C1IA1>. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

69

Croatia, or whatever other devastated regions, haveleft one long line to track their whole road from theScythian wilderness. Nothing of the Goth, but thevery reverse (though by a casualty in some degreescontemporaries in time, but not in the least coun-trymen), wild, ferocious monsters who delight increating antipathy and horror; and therefore haveno objection at all to learn they are not reputedhuman, but vulgarly a cross between a necromancerand a she-wolf, or to pass for Gog and Magog,precursors of the day of judgment. How conveyeven the remotest idea of the deadly dismay anddespair they caused? Every unfortified town, fromSwitzerland to the most southern extremity of Italy,was sacked first—then the whole of its populationbutchered—finally the walls and houses were allgutted and pulled down ; and, the entire of its workeffectually done, onward moved the hurricane!Destruction appeared their only desire! Every-where Avas their passage marked by the clearestevidence, fuming ruins, property of all kindsutterly destroyed and dilapidated, and corpses allnaked, and lakes of blood. But if, like the plague,nothing could stop them anywhere, they settlednowhere. And soon returned into Croatia, or be-yond it, as they had come.

The first irruption of Huns was in 900; but