eclaration, that, if he could seize the guilty fugitives, one of them
he would cut in pieces with his sword, and would expose the other on
a gibbet. A length, Attalus and his faithful Leo reached the friendly
habitation of a presbyter of Rheims, who recruited their fainting
strength with bread and wine, concealed them from the search of their
enemy, and safely conducted them beyond the limits of the Austrasian
kingdom, to the episcopal palace of Langres. Gregory embraced his
grandson with tears of joy, gratefully delivered Leo, with his whole
family, from the yoke of servitude, and bestowed on him the property of
a farm, where he might end his days in happiness and freedom. Perhaps
this singular adventure, which is marked with so many circumstances
of truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself, to his cousin or
nephew, the first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours [110] was
born about sixty years after the death of Sidonius Apollinaris; and
their situation was almost similar, since each of them was a native of
Auvergne, a senator, and a bishop. The difference of their style and
sentiments may, therefore, express the decay of Gaul; and clearly
ascertain how much, in so short a space, the human mind had lost of its
energy and refinement. [111]

[Footnote 107: The story of Attalus is related by Gregory of Tours, (l.
iii. c. 16, tom. ii. p. 193-195.) His editor, the P. Ruinart, confounds
this Attalus, who was a youth (puer) in the year 532, with a friend of
Silonius of the same name, who was count of Autun, fifty or sixty years
before. Such an error, which cannot be imputed to ignorance, is excused,
in some degree, by its own magnitude.]

[Footnote 108: This Gregory, the great grandfather of Gregory of Tours,
(in tom. ii. p. 197, 490,) lived ninety-two years; of which he passed
forty as count of Autun, and thirty-two as bishop of Langres. According
to the poet Fortunatus, he displayed equal merit in these different
stations. Nobilis antiqua decurrens prole parentum, Nobilior gestis,
nunc super astra manet. Arbiter ante ferox, dein pius ipse sacerdos,
Quos domuit judex, fovit amore patris.]

[Footnote 109: As M. de Valois, and the P. Ruinart, are determined to
change the Mosella of the text into Mosa, it becomes me to acquiesce in
the alteration. Yet, after some examination of the topography. I could
defend the common reading.]

[Footnote 110: The parents of Gregory (Gregorius Florentius Georgius)
were of nob