and the adjacent provinces, the human species was almost extirpated.*

However strong the exaggeration, the statement could never have been made, had it not been true that many men died of the waters because they were made bitter.

How, in reference to the fall of the imperial power in Rome, and as affecting kings no less than their subjects, the fact that many men died, is associated with the announcement of the extinction of the western empire, a single historical sentence will show, which may with equal propriety be regarded as either giving back the last note of echo to the third trumpet, or immediately reverberating the first sound of the fourth.

"In the space of twenty years since the death of Valentinian," (two years subsequent to the death of Attila,) "nine emperors had successively disappeared; and the son of Orestes, a youth recommended only by his beauty, would be the least entitled to the notice of prosperity, if his reign, which was marked by the EXTINCTION of the Roman empire in the west, did not leave a memorable era in the history of mankind.”

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* Gibbon's Hist. Ibid. p. 235.

CHAPTER XVII.

FOURTH TRUMPET.

And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise.

At the voice of the first angel, and the blast of his trumpet, the whole Roman world was in agitation, and "the storms of war" passed over it all. "The union of the empire was dissolved;" a third part of it fell; and the "transalpine provinces were separated from the empire." Under the second trumpet the provinces of Africa, another, or the maritime, part, was in like manner reft from Rome, and the Roman ships were destroyed in the sea, and even in their harbours. The empire of Rome,

hemmed in on every side, was then limited to the kingdom of Italy. "Within its bounds, and along the fountains and rivers of waters, the third trumpet re-echoed from the Alps to the Appenines. The last barrier of the empire of Rome was broken. The plains of Lombardy were ravaged by a foreign foe: and from thence new enemies arose to bring to an end the strife of the world with the imperial city. As a sea-girt tower, which has dashed back the waves of a thousand years, when shattered and shaken at last by great and quick-repeated storms, may be brought down and buried in the waters by the swelling surge which rises at its base; so the mighty empire of Rome, which had been built up

*

by human hands, when rapidly assailed by successive tempests, till the tottering fabric could no longer be upheld, fell into utter ruin, was broken in pieces, and disappeared from off the earth, before a crowd of barbarians, congregated within its ancient territories, whom, in other days, it would have scornfully defied.

Though the union of the empire was dissolved, there was still an emperor in Rome. The majesty of the Roman name was not obliterated, though tarnished. And after the middle of the fifth century, the Cæsars had still a successor in their own city. But the palace of Milan could not again be the temporary abode of the Roman court, when it was the seat and centre of a hostile power. And the marshes of Ravenna ceased to be a security, after the waters were made bitter, and when hordes of Huns mingled with other savages in the northern regions of Italy. The time, too, had long passed for realizing the project, which the terror of the Goths had first suggested, of transferring the court of Rome to the shores of Africa, and transforming Carthage into another Constantinople.

When the last of the four trumpets sounded, and when the time was come for the extinction of the western empire and the fall of Rome, the storm of fire and hail needed not to be renewed, nor was aught like a burning mountain to be cast into the sea, nor did there, as it were, a great star fall from heaven upon the earth. Unlike to all the other trumpets, no symbol, or similitude, was given of any enemy appearing from beyond the bounds of the empire, or of any new or distinct power arising to desolate the earth, and subvert the throne from which the world had been ruled. The remnant, or the refuse, of previous invasions, was enough to destroy the last remaining parts of Roman greatness

in Italy, and to abolish the office and the name of emperor of Rome.

Long had that name been a terror to the nations, and identified with supreme authority in the world. Long had the emperor of Rome shone and ruled in the earth, like the sun in the firmament. His was a kingdom and dominion, great, and terrible, and strong exceedingly, to which all others were subjected or subordinate. His supreme, or imperial authority had, in the decline of the empire, been greatly obscured, but till then, it had never been extinguished. It had been darkened and disfigured by a great storm; eclipsed, as it were, by a mountain that burned with fire; and outshone, as it were, by a falling star, like a fiery meteor. It had survived the assaults of Goths and Vandals, and Huns. Though clouded and obscured, it had never been smitten:-and though its light reached but a little way, where previously it had shone over all, it had never been extinguished.

Neither, at last, was the whole sun smitten: but the third part. The throne of the Cæsars had for ages been the sun of the world; while other kings were designated as stars. But the imperial power had first been transferred to Constantinople, by Constantine; and it was afterwards divided between the east and the west. And the Eastern empire was not yet doomed to destruction. Even the western empire was afterwards revived; and a more modern dynasty arose to claim and maintain the title of emperor of the Romans. But, for the first time, after sudden, and violent, and distinctly marked and connected convulsions, the imperial power in Rome, where for so long a period it had reigned triumphant, was cut off for ever; and the third part of the sun was smitten.

With these brief, explanatory, and perhaps super

fluous remarks, we return to the pages of the historian, who, in the first instance, incidentally and unintentionally, reminds us of the connexion between the third trumpet and the fourth, or shows us again how the incursion of the Huns and the death of Attila, are linked with the downfall and subversion of the western empire.

"The last two ambassadors of the Huns, Orestes, a noble subject of the Panonian province, and Edecon, a valiant chieftain of the tribe of Scyrri, returned at the same time from Constantinople to the royal camp. Their obscure names were afterwards illustrated by the extraordinary fortune and contrast of their sons; THE TWO SERVANTS OF ATTILA BECAME THE FATHERS OF THE LAST ROMAN EMPEROR OF THE WEST, AND OF THE FIRST BARBARIAN KING OF ITALY."*

"The nations who had asserted their independence after the death of Attila, were established by the right of possession or conquest, in the boundless countries to the north of the Danube; and in the Roman provinces between the river and the Alps. But the bravest of their youth enlisted in the army of confederates, who formed the defence and terror of Italy; and in this promiscuous multitude, the names of the Heruli, the Scyrii, the Alani, the Turcilingi, and the Rugians, appear to have predominated. The example of these warriors was imitated by Orestes, the son of Tatullus, and the father of the last Roman emperor of the West. Orestes, who has been already mentioned in this history, had never deserted his country. His birth and fortune rendered him one of the most illustrious subjects of Pannonia. When that province was ceded to the Huns, he entered into the service of Attila, his lawful sovereign, obtained the office of his secretary, and was repeatedly sent to Constantinople, to represent the person, and signify the commands, of the imperious monarch. The death of that conqueror restored him to his freedom, and Orestes might honourably refuse either to follow the sons of Attila into the Scythian desert, or to obey the Ostrogoths, who had usurped the dominion of Pannonia. He preferred the service of the Italian princes, the successors of Valentinian; and as he possessed the qualifications of courage, industry, and experience, he advanced with rapid steps in the military professsion, till he was elevated by the favour of Nepos (the emperor) himself, to the dignities of patrician and mastergeneral of the troops. These troops had been long accustomed to reverence the character and authority of Orestes, who affected their manners, conversed with them in their own language,

* Gibbon's Hist. vol. vi. p. 68. chap. 34.