CHAPTER XII.
ST. PATRICK’S CHILDREN IN ST. LEO’S CITY.
Great was the exultation in Rome at the news of the victory on the Catalaunian plains, the defeat of Attila, and his retreat with his Huns to their camps beyond the Danube.
The echo of the triumph soon reached the quiet portico of the palace on the Aventine, where Damaris and Lucia were sitting together in the hush of a July noon. Fabricius came in with the news.
“Attila is in retreat; there has been a battle, with the slaughter of hundreds of thousands, and here is a letter for thee.”
It was the one Marius had written from the battle-field. In a few days followed the second from Troyes. It was to Lucia, and she read it as they sat together in the quiet evening.