The Blythsome Bridal Or The Lass Wi The Gouden Hair

Roman Gaul underwent many violent changes in the Fifth Century, when barbarian hordes broke into the failing empire. Carus, though a Gallo-Roman, has grown to manhood among the Visigoths. Assassination of his friend the king of the Visigoths leads to his flight and his struggle to support Avitus, and later Majorian, who were among the last of the Roman emperors. He meets disaster and is for six years a galley slave in the war fleet of the Vandals under Gaiseric, whose base was in North Africa. Carus's wife Ildico, a Burgundian princess who has been a captive of the Huns, is a staunch companion. In the course of their difficult lives, Carus and Ildico are associated with Sidonius, a poet of the "silver age" of Latin literature, as well as with Faustus, abbot of the island monastery of Lerins and bishop of Riez.