o religion
nor laws, no conception of ideas of honor; their language was a
wretched jargon, and in their nature there seemed to be no moral sense
to which compassion or mercy could plead.

Such were the Huns as described by the ancient historians. The Goths
struggled against them in vain. They were crushed and subjugated. The
king of the Goths, Hermanric, in chagrin and despair, committed
suicide, that he might escape slavery. Thousands of the Goths, in
their terror, crowded down into the Roman province of Thrace, now the
Turkish province of Romania. The empire, then in its decadence, could
not drive them back, and they obtained a permanent foothold there. The
Huns thus attained the supremacy throughout all of northern Europe.
There were then very many tribes of diverse names peopling these vast
realms, and incessant wars were waged between them. The domination
which the Huns attained was precarious, and not distinctly defined.

The terrible Attila ere long appears as the king of these Huns, about
the middle of the fifth century. This wonderful barbarian extended his
sway from the Volga to the Rhine, and from the Bosphorus to the shores
of the Baltic. Where-ever he appeared, blood flowed in torrents. He
swept the valley of the Danube with flame and sword, destroying
cities, fortresses and villages, and converting the whole region into
a desert. At the head of an army of seven hundred thousand men, he
plunged all Europe into dismay. Both the Eastern and Western empire
were compelled to pay him tribute. He even invaded Gaul, and upon the
plains of Chalons was defeated in one of the most bloody battles ever
fought in Europe. Contemporary historians record that one hundred and
six thousand dead were left upon the field. With the death of Attila,
the supremacy of the Huns vanished. The irruption of the Huns was a
devastating scourge, which terrified the world. Whole nations were
exterminated in their march, until at last the horrible apparition
disappeared, almost as suddenly as it arose.

With the disappearance of the Huns, central Russia presents to us the
aspect of a vast waste, thinly peopled, with the wrecks of nations and
tribes, debased and feeble, living upon the cattle they herded, and
occasionally cultivating the soil. And now there comes forward upon
this theater of violence and of blood another people, called the
Sclavonians, more energetic and more intelligent than any who had
preceded them. The origin of the