Meantime the energy of the unscrupulous but able Count Aetius, who ruled the court and commanded the resources of the Western Empire, had brought about a general combination of the barbarian forces in Gaul with those of the Romans. It included, first in importance, the Goths of the kingdom of Toulouse, under their king Theodoric, and with them the Burgundians, the Alans, a part of the Franks, and detachments of Saxons, Armoricans and other tribes. There were Goths, too, and Franks and Burgundians in the host of the Hun king. The latter laid siege to Orleans and the walls of the brave city were already crumbling under his battering rams when the banners of Aetius and Theodoric came in sight. Attila retreated beyond the Seine and took a position somewhere within the wide extent of what were anciently called the Catalaunian fields, now known as the Champagn country surrounding Chalons. There, in the early days of July, A. D. 451, was fought the great and terrible battle which rescued Europe from the all-conquering Tartar. {1689} The number of the slain, according to one chronicler, was 162,000; according to others 300,000. Neither army could claim a victory; both feared to renew the engagement. The Goths, whose king Theodoric was slain, withdrew in one direction, to their own territory; the Huns retreated in the other direction and quitted Gaul forever. The wily Roman, Aetins, was probably best satisfied with a result which crippled both Goth and Hun. As for the battle, its latest historian says: "Posterity has chosen to call it the battle of Chalons, but there is good reason to think that it was fought fifty miles distant from Chalons-sur-Marne, and that it would be more correctly named the battle of Troyes, or, to speak with complete accuracy, the battle of Mery-sur-Seine." _T. Hodgkin, Italy and Her Invaders, book 2, chapter 3 (volume 2)._ "It was during the retreat from Orleans that a Christian hermit is reported to have approached the Hunnish king, and said to him, 'Thou art the Scourge of God for the chastisement of Christians.' Attila instantly assumed this new title of terror, which thenceforth became the appellation by which he was most widely and most fearfully known." _Sir E. Creasy, Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, chapter 6._ HUNS: A. D. 452. Attila's invasion of Italy.