THE HUNS OF ATTILA. 217 



race beneath the walls of the "Eternal City." Host upon host 

 of Gothic clans poured down on the plains of the Po ; arid 

 almost before the rumor of the approaching deluge had reached 

 the capitol, its roar was heard from the watch-towers, and Rome, 

 whose sacred walls had never known till now the unhallowed 

 contact of barbarism, looked out upon a raging sea of north-men. 

 Cut off from all supplies, the besieged were soon reduced to the 

 vilest extremity of famine and pestilence, and were compelled 

 to purchase the retreat of the barbarians at the price of tons of 

 gold and silver and silks and spices. But in the absence of 

 impending danger, the old Roman haughtiness returned, and the 

 revolting conditions of the truce were spurned. Again Alaric 

 stood at its gates and summoned the proud city to surrender. 

 Again he dictated the terms of capitulation and retired, having 

 seated on the imperial throne a Roman of his own choosing. 

 He was soon however recalled again by another, the last faint 

 nickering of a flame that had once blazed brightly on a universe. 

 For the third time the stern Alaric sat down before the gates of 

 the queen of cities, his anger aroused by the childs-play of his 

 fickle enemies. Treachery speedily opened the gates to his army ; 

 and at the still hour of midnight, suddenly the clang of barbarian 

 arms rang out on the silent streets, and the lurid glare of confla- 

 gration burst on the appalled city. For six days was the seat of 

 ancient wealth and classic beauty given over to the licentious 

 pillage of the hordes of the northern forests ; and the track was 

 now broadly beaten, in which, as shortly closed its twelfth 

 century, the last vestige of the might and majesty of old Rome 

 was trampled out beneath the iron tread of barbarism. 



In the fifty years which succeeded their first appearance, the 

 Huns had become the masters of northern and eastern Europe, 

 as of old they had been of northern Asia. The Russian and the 

 Finn brought down to them their furs ; the Eastern Empire sent 

 tribute of its wines and its money ; and the hardy warriors of 

 Germany and Scandinavia bore the bow and the battle-ax in their 

 lines. It was then, as the chieftain of these savage hordes, that 

 Attila appeared, a leader courageous, resolute and relentless 



