ign was the capture of
Paris."

It was not until the year 451 that the Huns commenced the siege of
Orleans; and during their campaign in Eastern Gaul, the Roman general
Aetius had strenuously exerted himself in collecting and organizing such
an army as might, when united to the soldiery of the Visigoths, be fit
to face the Huns in the field. He enlisted every subject of the Roman
Empire whom patriotism, courage, or compulsion could collect beneath the
standards; and round these troops, which assumed the once proud title of
the legions of Rome he arrayed the large forces of barbaric auxiliaries,
whom pay, persuasion, or the general hate and dread of the Huns brought
to the camp of the last of the Roman generals. King Theodoric exerted
himself with equal energy. Orleans resisted her besiegers bravely as in
after-times. The passage of the Loire was skilfully defended against the
Huns; and Aetius and Theodoric, after much manoeuvring and difficulty,
effected a junction of their armies to the south of that important
river.

On the advance of the allies upon Orleans, Attila instantly broke up the
siege of that city and retreated toward the Marne. He did not choose to
risk a decisive battle with only the central corps of his army against
the combined power of his enemies, and he therefore fell back upon his
base of operations, calling in his wings from Arras and Besancon, and
concentrating the whole of the Hunnish forces on the vast plains of
Chalons-sur-Marne. A glance at the map will show how scientifically this
place was chosen by the Hunnish general as the point for his scattered
forces to converge upon; and the nature of the ground was eminently
favorable for the operations of cavalry, the arm in which Attila's
strength peculiarly lay.

It was during the retreat from Orleans that a Christian hermit is
reported to have approached the Hunnish King and said to him, "Thou art
the Scourge of God for the chastisement of the Christians." Attila
instantly assumed this new title of terror, which thenceforth became the
appellation by which he was most widely and most fearfully known.

The confederate armies of Romans and Visigoths at last met their great
adversary face to face on the ample battleground of the Chalons plains.
Aetius commanded on the right of the allies; King Theodoric on the left;
and Sangipan, King of the Alans, whose fidelity was suspected, was
placed purposely in the centre, and in the very front of the battl