forded an ample range for the pleasures of the chases. CHAP.
That marvellous art which teaches the birds of the
air to acknowledge the voice, and execute the com-
mands of their master, had been unknown to the inge-
nuity of the Greeks and Romans. Scandinavia and

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Scythia produce the boldest and most tractable falcons47; they were tamed and educated by the roving inhabitants always on horseback and in the field. This favourite amusement of our ancestors was introduced by the Barbarians into the Roman provinces: and the laws of Italy esteem the sword and the hawk as of equal dignity and importance in the hands of a noble Lombard48.

So rapid was the influence of climate and example, Dress and that the Lombards of the fourth generation surveyed marriage. with curiosity and affright the portraits of their savage forefathers49. Their heads were shaven behind, but the shaggy locks hung over their eyes and mouth, and a long beard, represented the name and character of the nation. Their dress consisted of loose linen garments, after the fashion of the Anglo-Saxons, which were decorated, in their opinion, with broad stripes of varie

666. Pennant's Quadrupedes, p. 24. Dictionaire d'Hist. Naturelle, par Valmont de Romare, tom. ii. p. 74. Yet I must not conceal the suspicion that Paul, by a vulgar error, may have applied the name of bubalus, to the aurochs, or wild bull, of ancient Germany.

45 Consult the twenty-first Dissertation of Muratori.

46 Their ignorance is proved by the silence even of those who professedly treat of the arts of hunting and the history of animals. Aristotle (Hist. Animal. 1. ix. c. 36. tom. i. p. 586. and the Notes of his last editor, M. Camus, tom. ii. p. 314.) Pliny (Hist. Natur. l. x. c. 10). Ælian (de Natur. Animal. 1. 11. c. 42.) and perhaps Homer (Odyss. xxii. 302-306.) describe with astonishment a tacit league and common chase between the hawks and the Thracian fowlers.

:

:

!

CHAP. gated colours. The legs and feet were clothed in long
XLV. hose, and open sandals; and even in the security of

peace a trusty sword was constantly girt to their side. Yet this strange apparel, and horrid aspect, often con. cealed a gentle and generous disposition; and as soon as the rage of battle had subsided, the captives and subjects were sometimes surprised by the humanity of the victor. The vices of the Lombards were the effect of passion, of ignorance, of intoxication; their virtues are the more laudable, as they were not affected by the hypocrisy of social manners, nor imposed by the rigid constraint of laws and education. I should not be apprehensive of deviating from my subject, if it were in my power to delineate the private life of the conquerors of Italy, and I shall relate with pleasure the adventurous gallantry of Autharis, which breathes the true spirit of chivalry and romance 50. After the loss of his promised bride, a Merovingian princess, he sought in marriage the daughter of the king of Bavaria; and Garibald accepted the alliance of the Italian monarch. Impatient of the slow progress of negotiation, the ardent lover escaped from his palace, and visited the court of Bavaria in the train of his own embassy. At the public audience, the unknown stranger advanced to the throne, and informed Garibald, that the ambassador was indeed the minister of state, but that he alone was the friend of Autharis, who had trusted him with the delicate commission of making a faithful report of the charms of his spouse. Theudelinda was summoned to undergo this important examination, and after a pause of silent rapture, he hailed her as the queen of Italy, and humbly requested, that, according to the custom of the nation, she would present a cup of wine to the first of her new subjects. By the command of her father, she obeyed: Autharis received the cup in his turn, and, in restoring it to the princess, he secretly touched her hand, and drew his own finger over his face and lips. In the evening, Theudelinda imparted

XLV.

to her nurse the indiscreet familiarity of the stranger, CHAP. and was comforted by the assurance, that such boldness could proceed only from the king her husband, who, by his beauty and courage, appeared worthy of her love. The ambassadors were dismissed: no sooner did they reach the confines of Italy, than Autharis, - raising himself on his horse, darted his battle-axe against a tree with incomparable strength and dexterity: "Such," said he to the astonished Bavarians, "such are the strokes of the king of the Lombards." =On the approach of a French army, Garibald and his daughter took refuge in the dominions of their ally; and the marriage was consummated in the palace of Verona. At the end of one year, it was dissolved by the death of - Autharis: but the virtues of Theudelindast had endeared her to the nation, and she was permitted to bestow, with her hand, the sceptre of the Italian kingdom.

ment.

