that in one attack he lost forty-six
centurions and seven hundred men, (de Bell. Gallico, l. vi. c. 44-53, in
tom. i. p. 270-272.)]

[Footnote 101: Audebant se quondam fatres Latio dicere, et sanguine ab
Iliaco populos computare, (Sidon. Apollinar. l. vii. epist. 7, in tom
i. p. 799.) I am not informed of the degrees and circumstances of this
fabulous pedigree.]

[Footnote 102: Either the first, or second, partition among the sons of
Clovis, had given Berry to Childebert, (Greg. Turon. l. iii. c. 12,
in tom. ii. p. 192.) Velim (said he) Arvernam Lemanem, quae tanta
jocunditatis gratia refulgere dicitur, oculis cernere, (l. iii. c. p.
191.) The face of the country was concealed by a thick fog, when the
king of Paris made his entry into Clermen.]

[Footnote 103: For the description of Auvergne, see Sidonius, (l. iv.
epist. 21, in tom. i. p. 703,) with the notes of Savaron and Sirmond,
(p. 279, and 51, of their respective editions.) Boulainvilliers, (Etat
de la France, tom. ii. p. 242-268,) and the Abbe de la Longuerue,
(Description de la France, part i. p. 132-139.)]

[Footnote 104; Furorem gentium, quae de ulteriore Rheni amnis parte
venerant, superare non poterat, (Greg. Turon. l. iv. c. 50, in tom. ii.
229.) was the excuse of another king of Austrasia (A.D. 574) for the
ravages which his troops committed in the neighborhood of Paris.]

[Footnote 105: From the name and situation, the Benedictine editors
of Gregory of Tours (in tom. ii. p. 192) have fixed this fortress at
a place named Castel Merliac, two miles from Mauriac, in the Upper
Auvergne. In this description, I translate infra as if I read intra; the
two are perpetually confounded by Gregory, or his transcribed and the
sense must always decide.]

[Footnote 106: See these revolutions, and wars, of Auvergne, in Gregory
of Tours, (l. ii. c. 37, in tom. ii. p. 183, and l. iii. c. 9, 12, 13,
p. 191, 192, de Miraculis St. Julian. c. 13, in tom. ii. p. 466.) He
frequently betrays his extraordinary attention to his native country.]

Chapter XXXVIII: Reign Of Clovis.--Part IV.

Before the Austrasian army retreated from Auvergne, Theodoric exacted
some pledges of the future loyalty of a people, whose just hatred could
be restrained only by their fear. A select band of noble youths, the
sons of the principal senators, was delivered to the conqueror, as the
hostages of the faith of Childebert, and of their countrymen. On the
first rumor of war, or conspiracy