'good company on its way to Valhalla.'

The Goths, doubtless, considered that they were performing an act of
public justice upon villains: but the Bishops of the Church looked
at the matter in another light. The circumstances of treachery, the
confusion of the innocent with the guilty, the want of any judicial
examination and sentence, aroused their sense of humanity and
justice. The offence was aggravated by the thought that the victims
were Roman and orthodox, the murderers barbarians and Arians; St.
Ambrose, with a noble courage, stopped the Emperor at the door of the
Basilica of Milan, and forbad him to enter, till he had atoned for
the fatal order by public penance. The Caesar submitted nobly to the
noble demand; and the repentance of Theodosius is the last scene in
the downward career of the Caesars, which can call forth a feeling of
admiration and respect.

In January 395 Theodosius died; and after him came the deluge.

The Empire was parted between his two worthless sons. Honorius had
the west, Arcadius the east; while the real master of the Empire was
Stilicho the Vandal, whose virtues and valour and mighty stature are
sung (and not undeservedly) in the pompous verses of Claudian. Of
the confusion which ensued; of the murder (well-deserved) of Rufinus,
the infamous minister whose devout hypocrisy had so long cajoled
Theodosius; of the revolt and atrocities of Gildo in Africa, you must
read in the pages of Gibbon. These lectures confine themselves, at
present, to the history of the Goths.

In January 395, I said, Theodosius died. Before the end of the
winter the Goths were in arms, with Alaric the Balth at their head.