"
"Quite like the Christians, then?"
"It is remarkable that in Rome he received respect from Pope Leo
--What's the matter now?"
Outside there was a shouting which at first seemed to issue from the
palace, but soon spread itself over the camp. Half a million of men
were howling, and it sounded like weeping.
The guests hurried out, and saw all the Huns dancing, cutting their
faces with knives, and shouting unintelligible words. Edeko came up
and pulled Orestes away through the crowds. "Attila is dead! May
Jesus Christ be praised!"
"Dead? That is Ildico's doing!"
"No! she sat by the corpse, veiled and weeping."
"Yes, it is she."
"Yes, but these savages are too proud to believe that Attila could
be killed by a human being!"
"How fortunate for us!"
"Quick to Rome with the news. The fortune of the man who first
brings it is made."
Orestes and Edeko departed the same morning. They never forgot this
wedding which had brought them together.
Later on they renewed their acquaintance, under other and still more
striking circumstances. For the son of Edeko was Odovacer, who
defeated the son of Orestes, who was no other than the last Emperor
Romulus Augustus. Strangely enough his name was Romulus, as was that
of Rome's first King, and Augustus, as was that of the first Emperor.
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