ace. "I myself," continued Attila, "will throw the first javelin,
and the wretch who refuses to imitate the example of his sovereign, is
devoted to inevitable death." The spirit of the Barbarians was rekindled
by the presence, the voice, and the example of their intrepid leader;
and Attila, yielding to their impatience, immediately formed his order
of battle. At the head of his brave and faithful Huns, he occupied in
person the centre of the line. The nations subject to his empire, the
Rugians, the Heruli, the Thuringians, the Franks, the Burgundians, were
extended on either hand, over the ample space of the Catalaunian fields;
the right wing was commanded by Ardaric, king of the Gepidae; and the
three valiant brothers, who reigned over the Ostrogoths, were posted on
the left to oppose the kindred tribes of the Visigoths. The disposition
of the allies was regulated by a different principle. Sangiban, the
faithless king of the Alani, was placed in the centre, where his motions
might be strictly watched, and that the treachery might be instantly
punished. Aetius assumed the command of the left, and Theodoric of the
right wing; while Torismond still continued to occupy the heights which
appear to have stretched on the flank, and perhaps the rear, of the
Scythian army. The nations from the Volga to the Atlantic were assembled
on the plain of Chalons; but many of these nations had been divided by
faction, or conquest, or emigration; and the appearance of similar arms
and ensigns, which threatened each other, presented the image of a civil
war.

[Footnote 39: Aurelianensis urbis obsidio, oppugnatio, irruptio,
nec direptio, l. v. Sidon. Apollin. l. viii. Epist. 15, p. 246. The
preservation of Orleans might easily be turned into a miracle, obtained
and foretold by the holy bishop.]

[Footnote 40: The common editions read xcm but there is some authority
of manuscripts (and almost any authority is sufficient) for the more
reasonable number of xvm.]

[Footnote 41: Chalons, or Duro-Catalaunum, afterwards Catalauni, had
formerly made a part of the territory of Rheims from whence it is
distant only twenty-seven miles. See Vales, Notit. Gall. p. 136.
D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 212, 279.]

[Footnote 42: The name of Campania, or Champagne, is frequently
mentioned by Gregory of Tours; and that great province, of which
Rheims was the capital, obeyed the command of a duke. Vales. Notit. p.
120-123.]

[Footnote 43: I am