whose like no ancient time has ever recorded. There such
deeds were done that a brave man who missed this marvellous
spectacle could not hope to see anything so wonderful
all his life long. For, if we may believe our 208
elders, a brook flowing between low banks through the
plain was greatly increased by blood from the wounds
of the slain. It was not flooded by showers, as brooks
usually rise, but was swollen by a strange stream and
turned into a torrent by the increase of blood. Those
whose wounds drove them to slake their parching thirst
drank water mingled with gore. In their wretched plight
they were forced to drink what they thought was the
blood they had poured from their own wounds.

[Sidenote: DEATH OF KING THEODORID I IN THE BATTLE]

Here King Theodorid, while riding by to encourage 209
his army, was thrown from his horse and trampled under
foot by his own men, thus ending his days at a ripe old
age. But others say he was slain by the spear of Andag
of the host of the Ostrogoths, who were then under the
sway of Attila. This was what the soothsayers had told
to Attila in prophecy, though he understood it of Aëtius.
Then the Visigoths, separating from the Alani, fell upon 210
the horde of the Huns and nearly slew Attila. But he
prudently took flight and straightway shut himself and
his companions within the barriers of the camp, which
he had fortified with wagons. A frail defence indeed;
yet there they sought refuge for their lives, whom but a
little while before no walls of earth could withstand.