. The despair of Cunimund
was active and dangerous. He was informed that the Avars had entered
his confines; but, on the strong assurance that, after the defeat of
the Lombards, these foreign invaders would easily be repelled, he rushed
forwards to encounter the implacable enemy of his name and family. But
the courage of the Gepidae could secure them no more than an honorable
death. The bravest of the nation fell in the field of battle; the king
of the Lombards contemplated with delight the head of Cunimund; and his
skull was fashioned into a cup to satiate the hatred of the conqueror,
or, perhaps, to comply with the savage custom of his country. After
this victory, no further obstacle could impede the progress of the
confederates, and they faithfully executed the terms of their agreement.
The fair countries of Walachia, Moldavia, Transylvania, and the other
parts of Hungary beyond the Danube, were occupied, without resistance,
by a new colony of Scythians; and the Dacian empire of the chagans
subsisted with splendor above two hundred and thirty years. The nation
of the Gepidae was dissolved; but, in the distribution of the captives,
the slaves of the Avars were less fortunate than the companions of the
Lombards, whose generosity adopted a valiant foe, and whose freedom was
incompatible with cool and deliberate tyranny. One moiety of the spoil
introduced into the camp of Alboin more wealth than a Barbarian could
readily compute. The fair Rosamond was persuaded, or compelled, to
acknowledge the rights of her victorious lover; and the daughter of
Cunimund appeared to forgive those crimes which might be imputed to her
own irresistible charms.

The destruction of a mighty kingdom established the fame of Alboin. In
the days of Charlemagne, the Bavarians, the Saxons, and the other tribes
of the Teutonic language, still repeated the songs which described the
heroic virtues, the valor, liberality, and fortune of the king of the
Lombards. But his ambition was yet unsatisfied; and the conqueror of the
Gepidae turned his eyes from the Danube to the richer banks of the Po,
and the Tyber. Fifteen years had not elapsed, since his subjects, the
confederates of Narses, had visited the pleasant climate of Italy: the
mountains, the rivers, the highways, were familiar to their memory: the
report of their success, perhaps the view of their spoils, had kindled
in the rising generation the flame of emulation and enterprise. Their
hopes were