e 3: The second book of the Histoire Critique de l'Etablissement
de la Monarchie Francoise tom. i. p. 189-424, throws great light on the
state of Gaul, when it was invaded by Attila; but the ingenious author,
the Abbe Dubos, too often bewilders himself in system and conjecture.]

After the death of his rival Boniface, Aetius had prudently retired to
the tents of the Huns; and he was indebted to their alliance for his
safety and his restoration. Instead of the suppliant language of a
guilty exile, he solicited his pardon at the head of sixty thousand
Barbarians; and the empress Placidia confessed, by a feeble resistance,
that the condescension, which might have been ascribed to clemency,
was the effect of weakness or fear. She delivered herself, her son
Valentinian, and the Western empire, into the hands of an insolent
subject; nor could Placidia protect the son-in-law of Boniface, the
virtuous and faithful Sebastian, [4] from the implacable persecution
which urged him from one kingdom to another, till he miserably perished
in the service of the Vandals. The fortunate Aetius, who was immediately
promoted to the rank of patrician, and thrice invested with the honors
of the consulship, assumed, with the title of master of the cavalry and
infantry, the whole military power of the state; and he is sometimes
styled, by contemporary writers, the duke, or general, of the Romans of
the West. His prudence, rather than his virtue, engaged him to leave the
grandson of Theodosius in the possession of the purple; and Valentinian
was permitted to enjoy the peace and luxury of Italy, while the
patrician appeared in the glorious light of a hero and a patriot, who
supported near twenty years the ruins of the Western empire. The Gothic
historian ingenuously confesses, that Aetius was born for the salvation
of the Roman republic; [5] and the following portrait, though it is
drawn in the fairest colors, must be allowed to contain a much larger
proportion of truth than of flattery. [411] "His mother was a wealthy
and noble Italian, and his father Gaudentius, who held a distinguished
rank in the province of Scythia, gradually rose from the station of a
military domestic, to the dignity of master of the cavalry. Their son,
who was enrolled almost in his infancy in the guards, was given as
a hostage, first to Alaric, and afterwards to the Huns; [412] and he
successively obtained the civil and military honors of the palace, for
which he was equal