monarchy of Spain and Gaul.
Arles and Marseilles surrendered to his arms: he oppressed the freedom
of Auvergne; and the bishop condescended to purchase his recall from
exile by a tribute of just, but reluctant praise. Sidonius waited before
the gates of the palace among a crowd of ambassadors and suppliants; and
their various business at the court of Bordeaux attested the power,
and the renown, of the king of the Visigoths. The Heruli of the distant
ocean, who painted their naked bodies with its coerulean color, implored
his protection; and the Saxons respected the maritime provinces of
a prince, who was destitute of any naval force. The tall Burgundians
submitted to his authority; nor did he restore the captive Franks, till
he had imposed on that fierce nation the terms of an unequal peace. The
Vandals of Africa cultivated his useful friendship; and the Ostrogoths
of Pannonia were supported by his powerful aid against the oppression of
the neighboring Huns. The North (such are the lofty strains of the poet)
was agitated or appeased by the nod of Euric; the great king of Persia
consulted the oracle of the West; and the aged god of the Tyber was
protected by the swelling genius of the Garonne. [6] The fortune of
nations has often depended on accidents; and France may ascribe her
greatness to the premature death of the Gothic king, at a time when
his son Alaric was a helpless infant, and his adversary Clovis [7] an
ambitious and valiant youth.

[Footnote 5: See Procopius de Bell. Gothico, l. i. c. 12, in tom. ii.
p. 81. The character of Grotius inclines me to believe, that he has not
substituted the Rhine for the Rhone (Hist. Gothorum, p. 175) without the
authority of some Ms.]

[Footnote 6: Sidonius, l. viii. epist. 3, 9, in tom. i. p. 800.
Jornandes (de Rebus Geticis, c. 47 p. 680) justifies, in some measure,
this portrait of the Gothic hero.]

[Footnote 7: I use the familiar appellation of Clovis, from the Latin
Chlodovechus, or Chlodovoeus. But the Ch expresses only the German
aspiration, and the true name is not different from Lewis, (Mem. de
'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xx. p. 68.)]

While Childeric, the father of Clovis, lived an exile in Germany, he
was hospitably entertained by the queen, as well as by the king, of the
Thuringians. After his restoration, Basina escaped from her husband's
bed to the arms of her lover; freely declaring, that if she had known a
man wiser, stronger, or more beautiful, than C