Welsh evidence.]

[Footnote 11: Camden (vol. i. introduct. p. ci.) appoints him governor
at Britain; and the father of our antiquities is followed, as usual, by
his blind progeny. Pacatus and Zosimus had taken some pains to prevent
this error, or fable; and I shall protect myself by their decisive
testimonies. Regali habitu exulem suum, illi exules orbis induerunt, (in
Panegyr. Vet. xii. 23,) and the Greek historian still less equivocally,
(Maximus) (l. iv. p. 248.)]

[Footnote 12: Sulpicius Severus, Dialog. ii. 7. Orosius, l. vii. c.
34. p. 556. They both acknowledge (Sulpicius had been his subject) his
innocence and merit. It is singular enough, that Maximus should be less
favorably treated by Zosimus, the partial adversary of his rival.]

But there was danger likewise in refusing the empire; and from the
moment that Maximus had violated his allegiance to his lawful sovereign,
he could not hope to reign, or even to live, if he confined his moderate
ambition within the narrow limits of Britain. He boldly and wisely
resolved to prevent the designs of Gratian; the youth of the island
crowded to his standard, and he invaded Gaul with a fleet and
army, which were long afterwards remembered, as the emigration of
a considerable part of the British nation. [13] The emperor, in his
peaceful residence of Paris, was alarmed by their hostile approach;
and the darts which he idly wasted on lions and bears, might have been
employed more honorably against the rebels. But his feeble efforts
announced his degenerate spirit and desperate situation; and deprived
him of the resources, which he still might have found, in the support
of his subjects and allies. The armies of Gaul, instead of opposing the
march of Maximus, received him with joyful and loyal acclamations;
and the shame of the desertion was transferred from the people to the
prince. The troops, whose station more immediately attached them to the
service of the palace, abandoned the standard of Gratian the first time
that it was displayed in the neighborhood of Paris. The emperor of the
West fled towards Lyons, with a train of only three hundred horse; and,
in the cities along the road, where he hoped to find refuge, or at least
a passage, he was taught, by cruel experience, that every gate is shut
against the unfortunate. Yet he might still have reached, in safety,
the dominions of his brother; and soon have returned with the forces
of Italy and the East; if he had not suff