incess had been sent away, as an object of horror,
from Constantinople to Italy: her life was spared; but the ceremony of
her marriage was performed with some obscure and nominal husband,
before she was immured in a perpetual prison, to bewail those crimes and
misfortunes, which Honoria might have escaped, had she not been born the
daughter of an emperor.

A native of Gaul, and a contemporary, the learned and eloquent Sidonius,
who was afterwards bishop of Clermont, had made a promise to one of his
friends, that he would compose a regular history of the war of Attila.
If the modesty of Sidonius had not discouraged him from the prosecution
of this interesting work, the historian would have related, with the
simplicity of truth, those memorable events, to which the poet, in vague
and doubtful metaphors, has concisely alluded. The kings and nations of
Germany and Scythia, from the Volga perhaps to the Danube, obeyed the
warlike summons of Attila. From the royal village, in the plains of
Hungary his standard moved towards the West; and after a march of seven
or eight hundred miles, he reached the conflux of the Rhine and the
Neckar, where he was joined by the Franks, who adhered to his ally, the
elder of the sons of Clodion. A troop of light Barbarians, who roamed in
quest of plunder, might choose the winter for the convenience of passing
the river on the ice; but the innumerable cavalry of the Huns required
such plenty of forage and provisions, as could be procured only in a
milder season; the Hercynian forest supplied materials for a bridge of
boats; and the hostile myriads were poured, with resistless violence,
into the Belgic provinces. The consternation of Gaul was universal; and
the various fortunes of its cities have been adorned by tradition with
martyrdoms and miracles. Troyes was saved by the merits of St. Lupus;
St. Servatius was removed from the world, that he might not behold the
ruin of Tongres; and the prayers of St. Genevieve diverted the march of
Attila from the neighborhood of Paris. But as the greatest part of the
Gallic cities were alike destitute of saints and soldiers, they were
besieged and stormed by the Huns; who practised, in the example of Metz,
their customary maxims of war. They involved, in a promiscuous massacre,
the priests who served at the altar, and the infants, who, in the hour
of danger, had been providently baptized by the bishop; the flourishing
city was delivered to the flames, and a s