, Attila advanced into the
heart of Gaul, crossed the Seine at Auxerre, and, after a long and
laborious march, fixed his camp under the walls of Orleans." "An alliance
was formed between the Romans and Visigoths." The hostile armies
approached. " 'I myself,' said 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, Attila occupied, in
person, the centre of the line." The nations from the Volga to the
Atlantic were assembled on the plains of Chalons; and there fought a
battle, "fierce, various, obstinate, and bloody, such as could not be
paralleled, either in the present, or in past ages! The number of the
slain amounted to one hundred and sixty-two thousand, or according to
another account, three hundred thousand persons; and these incredible
exaggerations suppose a real or effective loss, sufficient to justify the
historian's remark, that whole generations may be swept away, by the
madness of kings, in the space of a single hour."

Attila was compelled to retreat; but neither his forces nor reputation
suffered. He "passed the Alps, invaded Italy, and besieged Aquileia with
an innumerable host of barbarians." "The succeeding generation could
scarcely discover the ruins of Aquileia. 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." "Attila spread his ravages over the rich
plains of modern Lombardy; which are divided by the Po, and bounded by the
Alps and Apennines." He took possession of the royal palace of Milan. "It
is a saying worthy of the ferocious pride of Attila, that the grass never
grew on the spot where his horse had trod."

He advanced into Italy, only as far as the plains of Lombardy and the
banks of the Po, reducing the cities he passed to stone