oice, or by the policy of their leader. In these districts, each
Barbarian was connected by the ties of hospitality with some Roman
provincial. To this unwelcome guest, the proprietor was compelled to
abandon two thirds of his patrimony, but the German, a shepherd and a
hunter, might sometimes content himself with a spacious range of wood
and pasture, and resign the smallest, though most valuable, portion,
to the toil of the industrious husbandman. The silence of ancient and
authentic testimony has encouraged an opinion, that the rapine of
the _Franks_ was not moderated, or disguised, by the forms of a legal
division; that they dispersed themselves over the provinces of Gaul,
without order or control; and that each victorious robber, according to
his wants, his avarice, and his strength, measured with his sword the
extent of his new inheritance. At a distance from their sovereign,
the Barbarians might indeed be tempted to exercise such arbitrary
depredation; but the firm and artful policy of Clovis must curb a
licentious spirit, which would aggravate the misery of the vanquished,
whilst it corrupted the union and discipline of the conquerors. The
memorable vase of Soissons is a monument and a pledge of the regular
distribution of the Gallic spoils. It was the duty and the interest
of Clovis to provide rewards for a successful army, settlements for a
numerous people; without inflicting any wanton or superfluous injuries
on the loyal Catholics of Gaul. The ample fund, which he might
lawfully acquire, of the Imperial patrimony, vacant lands, and
Gothic usurpations, would diminish the cruel necessity of seizure and
confiscation, and the humble provincials would more patiently acquiesce
in the equal and regular distribution of their loss.

The wealth of the Merovingian princes consisted in their extensive
domain. After the conquest of Gaul, they still delighted in the rustic
simplicity of their ancestors; the cities were abandoned to solitude
and decay; and their coins, their charters, and their synods, are still
inscribed with the names of the villas, or rural palaces, in which they
successively resided. One hundred and sixty of these _palaces_, a title
which need not excite any unseasonable ideas of art or luxury, were
scattered through the provinces of their kingdom; and if some might
claim the honors of a fortress, the far greater part could be esteemed
only in the light of profitable farms. The mansion of the long-haired