THE HUNS OF ATTILA. 223 



No will or might of man could resist the fateful doom. For the 

 decree had gone forth ; and by the side of young Torismund 

 there was a spirit mightier than man's which guided the closing 

 struggle. 



At length, as night drew over the scene its thickening veil, 

 Attila commanded the trumpets to sound a retreat. And soon, 

 defeated and pursued, his weary warriors gathered within the 

 circle of their wagons. Torismund and the Roman too retired 

 from the field ; and darkness spread its gloomy pall above the 

 ghastliest scene on earth. 



The number of killed in the battle of Chalons has been 

 variously estimated by historians from 162,000 to 300,000, 

 according as they have included those left dead on the field of 

 battle, or those who died of their wounds, or were otherwise 

 missing. But it was a sufficient number in any case to show 

 that this engagement was the most sanguinary that the world has 

 ever witnessed. As the chronicler of the time has most quaintly 

 remarked, " There was nothing to be compared with it in all the 

 annals of antiquity ; and it shows how the madness of kings 

 may thus in a few hours sweep away whole generations of men." 



During the night Attila caused a huge funereal pile to be 

 erected of the wooden saddles of his cavalry, on which he placed 

 all his trophies and his captures, resolved that if the Romans 

 stormed the camp on the following morning they should fail of 

 their most coveted prize, the person of the barbarian king. But 

 for unknown, or at least unrecorded reasons, Aetius chose to 

 allow the now desperate remnant of his enemy to retire without 

 further worrying. He may have thought the wounded lion more 

 dangerous than in fresh and open fight ; or he may rather have 

 thought that another such a victory as he had already won would 

 be enough to 'ruin any army or any cause. At all events the 

 Huns soon broke their encampment and retired unmolested to 

 the dark forests of Hungary. And when two years after, on the 

 death of Attila, his wide empire was dismembered and dissolved, 

 Christianity drew a long breath of relief, and rested for a time 

 from the perils that had so closely beset it. 



Had the " Scourge of God " been victorious on the Catalaunian 

 plains, who will estimate the influence it would have exerted on 



