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 148 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxviii Privileges of the Romans of Gaul reached the friendly habitation of a presbyter of Eheims, 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 circum- stances of truth and nature, was related by Attalus himself, to his cousin, or nephew, the first historian of the Franks. Gregory of Tours 116 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 refine- ment. 117 We are now qualified to despise the opposite, and perhaps artful, misrepresentations which have softened, or exaggerated, the oppression of the Eomans of Gaul under the reign of the Merovingians. 118 The conquerors never promulgated any uni- ii6 The parents of Gregory (Gregorius Florentius Georgius) were of noble ex- traction (natalibus . . . illustres), and they possessed large estates (latifundia) both in Auvergne and Burgundy. He was born in the year 539, was consecrated bishop of Tours in 573, and died in 593, or 595, soon after he had terminated his history. See his life by Odo, abbot of Clugny (in torn. ii. p. 129-135), and a new Life in the M^moires de l'Acad^mie, &c. torn. xxvi. p. 598-637. 117 Deeedente atque immo potius pereunte ab urbibus Gallicanis liberalium eultura literarum, &o. (in prafat. in torn. ii. p. 137), is the complaint of Gregory himself, which he fully verifies by his own work. His style is equally devoid of elegance and simplicity. In a conspicuous station he still remained a stranger to his own age and country ; and in a prolix work (the five last books contain ten years) he has omitted almost everything that posterity desires to learn. I have tediously acquired, by a painful perusal, the right of pronouncing this unfavourable sentence. 118 [In the Ripuarian territory the Eoman was counted as a stranger, like the Burgundian, or the Frank of another race. Under the Salic law hi6 wergeld was lower than that of the free Frank, and equal to that of the half-free man or litus. Compare Havet, Revue Historique, ii. 120. But Brunner has shown, by an analysis of the wergeld, that it is a mistake to infer that the life of a Roman was accounted of less value. Of the 200 pieces which were exacted for the killing of a Frank, ^ went to the royal treasury. The remainder (133|) was divided into two equal parts ; 66| went to the sons or immediate heirs of the slain man, 66f to the kindred who were called the Magen. The claim of the Magen was a Germanic conception and had no application in the case of a Roman. The wergeld of the Roman was 100 pieces of gold ; subtract £, for the fredus or fine paid to the treasury, and we get 66f as