ct of Aetius and
Theodoric, advanced, by rapid marches, to relieve Orleans and to give
battle to the innumerable host of Attila.

On their approach, the king of the Huns immediately raised the siege,
and sounded a retreat to recall the foremost of his troops from the
pillage of a city which they had already entered. The valor of Attila
was always guided by his prudence; and as he foresaw the fatal
consequences of a defeat in the heart of Gaul, he repassed the Seine,
and expected the enemy in the plains of Chalons, whose smooth and level
surface was adapted to the operations of his Scythian cavalry. But in
this tumultuary retreat, the vanguard of the Romans and their allies
continually pressed, and sometimes engaged, the troops whom Attila had
posted in the rear; the hostile columns, in the darkness of the night
and the perplexity of the roads, might encounter each other without
design; and the bloody conflict of the Franks and Gepidae, in which
fifteen thousand barbarians were slain, was a prelude to a more general
and decisive action.

The Catalaunian fields spread themselves round Chalons, and extend,
according to the vague measurement of Jornandes, to the length of one
hundred and fifty and the breadth of one hundred miles, over the whole
province, which is entitled to the appellation of a _champaign_ country.
This spacious plain was distinguished, however, by some inequalities of
ground; and the importance of a height which commanded the camp of
Attila was understood and disputed by the two generals. The young and
valiant Torismond first occupied the summit; the Goths rushed with
irresistible weight on the Huns, who labored to ascend from the opposite
side; and the possession of this advantageous post inspired both the
troops and their leaders with a fair assurance of victory. The anxiety
of Attila prompted him to consult his priests and haruspices. It was
reported that, after scrutinizing the entrails of victims and scraping
their bones, they revealed, in mysterious language, his own defeat, with
the death of his principal adversary; and that the barbarian, by
accepting the equivalent, expressed his involuntary esteem for the
superior merit of Aetius.

But the unusual despondency, which seemed to prevail among the Huns,
engaged Attila to use the expedient, so familiar to the generals of
antiquity, of animating his troops by a military oration; and his
language was that of a king who had often fought and conquere