r
camp was flooded; their tents were overturned by the power of the
winds, and many among them perished by lightning. The rain lasted for
three days, after which time Attila assailed the ramparts with
powerful engines of war. When they saw the walls fall down the
inhabitants were terrified. All hope of resistance being at an end,
the holy bishop, clad in his episcopal robes, went to the King of the
Huns and adjured him to take pity on the people of Orleans,
threatening him with the wrath of God if he dealt hardly with the
conquered. These prayers and these threats did not soften Attila's
heart. On his return to the faithful, the bishop warned them that
henceforth nothing remained to them but trust in God; divine succour,
however, would not fail them. And soon, according to the promise he
had given them, God delivered the town by means of the Romans and the
Franks, who defied the Huns in a great battle. Not long after the
miraculous deliverance of his beloved city, Saint Aignan fell asleep
in the Lord.[500]

[Footnote 500: Hubert, _Antiquitez historiques de l'eglise royale de
Saint-Aignan d'Orleans_, 1661, in 8vo, pp. 1-15.]

Wherefore, in this great peril of the English, the citizens of Orleans
resorted to Saint Euverte and Saint-Aignan for succour and relief.
According to the marvels accomplished by Saint-Aignan in this mortal
life they measured his power of working miracles now that he was in
Paradise. These two confessors had each his church in the faubourg de
Bourgogne, wherein their bodies were jealously guarded.[501] In those
days the bones of martyrs and confessors were devoutly worshipped. It
was said that sometimes they shed abroad a healing odour which
represented the virtues proceeding from them. They were enclosed in
gilded reliquaries adorned with precious stones, and no miracle was
thought too great to be accomplished by these holy relics. On the 6th
of August, 1428, the clergy of the city went to the church wherein was
the reliquary of Saint Euverte and bore it round the walls, that they
might be strengthened. And the holy reliquary made the round of the
whole city, followed by all the people. On the 8th of September a
_tortis_ weighing one hundred and ten livres[502] was offered to
Saint-Aignan. In time of need the favour of the saints was solicited
by all kinds of gifts, garments, jewels, coins, houses, lands, woods,
ponds; but natural wax was thought to be especially grateful to them.
A _tortis_ was