nail the deceitful interpreter to the cross, and leave his body to the
vultures. The Barbarian condescended, by producing an accurate list, to
expose the bold falsehood of Vigilius, who had affirmed that no more
than seventeen deserters could be found. But he arrogantly declared that
he apprehended only the disgrace of contending with his fugitive slaves;
since he despised their impotent efforts to defend the provinces which
Theodosius had intrusted to their arms: "For what fortress," added
Attila, "what city, in the wide extent of the Roman Empire, can hope to
exist, secure and impregnable, if it is our pleasure that it should be
erased from the earth?"

He dismissed, however, the interpreter, who returned to Constantinople
with his peremptory demand of more complete restitution and a more
splendid embassy. His anger gradually subsided, and his domestic
satisfaction in a marriage which he celebrated on the road with the
daughter of Eslam, might perhaps contribute to mollify the native
fierceness of his temper. The entrance of Attila into the royal village
was marked by a very singular ceremony. A numerous troop of women came
out to meet their hero and their King. They marched before him,
distributed into long and regular files; the intervals between the files
were filled by white veils of thin linen, which the women on either side
bore aloft in their hands, and which formed a canopy for a chorus of
young virgins, who chanted hymns and songs in the Scythian language. The
wife of his favorite Onegesius, with a train of female attendants,
saluted Attila at the door of her own house, on his way to the palace;
and offered, according to the custom of the country, her respectful
homage, by entreating him to taste the wine and meat which she had
prepared for his reception. As soon as the monarch had graciously
accepted her hospitable gift, his domestics lifted a small silver table
to a convenient height, as he sat on horseback; and Attila, when he had