ious
language, his own defeat, with the death of his principal adversary;
and that the Barbarians, 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 conquered at their head. He pressed
them to consider their past glory, their actual danger, and their
future hopes. The same fortune, which opened the deserts and morasses of
Scythia to their unarmed valor, which had laid so many warlike nations
prostrate at their feet, had reserved the _joys_ of this memorable field
for the consummation of their victories. The cautious steps of their
enemies, their strict alliance, and their advantageous posts, he
artfully represented as the effects, not of prudence, but of fear. The
Visigoths alone were the strength and nerves of the opposite army; and
the Huns might securely trample on the degenerate Romans, whose close
and compact order betrayed their apprehensions, and who were equally
incapable of supporting the dangers or the fatigues of a day of battle.
The doctrine of predestination, so favorable to martial virtue, was
carefully inculcated by the king of the Huns; who assured his subjects,
that the warriors, protected by Heaven, were safe and invulnerable
amidst the darts of the enemy; but that the unerring Fates would strike
their victims in the bosom of inglorious peace. "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 d