ar auxiliaries. The camp of the Tanjou was
surprised in the midst of sleep and intemperance; and, though the
monarch of the Huns bravely cut his way through the ranks of the enemy,
he left above fifteen thousand of his subjects on the field of battle.
Yet this signal victory, which was preceded and followed by many bloody
engagements, contributed much less to the destruction of the power of
the Huns than the effectual policy which was employed to detach the
tributary nations from their obedience. Intimidated by the arms, or
allured by the promises, of Vouti and his successors, the most
considerable tribes, both of the East and of the West, disclaimed the
authority of the Tanjou. While some acknowledged themselves the allies
or vassals of the empire, they all became the implacable enemies of the
Huns; and the numbers of that haughty people, as soon as they were
reduced to their native strength, might, perhaps, have been contained
within the walls of one of the great and populous cities of China. [39]
The desertion of his subjects, and the perplexity of a civil war, at
length compelled the Tanjou himself to renounce the dignity of an
independent sovereign, and the freedom of a warlike and high-spirited
nation. He was received at Sigan, the capital of the monarchy, by the
troops, the mandarins, and the emperor himself, with all the honors that
could adorn and disguise the triumph of Chinese vanity. [40] A
magnificent palace was prepared for his reception; his place was
assigned above all the princes of the royal family; and the patience of
the Barbarian king was exhausted by the ceremonies of a banquet, which
consisted of eight courses of meat, and of nine solemn pieces of music.
But he performed, on his knees, the duty of a respectful homage to the
emperor of China; pronounced, in his own name, and in the name of his
successors, a perpetual oath of fidelity; and gratefully accepted a
seal, which was bestowed as the emblem of his regal dependence. After
this humiliating submission, the Tanjous sometimes departed from their
allegiance and seized the favorable moments of war and rapine; but the
monarchy of the Huns gradually declined, till it was broken, by civil
dissension, into two hostile and separate kingdoms. One of the princes
of the nation was urged, by fear and ambition, to retire towards the
South with eight hords, which composed between forty and fifty thousand
families. He obtained, with the title of Tanjou, a conve