They thought the brave who died in battle had the happiest lot
their rude fancies could devise; they lived in the Hall of Odin, hunting
all day, feasting all night, and drinking mead from the skulls of their
conquered enemies.
The tribe called Goths, who lived near the Romans, and who took their
pay and entered their armies, learnt the Christian faith readily; but
unfortunately, it was through Arians that they received it, and those
farther off continued to worship Odin. The great Theodosius left his
empire parted between his two sons, Arcadius in the east, Honorius in
the west. Both were young, weak, and foolish. They quarrelled with the
great Gothic chief, Alaric, who began to overrun their dominions, and at
last threatened Rome so much, that Honorius was forced to call home all
his soldiers to protect himself.
The first province thus left bare of troops, was Britain, which remained
a prey to the savage Scots, and then was conquered by the Saxons and
Angles, two of the heathen tribes of Teutons, who seemed for a time
quite to have put out the light of Christianity in their part of the
island. The Britons in the Welsh hills, however, still continued a free
and Christian people; and Patrick, a noble young Roman, who had once
been made captive by the wild Irish, and set to feed their sheep, no
sooner grew up than he went back to preach the Gospel to them, and
deliver them from a worse bondage than they had made him suffer.
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