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the history of what befel th is country after the declineof the Roman empire is so intimately blended withthat of Snabia, the Tyrolese, and the lower parts ofthe Grisons, which are known to have fallen to theshare of the rising power of the Franks, that nothingpositive can be drawn from authors as to the interiorstate of this small tract. The victory gained in theyear 490 near Cologn, by Clovis I. king of theFranks, over the Alemanni, who had wrested from theRomans all the dominions on the northern side of theAlps; and the defeat of both Romans and Goths inItaly, in the year 549, by the treacherous arms ofTheodebert king of Austrasia, whose dominions soonafter devolved to the crown of France, necessarilygave the aspiring Merovingian race a great ascendencyover all the countries surrounding the Grisons ; andaccordingly we find, that this district also was soonafter, without any military effort, considered as partof the dominions of the reviving western empire.But it does not appear that those monarchs ever madeany other use of their supremacy in these parts than,agreeably to the feudal system which they introduced,to constitute dukes, earls, presidents, and bailiffs,over Rhastia; to grant out tenures upon the usualfeudal terms; and consequently to levy forces inmost of their military expeditions.

It mifet, however, be observed, that these feudalsubstitutes were seldom, if ever, strangers: thosewho arc upon record to the latter end of the eighthcentury, having all been chosen from among the no-bility of the country.* And that no foreign garri-

* Sprech. p. 52 —55.

sons