The history of the successors of Theodosius bears no small analogy to that of the successors of Aurungzebe.  But perhaps the fall of the Carlovingians furnishes the nearest parallel to the fall of the Moguls.  Charlemagne was scarcely interred when the imbecility and the disputes of his descendants began to bring contempt on themselves and destruction on their subjects.  The wide dominion of the Franks was severed into a thousand pieces.  Nothing more than a nominal dignity was left to the abject heirs of an illustrious name, Charles the Bald, and Charles the Fat, and Charles the Simple.  Fierce invaders, differing, from each other in race, language, and religion, flocked, as if by concert, from the farthest corners of the earth, to plunder provinces which the government could no longer defend.  The pirates of the Northern Sea extended their ravages from the Elbe to the Pyrenees, and at length fixed their seat in the rich valley of the Seine.  The Hungarian, in whom the trembling monks fancied that they recognised the Gog or Magog of prophecy, carried back the plunder of the cities of Lombardy to the depths of the Pannonian forests.  The Saracen ruled in Sicily, desolated the fertile plains of Campania, and spread terror even to the walls of Rome.  In the midst of these sufferings, a great internal change passed upon the empire.  The corruption of death began to ferment into new forms of life.  While the great body, as a whole, was torpid and passive, every separate member began to feel with a sense and to move with an energy all its own.  Just here, in the most barren and dreary tract of European history, all feudal privileges, all modern nobility, take their source.  It is to this point, that we trace the power of those princes who, nominally vassals, but really independent, long governed, with the titles of dukes, marquesses, and counts, almost every part of the dominions which had obeyed Charlemagne.

Such or nearly such was the change which passed on the Mogul empire during the forty years which followed the death of Aurungzebe.  A succession of nominal sovereigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, sauntered away life in secluded palaces, chewing bang, fondling concubines, and listening to buffoons.  A succession of ferocious invaders descended through the western passes, to prey on the defenceless wealth of Hindostan.  A Persian conqueror crossed the Indus, marched through the gates of Delhi, and bore away in triumph those treasures of which the magnificence had astounded Roe and Bernier, the Peacock Throne, on which the richest jewels of Golconda had been disposed by the most skilful hands of Europe, and the inestimable Mountain of Light, which, after many strange vicissitudes, lately shone in the bracelet of Runjeet Sing, and is now destined to adorn the hideous idol of Orissa.  The Afghan soon followed to complete the work of the devastation which the Persian had begun.  The warlike tribes of Rajpootana, threw off the Mussulman yoke.