since the bravest soldiers of the Romans withstood him
from within. At last his army was discontented and
eager to withdraw. Attila chanced to be walking around
the walls, considering whether to break camp or delay
longer, and noticed that the white birds, namely, the
storks, who build their nests in the gables of houses, were
bearing their young from the city and, contrary to their
custom, were carrying them out into the country. Being 221
a shrewd observer of events, he understood this and said
to his soldiers: "You see the birds foresee the future.
They are leaving the city sure to perish and are forsaking
strongholds doomed to fall by reason of imminent peril.
Do not think this a meaningless or uncertain sign; fear,
arising from the things they foresee, has changed their
custom." Why say more? He inflamed the hearts of
his soldiers to attack Aquileia again. Constructing battering
rams and bringing to bear all manner of engines
of war, they quickly forced their way into the city, laid it
waste, divided the spoil and so cruelly devastated it as
scarcely to leave a trace to be seen. Then growing bolder 222
and still thirsting for Roman blood, the Huns raged
madly through the remaining cities of the Veneti. They
also laid waste Mediolanum, the metropolis of Liguria,
once an imperial city, and gave over Ticinum to a like
fate. Then they destroyed the neighboring country in
their frenzy and demolished almost the whole of Italy.

[Sidenote: POPE LEO INTERVENES TO SAVE ROME 452]

Attila's mind had been bent on going to Rome. But