Footnote 1: The armies of Attila were always followed, we are told, by an immense number of spare horses, besides those which bore his warriors and those which were attached to the wagons.
Footnote 2: Such I believe to be the real history of this famous contest. We derive all our knowledge of the particulars from the Goths and Romans, as the Huns were not historians, or, at least, did not write their own version of the events in which they were engaged. Even in the present age, when both parties do not scruple to render their pretensions to success on such occasions permanent, how often do we see a battle lost claimed by the loser as a battle won! and, of course, it is more likely to have been so when there was no check found in a counter statement. The historians, however, suffer one or two important facts to appear, which prevent us from believing that Ætius and Theodoric obtained a victory over Attila on the present occasion. In the first place, it is clear that the immense Roman and Gothic army dispersed itself immediately after the battle in which Theodoric was killed. Reasons have been assigned for this proceeding, which are in themselves improbable and unsatisfactory; but which, when coupled with the fact that Attila afterward sacked Langres and Besançon, and with the strong reasons which exist for believing that Ætius himself retreated at once into the Lyonnaise, render the victory of the Romans somewhat more than doubtful. It seems to me very clear that the battle may have had an indecisive termination, but that Ætius, finding that the Goths and Franks could not be induced to try the fortunes of another day against Attila, retreated himself in haste towards Italy; while Attila, whose loss had been very great, proceeded by a new road towards his own land, ravaging the country, and taking several very important towns in his way. The very words of Jornandes admit that Attila was but little depressed by the event of the battle, and imply that his after-march was still as in a career of victory. Nor is there the slightest proof, that I have been able to discover, that Ætius, as some have declared, followed the monarch of the Huns even at a distance.
If such were the way that the Romans and Goths employed a victory, they must have been moderate and generous indeed; and, under such circumstances, it might be doubtful whether they did not treat their enemies more mildly than their friends. The character of Ætius is represented by his panegyrists on the present occasion (probably to screen him from the disgrace of defeat) in a very singular and not creditable point of view. He cheated both the Goths and Franks, we are told, in order to get rid of them; and then, when left alone with Attila, escorted his great enemy quietly out of Gaul, sufferi2796ng him to sack and destroy what cities he pleased as he went. Is this reasonable? Is this probable?
Footnote 3: After writing the above song, a friend suggested to me that it bore a resemblance to some other verses of which we could both recall a part, but not the whole. We could neither remember the author's name, nor where they were printed; but I have since found that the poem alluded to is by Mrs. Hemans; and the author of Conti, a work full of interest, enthusiasm, and high feeling, lately pointed out to me that the stanzas are printed among the minor poems following "The forest Sanctuary." They commence, "Bring flowers!" and in two or three of the stanzas there is much similarity with the above.
Footnote 4: The march of the armies of Attila in all his expeditions is very doubtfully displayed by ancient historians; but that in his advance into Italy he took and sacked the city of Augusta Vindelicorum, or Augsburg, is clear, previous to the capture of Aquileia, and therefore that he must have traversed some part of the Julian or Rhætian Alps is equally certain. Any one who casts his eye upon the map will see that his direct way into Italy, from Vindelicia, was by the passes of the Tyrol; and any one who is acquainted with the nature of the country will, if he take into consideration that the army of Attila consisted entirely of cavalry, conclude that the Brenner was the pass by which he conducted his myriads towards the plains of Lombardy.
Footnote 5: Milan.
Footnote 6: Let it be understood that such particulars are not imaginary Attila was buried with the rites here described.