Two or three hundred years later the Germans, no longer on the defensive, themselves went forth from their marshy forests conquering and to conquer.  For century after century they swarmed out of the dark woodland east of the Rhine, and north of the Danube; and as their force spent itself, the movement was taken up by their brethren who dwelt along the coasts of the Baltic and the North Atlantic.  From the Volga to the Pillars of Hercules, from Sicily to Britain, every land in turn bowed to the warlike prowess of the stalwart sons of Odin.  Rome and Novgorod, the imperial city of Italy as well as the squalid capital of Muscovy, acknowledged the sway of kings of Teutonic or Scandinavian blood.

In most cases, however, the victorious invaders merely intruded themselves among the original and far more numerous owners of the land, ruled over them, and were absorbed by them.  This happened to both Teuton and Scandinavian; to the descendants of Alaric, as well as to the children of Rurik.  The Dane in Ireland became a Celt; the Goth of the Iberian peninsula became a Spaniard; Frank and Norwegian alike were merged into the mass of Romance-speaking Gauls, who themselves finally grew to be called by the names of their masters.  Thus it came about that though the German tribes conquered Europe they did not extend the limits of Germany nor the sway of the German race.  On the contrary, they strengthened the hands of the rivals of the people from whom they sprang.  They gave rulers—­kaisers, kings, barons, and knights—­to all the lands they overran; here and there they imposed their own names on kingdoms and principalities—­as in France, Normandy, Burgundy, and Lombardy; they grafted the feudal system on the Roman jurisprudence, and interpolated a few Teutonic words in the Latin dialects of the peoples they had conquered; but, hopelessly outnumbered, they were soon lost in the mass of their subjects, and adopted from them their laws, their culture, and their language.  As a result, the mixed races of the south—­the Latin nations as they are sometimes called—­strengthened by the infusion of northern blood, sprang anew into vigorous life, and became for the time being the leaders of the European world.

There was but one land whereof the winning made a lasting addition to Germanic soil; but this land was destined to be of more importance in the future of the Germanic peoples than all their continental possessions, original and acquired, put together.  The day when the keels of the low-Dutch sea-thieves first grated on the British coast was big with the doom of many nations.  There sprang up in conquered southern Britain, when its name had been significantly changed to England, that branch of the Germanic stock which was in the end to grasp almost literally world-wide power, and by its overshadowing growth to dwarf into comparative insignificance all its kindred folk.  At the time, in the general wreck of the civilized world, the making of England attracted but little