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.
[49] 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. [50] 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. [51] 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.
The revenge which Attila inflicted on this monument of Roman vanity, was
harmless and ingenious. He commanded a painter to reverse the figures
and the attitudes; and the emperors were delineated on the same canvas,
approaching in a suppliant posture to empty their bags of tributary gold
before the throne of the Scythian monarch. [52] The spectators must have
confessed the truth and propriety of the alteration; and were perhaps
tempted to apply, on this singular occasion, the well-known fable of the
dispute between the lion and the man. [53]

[Footnote 48: Machinis constructis, omnibusque tormentorum generibus
adhibitis. Jornandes, c. 42, p. 673. In the thirteenth century, the
Moguls battered the cities of China with large engines, constructed by
the Mahometans or Christians in their service, which