in arms the name and blood of the conquerors of Rome. The advice
of the graver chieftains pressed him to elude the first ardor of the
Franks; and to expect, in the southern provinces of Gaul, the veteran
and victorious Ostrogoths, whom the king of Italy had already sent to
his assistance. The decisive moments were wasted in idle deliberation
the Goths too hastily abandoned, perhaps, an advantageous post; and the
opportunity of a secure retreat was lost by their slow and disorderly
motions. After Clovis had passed the ford, as it is still named, of the
Hart, he advanced with bold and hasty steps to prevent the escape of the
enemy. His nocturnal march was directed by a flaming meteor, suspended
in the air above the cathedral of Poitiers; and this signal, which might
be previously concerted with the orthodox successor of St. Hilary, was
compared to the column of fire that guided the Israelites in the desert.
At the third hour of the day, about ten miles beyond Poitiers, Clovis
overtook, and instantly attacked, the Gothic army; whose defeat was
already prepared by terror and confusion. Yet they rallied in their
extreme distress, and the martial youths, who had clamorously demanded
the battle, refused to survive the ignominy of flight. The two kings
encountered each other in single combat. Alaric fell by the hand of
his rival; and the victorious Frank was saved by the goodness of his
cuirass, and the vigor of his horse, from the spears of two desperate
Goths, who furiously rode against him to revenge the death of their
sovereign. The vague expression of a mountain of the slain, serves to
indicate a cruel though indefinite slaughter; but Gregory has carefully
observed, that his valiant countryman Apollinaris, the son of Sidonius,
lost his life at the head of the nobles of Auvergne. Perhaps these
suspected Catholics had been maliciously exposed to the blind assault
of the enemy; and perhaps the influence of religion was superseded by
personal attachment or military honor. [52]

[Footnote 51: This mode of divination, by accepting as an omen the first
sacred words, which in particular circumstances should be presented to
the eye or ear, was derived from the Pagans; and the Psalter, or Bible,
was substituted to the poems of Homer and Virgil. From the fourth to
the fourteenth century, these sortes sanctorum, as they are styled,
were repeatedly condemned by the decrees of councils, and repeatedly
practised by kings, bishops, and sai