or his defence a body of ten thousand slaves.]

[Footnote 19: Their oppression and misery are acknowledged by Eumenius
(Panegyr. vi. 8,) Gallias efferatas injuriis.]

Their patience was at last provoked into despair. On every side they
rose in multitudes, armed with rustic weapons, and with irresistible
fury. The ploughman became a foot soldier, the shepherd mounted on
horseback, the deserted villages and open towns were abandoned to the
flames, and the ravages of the peasants equalled those of the fiercest
barbarians. [20] They asserted the natural rights of men, but they
asserted those rights with the most savage cruelty. The Gallic nobles,
justly dreading their revenge, either took refuge in the fortified
cities, or fled from the wild scene of anarchy. The peasants reigned
without control; and two of their most daring leaders had the folly and
rashness to assume the Imperial ornaments. [21] Their power soon expired
at the approach of the legions. The strength of union and discipline
obtained an easy victory over a licentious and divided multitude. [22] A
severe retaliation was inflicted on the peasants who were found in arms;
the affrighted remnant returned to their respective habitations, and
their unsuccessful effort for freedom served only to confirm their
slavery. So strong and uniform is the current of popular passions,
that we might almost venture, from very scanty materials, to relate the
particulars of this war; but we are not disposed to believe that the
principal leaders, Aelianus and Amandus, were Christians, [23] or to
insinuate, that the rebellion, as it happened in the time of Luther, was
occasioned by the abuse of those benevolent principles of Christianity,
which inculcate the natural freedom of mankind.

[Footnote 20: Panegyr. Vet. ii. 4. Aurelius Victor.]

[Footnote 21: Aelianus and Amandus. We have medals coined by them
Goltzius in Thes. R. A. p. 117, 121.]

[Footnote 22: Levibus proeliis domuit. Eutrop. ix. 20.]

[Footnote 23: The fact rests indeed on very slight authority, a life of
St. Babolinus, which is probably of the seventh century. See Duchesne
Scriptores Rer. Francicar. tom. i. p. 662.]

Maximian had no sooner recovered Gaul from the hands of the peasants,
than he lost Britain by the usurpation of Carausius. Ever since the rash
but successful enterprise of the Franks under the reign of Probus, their
daring countrymen had constructed squadrons of light brigantines, in
which they inc