New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-03-12
lsss,sa y. sa.e :. s.aul . INC lsa,a

to understand the historical illusions, it should be
perhaps, that Gaul had been some CEN
turtles in possession Of Rome, hui that il Was now
By several German or Barharic nations,
Goths Franks and Burgunds, which were partly
In alliance with the empire and partly in hostility
The Etius spoken of in the extract was the Master
of Militia or Generalissimo of the Roman empire !:
During Tie ten years that ensued Gaul enjoyed d
comparative tranquility. If Spain were wrenched
from the Roman dominion By the restless suevi
"a. u. 43s-44e); Il the island Of Britain, after a
brief but aarehicaI independence under its native
chiefs was also tern from her grasp forever by the
intrepid Saxon "a. n 445), the head and center Of
the western prefecture remained, amid the dislo.
cations Of the time, breathless and calm.
It would appear as If this anxiety portended the
bursting Of heavier tempest. For fifty years or
more a feeling of awe and expectation had fol
lowed the movements of the Huns, who lowered
like sullen cloud on the confines of either EN-
pire. Ferocious and sanguinary monsters, whom
the barbaric supersttions begat Of the embrace Of
demons with the witches Of the desert, they were
equally detested as friends and enemies. Their
great leader, Roua, long patron Of Etius having
died In "A. d. AL he left his sceptre to bis nephews
Attila and Breda, or rather to Atta who, soon
thereafter comprising the murder Of his colleague
and brother, reigned alone. He was man Of thai
indomitabie and imperious will which seems ere.
ated only to make the world afraid. Combining
with matchless mastery of character, the divided
tribes OF his race under single and absolute com
mand, and pushing their conquests with marvel
Gus fertility Of warlike resource through all sur
rounding races. till his domain extended from the
Black Sea to the Baltic, he became the universal
terror of Europe. With the empires at first he ne
gotiated and chicaned, to mask with profounder
Discrimination the Interior purposes OF his ambition;
but, when his hour came, he knew well both where
and how To strike. The solicitations and the pur-
poses Of Genserik; his hatred Of the Wisigoths,
ancient but fugitive subjects; civil discussions
among the Franks of Ganl, one of whose factions
besought his assistance; and his pretended claims
to the hand of the Princess Honoria, who in mos
ment Of fantastic passion had sent him her troth,
combined in presenting motives which directed his
march upon the Western Empire, and upon its
weakest and most defenceless part, the distracted
Gallo province.
IL Tie winter Of the year $50, with d force Of
I'VE hundred thousand men, he began to move for
ward from his wild Danuhian Businesses to the
banks of the Rhine. BY the beginning Of March.
in the following year, he had reached the fords of
that separating stream. His motly throng, EN-
gbracing representatives of nearly every race in
Eur0pe-the black Kazar, the tattooed Gelon, the
staiwart Rugian, the Heru, crazy with labor, and
the Bellonote and the Neuri, who have left their
names alone to history--had gathered other varie-
ties OF sayagery upon its passage. The Quad and
the Marcorian Of the Garpathian Hills, mingled
with the Suab of the Black Forest and the outcast
Frank 81 the Northern dunes. All the wild valor
t6aL Tor HFe HuuuTeQ wears HUI
ton seemed To be COMPOUNDED in one impulsive
mass. Amid the rolling bonlders Of the ice, and
the trunks Of trees torn from the Hercynian woods
they crossed the river, near the confluence Of the
MoseIle.
Attila, installing himself for moment in the
ancient capital of Treves, summoned Gaul to sur
render iii the magniloqnent tones Of an Oriental
sovereign. The debilitated Roman garrisons fed
even before he advanced; the federate barba-
rians, half sympathzing in his career, offered but
cials, disarmed by Roman policy, Disguised by
Roman oppression, debased by Roman vices, stood
in doubt whether he might the more properly be
regarded as an enemy or deliverer. But the
smoke of q hundred burning villages, the ruins Of
The farest cities Angst, Strasburg, Mentz, Metz,
Worms, Tongres, Arras speedily convinced them
that the stranger was indeed foe. The conster-
mated multtndes fled to the fortresses of the towns
10 the caves of the mountains to the waves of the
'ea. Alone the heroic and pious bishops Of the
,hurch rose superior to the paralyzing terrors Of
he panic. Arrayed in their magnificent robes,
md chanting their solemn and imposing psalms,
hey would often place themselves at the head of
heir timorous focks, and with prayers and
hreatenngs arrest, il not roll back, the irressti
lie tide.
