The
ferocious character of the Barbarians was displayed in the funeral of a
hero whose valor and fortune they celebrated with mournful applause. By
the labor of a captive multitude, they forcibly diverted the course of
the Busentinus, a small river that washes the walls of Consentia. The
royal sepulchre, adorned with the splendid spoils and trophies of Rome,
was constructed in the vacant bed; the waters were then restored to
their natural channel, and the secret spot where the remains of Alaric
had been deposited was forever concealed by the inhuman massacre of the
prisoners who had been employed to execute the work.
The personal animosities and hereditary feuds of the Barbarians were
suspended by the strong necessity of their affairs, and the brave
Adolphus, the brother-in-law of the deceased monarch, was unanimously
elected to succeed to his throne. The character and political system of
the new King of the Goths may be best understood from his own
conversation with an illustrious citizen of Narbonne; who afterward, in
a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, related it to St.
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