nstant death. It would be superfluous to
praise the valor of a Frank; but the valor of Clovis was directed by
cool and consummate prudence. In all his transactions with mankind, he
calculated the weight of interest, of passion, and of opinion; and
his measures were sometimes adapted to the sanguinary manners of the
Germans, and sometimes moderated by the milder genius of Rome, and
Christianity. He was intercepted in the career of victory, since he died
in the forty-fifth year of his age: but he had already accomplished,
in a reign of thirty years, the establishment of the French monarchy in
Gaul.

The first exploit of Clovis was the defeat of Syagrius, the son of
AEgidius; and the public quarrel might, on this occasion, be inflamed
by private resentment. The glory of the father still insulted the
Merovingian race; the power of the son might excite the jealous ambition
of the king of the Franks. Syagrius inherited, as a patrimonial estate,
the city and diocese of Soissons: the desolate remnant of the second
Belgic, Rheims and Troyes, Beauvais and Amiens, would naturally submit
to the count or patrician: and after the dissolution of the Western
empire, he might reign with the title, or at least with the authority,
of king of the Romans. As a Roman, he had been educated in the liberal
studies of rhetoric and jurisprudence; but he was engaged by accident
and policy in the familiar use of the Germanic idiom. The independent
Barbarians resorted to the tribunal of a stranger, who possessed the
singular talent of explaining, in their native tongue, the dictates of
reason and equity. The diligence and affability of their judge rendered
him popular, the impartial wisdom of his decrees obtained their
voluntary obedience, and the reign of Syagrius over the Franks and
Burgundians seemed to revive the original institution of civil society.
In the midst of these peaceful occupations, Syagrius received, and
boldly accepted, the hostile defiance of Clovis; who challenged his
rival in the spirit, and almost in the language, of chivalry, to appoint
the day and the field of battle. In the time of Caesar Soissons would
have poured forth a body of fifty thousand horse and such an army might
have been plentifully supplied with shields, cuirasses, and military
engines, from the three arsenals or manufactures of the city. But the
courage and numbers of the Gallic youth were long since exhausted; and
the loose bands of volunteers, or mercenaries