Yet these were Ineffective obstacles, and the in
aston spread from Jura to the ocean, and from
be Somme to the Loire. The city of Orleans,
rhich commanded the passage OF the Loire into
outhern Gaul memorable on that account in
i'll more memorable for the exploits Of the in
,ired Jeanne Darc-was the last object of attack
i'd defence. Besieged by Attila with the bulk
i'd flower Of his forces, it was held for five weeks
. few sturdy and desperate citizens, under the |
I'D of the good st. Agnan, amid the combined |
iseries of war, pestilenee and famine. But when |
9 last scintillations of hope had expired-when |
Q Huns had effected breach and begun the car
ge, faith rather than eyesight discerned from the
pmost tower the distant approaches of the sue
sFo of lind fhn MI oof 1ts.t
Jaw the glitfcrfng eagles of the legions and the
wing standards of the Goths.
Etius, who had occupied the interval of his alb
Ice from Gaul in strenuous labors for the defense
Sicily and Italy against Genserik, was not de-
we'd by the pretences of Attila in respect to the
i objects of his westward movement; but he
lid not disfurnish the peninsula of troops, nor
collect with ease another army among the al |
and federates Of the province. a party of the |
inks and the lGtic colonists alone responded to |
summons. The Alans were In open revolt, the |
rounds sulky, and the Wisigoths though eager | |
encounter AttiIa, unwilling to quit their own
nfers. This general reluctance drove him al !
st TO despair. At length, by painful entreaties,
led BY the eloquence of the polished Arvernian I
Bile Avitus, who undertook mission to Theodo- I
|, the Goths were induced to move. Once on 2
~ however, their example stimulated the zeal J
the Brehons Of the Alps, of the Salian. Franks s
d their long-haired leader Merowig, of the Bur- b
nds OF King Gunther, of the Ripuarians of the t
asts. a mass as mnltifarious almost as that of t
tia met in the camp of the Roman chief 1t | (
ought seasonable succor to Orleans, and after
ieree and bloody struggle, forced the proud king
the Huns to beat an ilconcealed retreat !
The immense army Of Attila, consisting chiefly Of 9
yalry, withdrew with precipitation along the | {
IMAM road which led from Orleans to Sens, and t
ence TO Treyes, and did not rally until 1t had (
ached the broad plains which stretch before the {
liage Of Chalons. There pitching Its tents and I
awing up It's wagons, it was scarcely entrenched {
lore Ihe pursuing forces OF Etius began their
Istrametations on the same fields a
The night that followed was night of awaken v
3 suspense and dreadful preparation. Attila /
mself buried in the depths Of his tent was sleep
81 and depressed. The reverses he had suffered l
eiore orleans and the privatens endured by his ,
oops on their march, had lessened his habitnaI '
,nfdenee in himself and in them. A Christian
ermlt, moreover, dragged as a captive in his
ain, had aroused his superstitious fears by a | 1
range and prophetic salutation "Attila, scource
God, hammer Of the world,' he said, q know I
at heaven s about TO break the instrument of its
' In his gloom, he called his savage
ID fantastic crew of conjurors about him, to dis.
i, by their mystic rites the fatal foreboding Of
9 priest. Them says Thierry !" was enacted
scene which has found no parallel in the history
Europe. Under that Tartar tent, by the lurid
ne Of torches, in the midst of France, a council
IS held OF all the dread superstitons of the bar
ric world The dark mummery was unpro.
ious; Attila was told that he would fail and
7, when he heard also that the chief of the en-
" would be slain, snpposing the prediction to
Ign TO Ettus, his soul recovered its composure.
q his will its wonted energy.
BY the ninth hour of the next dav million of
en-, many Of them brothers by race and lineage.
ere involved in the decisive conflict II was |
.tue, says the old Gothic chronicler afierce mul-
ormt terrible, obstinate; such battle and such |
saaagh.er az the world had never seen, and will