priests--not merely for its details of the fall of Rome, but as the
noblest theodicy which has yet proceeded from a human pen.

Followed by long trains of captives, long trains of waggons bearing
the spoils of all the world, Alaric went on South, 'with the native
instinct of the barbarian,' as Dr. Sheppard well says. Always toward
the sun. Away from Muspelheim and the dark cold north, toward the
sun, and Valhalla, where Odin and the Asas dwell in everlasting
light.

He tried to cross into Sicily: but a storm wrecked his boats, and
the Goths were afraid of the sea. And after a while he died. And
the wild men made a great mourning over him. They had now no plan
left; no heart to go south, and look for Odin over the sea. But of
one thing they were resolved, that the base Romans should not dig up
Alaric out of his barrow and scatter his bones to the winds.

So they put no barrow over the great king; but under the walls of
Cosenza they turned the river-bed, and in that river-bed they set
Alaric, armed and mailed, upright upon his horse, with gold, and
jewels, and arms, and it may be captive youths and maids, that he
might enter into Valhalla in royal pomp, and make a worthy show among
the heroes in Odin's hall. And then they turned back the river into
its bed, and slew the slaves who had done the work, that no man might
know where Alaric lies: and no man does know till this day.

As I said, they had no plan left now. Two years they stayed in
Campania, basking in the villas and gardens, drinking their fill of
the wine; and then flowed away northward again, no one knows why.
They had no wish to settle, as they might have done. They followed