But meanwhile there had been more evident tokens of the utter collapse of the Avar kingdom. The conduct of the war after Charles’s departure had apparently been left to the Duke of Friuli, who inherited the hatred of two centuries of border wars between his duchy and the Avars. The duke now ruling was a Frank named Eric, a man distinguished in the wars, and who might truly be called a Paladin of Charles’s court, but also a generous benefactor of the poor, a friend of the Church, a man to whom Paulinus, Bishop of Aquileia, addressed a treatise on practical religion (perhaps something like Jeremy Taylor’s treatise on _Holy Living_), evidently with the assurance that it would meet with a hearty welcome from his friend. This devout and valiant warrior, in the late autumn of 795, invaded Avar-land, penetrated to the far-famed _Hring_, pierced through all its seven circles, and made himself master of the immense hoard which the _chagans_ had been piling up there for two centuries. It was no wonder that he found an enormous accumulation of treasure, for, besides the results of the mere robber raids which the predatory Avars had made on all the surrounding peoples, during a great part of the seventh century the eastern emperors had been forced to pay 80,000 or 100,000 golden _solidi_[54] as a yearly tribute to these terrible neighbors; nay, on one occasion the Emperor Heraclius had to purchase peace from them at the price of 200,000 _solidi_. The locking up of such a vast quantity of the only considerable European currency in this barbarian stronghold must have sensibly affected the economic condition of Europe, and it would not be surprising if future inquirers should discover that there was a great rise of prices as the consequence of its dispersion. Besides the hoarded _solidi_ there were gorgeous arms, silken tissues, and many other precious things; and all these, according to one annalist, were sent piled on fifteen great wagons, each drawn by four oxen, to Charles at Aachen. The courtiers and nobles received generous presents from the king out of the great hoard; the pope and his chief ecclesiastical friends were not forgotten, but much also was laid up in the royal treasury and not distributed till the king’s death. In the next year (796) Charles’s son Pippin, King of Italy, followed up Eric’s success; again visited the mysterious _Hring_ to complete the work of spoliation, drove the Avars across the Theiss, and visited his father at Aachen, bringing with him the plunder of the conquered people.