It was determined, in a
general council of war, to besiege the King of the Huns in his camp, to
intercept his provisions, and to reduce him to the alternative of a
disgraceful treaty or an unequal combat. But the impatience of the
barbarians soon disdained these cautious and dilatory measures; and the
mature policy of Aetius was apprehensive that, after the extirpation of
the Huns, the republic would be oppressed by the pride and power of the
Gothic nation.
The patrician exerted the superior ascendants of authority and reason to
calm the passions, which the son of Theodoric considered as a duty;
represented, with seeming affection and real truth, the dangers of
absence and delay; and persuaded Torismond to disappoint, by his speedy
return, the ambitious designs of his brothers, who might occupy the
throne and treasures of Toulouse. After the departure of the Goths and
the separation of the allied army, Attila was surprised at the vast
silence that reigned over the plains of Chalons: the suspicion of some
hostile stratagem detained him several days within the circle of his
wagons, and his retreat beyond the Rhine confessed the last victory
which was achieved in the name of the Western Empire.
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