liaries, who appeared to have served under their
native princes, Alaric and Antala, communicated their intrepid spirit;
and the citizens still remembered the glorious and successful resistance
which their ancestors had opposed to a fierce, inexorable Barbarian, who
disgraced the majesty of the Roman purple. Three months were consumed
without effect in the siege of the Aquileia; till the want of
provisions, and the clamors of his army, compelled Attila to relinquish
the enterprise; and reluctantly to issue his orders, that the troops
should strike their tents the next morning, and begin their retreat.
But as he rode round the walls, pensive, angry, and disappointed, he
observed a stork preparing to leave her nest, in one of the towers, and
to fly with her infant family towards the country. He seized, with the
ready penetration of a statesman, this trifling incident, which chance
had offered to superstition; and exclaimed, in a loud and cheerful tone,
that such a domestic bird, so constantly attached to human society,
would never have abandoned her ancient seats, unless those towers had
been devoted to impending ruin and solitude. The favorable omen inspired
an assurance of victory; the siege was renewed and prosecuted with fresh
vigor; a large breach was made in the part of the wall from whence
the stork had taken her flight; the Huns mounted to the assault with
irresistible fury; and the succeeding generation could scarcely discover
the ruins of Aquileia. After this dreadful chastisement, Attila pursued
his march; and as he passed, the cities of Altinum, Concordia, and
Padua, were reduced into heaps of stones and ashes. The inland towns,
Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, were exposed to the rapacious cruelty of
the Huns. Milan and Pavia submitted, without resistance, to the loss of
their wealth; and applauded the unusual clemency which preserved from
the flames the public, as well as private, buildings, and spared the
lives of the captive multitude. The popular traditions of Comum, Turin,
or Modena, may justly be suspected; yet they concur with more authentic
evidence to prove, that Attila spread his ravages over the rich plains
of modern Lombardy; which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the Alps
and Apennine. When he took possession of the royal palace of Milan, he
was surprised and offended at the sight of a picture which represented
the Caesars seated on their throne, and the princes of Scythia prostrate
at their feet.