From this fact, as well as from similar events, it is Governcertain that the Lombards possessed freedom to elect their sovereign, and sense to decline the frequent use of that dangerous privilege. The public revenue arose from the produce of land, and the profits of justice. When the independent dukes agreed that Autharis should ascend the throne of his father, they endowed the regal office with a fair moiety of their respective domains. The proudest nobles aspired to the honours of servitude near the person of their prince: he rewarded the fidelity of his vassals by the precarious gift of pensions and benefices; and atoned for the injuries of war, by the rich foundation of monasteries and churches. In peace a judge, a leader in war, he never usurped the powers of a sole and absolute legislator. The king of Italy convened the national assemblies in the palace, or more probably in the fields, of Pavia; his great council was composed of the persons most eminent by their birth and dignities; but the validity,

51 Giannone (Istoria Civile de Napoli, tom. i. p. 263.) has justly censured the impertinence of Boccaccio (Geo. iii. Novel. 2), who without right, or truth, or pretence, has given the pious queen Theudelinda, to the arms of a muleteer.

52 Paul, l. iii. c. 16. The first dissertations of Muratori, and the first volume of Giannone's history, may be consulted for the state of the kingdom of Italy.

VOL. V.

3G

!

: XLV.

CHAP. as well as the execution of their decrees, depended on the approbation of the faithful people, the fortunate army of the Lombards. About fourscore years after the conquest of Italy, their traditional customs were transcribed in Teutonic Latins, and ratified by the

Laws,

A. D. 643. consent of the prince and people; some new regulations were introduced, more suitable to their present condition; the example of Rotharis was imitated by the wisest of his successors, and the laws of the Lombards have been esteemed the least imperfect of the Barbaric codes. Secure by their courage in the possession of liberty, these rude and hasty legislators were incapable of balancing the powers of the constitution, or of discussing the nice theory of political government. Such crimes as threatened the life of the sovereign, or the safety of the state, were adjudged worthy of death; but their attention was principally confined to the defence of the person and property of the subject. According to the strange jurisprudence of the times, the guilt of blood might be redeemed by a fine; yet the high price of nine hundred pieces of gold declares a just sense of the value of a simple citizen. Less atrocious injuries, a wound, a fracture, a blow, an opprobrious word, were measured with scrupulous and almost ridiculous diligence; and the prudence of the legislator encouraged the ignoble practice of bartering honour and revenge for a pecuniary compensation. The ignorance of the Lombards, in the state of Paganism or Christianity, gave implicit credit to the malice and mischief of witchcraft; but the judges of the seventeenth century might have been instructed and confounded by the wisdom of Rotharis, who derides the absurd superstition, and protects the wretched victims of popular or judicial cruelty55. The same spirit of a legislator, superior to his

XLV.

age and country, may be ascribed to Luitprand, who CHAP. condemns, while he tolerates, the impious and inveterate abuse of duels, observing from his own experience, that the juster cause had often been oppressed by successful violence. Whatever merit may be discovered in the laws of the Lombards, they are the genuine fruit of the reason of the Barbarians, who never admitted the bishops of Italy to a seat in their legisla. tive councils. But the succession of their kings is marked with virtue and ability; the troubled series of their annals is adorned with fair intervals of peace, order, and domestic happiness; and the Italians enjoyed a milder and more equitable government than any of the other kingdoms which had been founded on the ruins of the Western empires7.

Amidst the arms of the Lombards, and under the Misery of despotism of the Greeks, we again inquire into the fate Rome. of Rome5s, which had reached, about the close of the sixth century, the lowest period of her depression. By the removal of the seat of empire, and the successive loss of the provinces, the sources of public and private opulence were exhausted; the lofty tree, under whose shade the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of its leaves and branches, and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the ground. The ministers of command, and the messengers of victory, no longer met on the Appian or Flaminian way: and the hostile approach of the Lombards was often felt and continually feared. The inhabitants of a potent and peaceful capital, who visit without an anxious thought the garden of the adjacent country, will faintly picture in their fancy the distress of the Romans: they shut or opened their gates with a trembling hand, beheld from the