of Hungary, his standard moved towards the west; and, after
a march of seven or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the
Rhine and the Necker." "The hostile myriads were poured with resistless
violence into the Belgic provinces." "The consternation of Gaul was
universal." "From the Rhine and the Moselle