rance, and then again with the Lombards in
Italy, till one of them emerges as Guelf, count of Altorf, the ancestor
of our Guelphic line.

But to return to Odoacer. He came to Rome, seeking his fortune. There
he found in power Orestes, his father's old colleague at Attila's court,
the most unprincipled turn-coat of his day; who had been the Emperor's
man, then Attila's man, and would be anybody's man if needed: but who was
now his own man, being king-maker for the time being, and father of the
puppet Emperor, Romulus Augustulus, a pretty little lad, with an ominous
name.

Odoacer took service under Orestes in the bodyguards, became a great
warrior and popular; watched his time; and when Orestes refused the
mercenaries, Herules, Rugians, Scyrings, Turklings and Alans--all the
weak or half-caste frontier tribes who had as yet little or no share in
the spoils of Italy--their demand of the third of the lands of Italy, he
betrayed his benefactor; promised the mercenaries to do for them what
Orestes would not, and raises his famous band of confederates. At last
he called himself King of Nations, burnt Pavia, and murdered Orestes, as
a due reward for his benefits. Stript of his purple, the last Emperor of
Rome knelt crying at the feet of the German giant, and begged not to be
murdered like his father. And the great wild beast's hard heart smote
him, and he sent the poor little lad away, to live in wealth and peace in
Lucullus' villa at Misenum, with plenty of money, and women, and gewgaws,
to dream away his foolish life looking out over the fair bay of
Naples--the last Emperor of Rome.

Then Odoacer set to work, and not altogether ill. He gave his
confederates the third of Italy, in fief under himself as king, and for
fourteen years (not without the help of a few more murders) he kept some
sort of rude order and justice in the wretched land. Remember him, for,
bad man as he is, he does represent a principle. He initiated, by that
gift of the lands to his soldiers, the feudal system in Italy. I do not
mean that he invented it. It seems rather to be a primaeval German form,
as old as the days of Tacitus, who describes, if you will recollect, the
German war-kings as parting the conquered lands among their 'comites,'
thanes, or companions in arms.

So we leave Odoacer king of Italy, for fourteen years, little dreaming,
perhaps, of the day when as he had done unto others so should it be done
to him. But for that tale