After the Huns had invaded Thrace and compelled the Eastern Empire to pay a double tribute, the Emperor of the West, Valentinian III. (the grandson of Theodosius), sent an embassy to Attila, soliciting his friendship: the Emperor's sister, Honoria, offered him her hand. Both divisions of the Empire thus did him reverence, and he had little to fear from the force which either could bring against him; but the Goths and Vandals, now warlike and victorious races, were more formidable foes. Here, however, he was favored by the hostility between the aged Geiserich, king of the Vandals, and the young Theodoric, king of the Visigoths. The former sent messages to Attila, inciting him to march into Gaul and overthrow Theodoric, who was Geiserich's relative and rival. Soon afterwards, a new Emperor, at Constantinople, refused the additional tribute, and Valentinian III. withheld the hand of his sister Honoria. Attila, now--towards the close of the year 449--made preparations for a grand war of conquest. He already possessed unbounded influence over the Huns, and supernatural signs of his coming career were soon supplied. A peasant dug up a jewelled sword, which, it was said, had long before been given to a race of kings by the god of war. This was brought to Attila, and thenceforth worn by him. He was called "The Scourge of God," and the people believed that wherever the hoofs of his horse had trodden no grass ever grew again. The fear of his power, or the hope of plunder, drew large numbers of the German tribes to his side, and the army with which he set out for the conquest, first of Gaul and then of Europe, is estimated at from 500,000 to 700,000 warriors. With this, he passed through the heart of Germany, much of which he had already made tributary, and reached the Rhine. Here Gunther, the king of the Burgundians, opposed him with a force of 10,000 men and was speedily crushed. Even a portion of the Franks, who were then quarrelling among themselves, joined him, and now Gaul divided between Franks, Romans and Visigoths, was open to his advance. [Sidenote: 451. THE SIEGE OF ORLEANS.] The minister and counsellor of Valentinian III. was Aëtius, the son of a Gothic father and a Roman mother. As soon as Attila's design became known, he hastened to Gaul, collected the troops still in Roman service, and procured the alliance of Theodoric and the Visigoths. The Alans, under their king Sangipan, were also persuaded to unite their forces: the independent Celts in Brittany, and a large portion of the Franks and Burgundians, all of whom were threatened by the invasion of the Huns, hastened to the side of Aëtius, so that the army commanded by himself and Theodoric became nearly if not quite equal in numbers to that of Attila. The latter, by this time, had marched into the heart of Gaul, laying waste the country through which he passed, and meeting no resistance until he reached the walled and fortified city of Orleans. This was in the year 451.