For several days they had followed
the picturesque banks of the green river, with its bulrushes and
willows, and its swarms of wild duck and herons. Now they were about
to leave the cool shades of the forest region, and turn eastward
towards the salt desert, which stretched to the banks of the
yellow Theiss.
One leader of the caravan was a well-known Roman, called Orestes;
the other was Rugier, also called Edeko. He was a chief from the
shores of the Baltic Sea, and had been compelled to follow Attila.
The two leaders had hitherto spoken little together, for they
mistrusted each other. But as they emerged on the wide plain, which
opened out as clear and bright as the surface of the sea, they
seemed themselves to grow cheerful, and to lay aside all mistrust.
"Why are you going to the marriage?" asked Orestes.
"Because I cannot remain away," answered Edeko.
"Just like myself."
"And the Bride--the Burgundian did not dare to say 'no' either?"
"She? Yes, she would have dared to."
"Then she loved this savage?"
"I did not say that."
"Perhaps she hates him, then? A new Judith for this Holofernes?"
"Who knows? The Burgundians do not love the Huns since they pillaged
Worms in their last raid."
"Still it is incomprehensible how he recovered from his defeat on
the Catalaunian Plain.
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