s of the human species. Gaul
was again overspread with woods; and the animals, who were reserved for
the use or pleasure of the lord, might ravage with impunity the fields
of his industrious vassals. The chase was the sacred privilege of the
nobles and their domestic servants. Plebeian transgressors were legally
chastised with stripes and imprisonment; but in an age which admitted a
slight composition for the life of a citizen, it was a capital crime to
destroy a stag or a wild bull within the precincts of the royal forests.

According to the maxims of ancient war, the conqueror became the lawful
master of the enemy whom he had subdued and spared: and the fruitful
cause of personal slavery, which had been almost suppressed by the
peaceful sovereignty of Rome, was again revived and multiplied by the
perpetual hostilities of the independent Barbarians. The Goth, the
Burgundian, or the Frank, who returned from a successful expedition,
dragged after him a long train of sheep, of oxen, and of human captives,
whom he treated with the same brutal contempt. The youths of an elegant
form and an ingenuous aspect were set apart for the domestic service; a
doubtful situation, which alternately exposed them to the favorable or
cruel impulse of passion. The useful mechanics and servants (smiths,
carpenters, tailors, shoemakers, cooks, gardeners, dyers, and workmen
in gold and silver, &c.) employed their skill for the use, or profit,
of their master. But the Roman captives, who were destitute of art, but
capable of labor, were condemned, without regard to their former rank,
to tend the cattle and cultivate the lands of the Barbarians. The number
of the hereditary bondsmen, who were attached to the Gallic estates, was
continually increased by new supplies; and the servile people, according
to the situation and temper of their lords, was sometimes raised by
precarious indulgence, and more frequently depressed by capricious
despotism. An absolute power of life and death was exercised by
these lords; and when they married their daughters, a train of useful
servants, chained on the wagons to prevent their escape, was sent as a
nuptial present into a distant country. The majesty of the Roman laws
protected the liberty of each citizen, against the rash effects of his
own distress or despair. But the subjects of the Merovingian kings might
alienate their personal freedom; and this act of legal suicide, which
was familiarly practised, is expres