granddaughter of
Clovis; but the restraints of faith and policy soon yielded to the hope
of possessing the fair Rosamond, and of insulting her family and nation.
The arts of persuasion were tried without success; and the impatient
lover, by force and stratagem, obtained the object of his desires. War
was the consequence which he foresaw and solicited; but the Lombards
could not long withstand the furious assault of the Gepidae, who were
sustained by a Roman army. And, as the offer of marriage was rejected
with contempt, Alboin was compelled to relinquish his prey, and to
partake of the disgrace which he had inflicted on the house of Cunimund.
[9]

[Footnote 8: Paul Warnefrid, the deacon of Friuli, de Gest. Langobard.
l. i. c. 23, 24. His pictures of national manners, though rudely
sketched are more lively and faithful than those of Bede, or Gregory of
Tours]

[Footnote 9: The story is told by an impostor, (Theophylact. Simocat.
l. vi. c. 10;) but he had art enough to build his fictions on public and
notorious facts.]

When a public quarrel is envenomed by private injuries, a blow that is
not mortal or decisive can be productive only of a short truce,
which allows the unsuccessful combatant to sharpen his arms for a
new encounter. The strength of Alboin had been found unequal to the
gratification of his love, ambition, and revenge: he condescended to
implore the formidable aid of the chagan; and the arguments that he
employed are expressive of the art and policy of the Barbarians. In
the attack of the Gepidae, he had been prompted by the just desire
of extirpating a people whom their alliance with the Roman empire had
rendered the common enemies of the nations, and the personal adversaries
of the chagan. If the forces of the Avars and the Lombards should
unite in this glorious quarrel, the victory was secure, and the reward
inestimable: the Danube, the Hebrus, Italy, and Constantinople, would
be exposed, without a barrier, to their invincible arms. But, if they
hesitated or delayed to prevent the malice of the Romans, the same
spirit which had insulted would pursue the Avars to the extremity of the
earth. These specious reasons were heard by the chagan with coldness and
disdain: he detained the Lombard ambassadors in his camp, protracted the
negotiation, and by turns alleged his want of inclination, or his
want of ability, to undertake this important enterprise. At length he
signified the ultimate price of his allia