He stood in that hall alone, and remained for many minutes with his eyes bent sternly on the ground, while over his harsh features passed a thousand shades of varying expression. But his form at first seemed calm; and the only movement perceptible through his whole frame was the clasping and the unclasping of his left hand upon the hilt of his massy sword. At length, however, he broke from that quiescent attitude, and strode quickly up and down the hall, then paused again, and once more gazed upon the marble pavement, enriched by the beautiful art of ancient Rome with a thousand flowers and fruits smiling up out of the cold stone.
But the eye of Attila saw not the rich mosaic over which it wandered; and, after another deep, long pause, he exclaimed, "Why should I not? Is he not my slave, my prisoner? Is not his life and all he has mine own? That which I left to him upon sufferance, can I not resume when I will? By all the gods I will do it! He has had favours enough at my hands already. He may well sacrifice something to gratify Attila!" And again he fell into a fit of musing, which was at length broken by the door of the hall being slowly opened, and Onegisus, one of his most attached chieftains, entering with a cautious and apprehensive step.
"So," said Attila, speaking to himself--"so--so I will do it. I would not see his grief, nor hear his complaints--Ha! Onegisus! What seekest thou?"
"Pardon me, mighty king!" replied the chieftain; "I come from thy son Ellac. He finds not food enough for his troops upon the mountain, and he would fain force these dronish citizens to give up the stores they have concealed from us in their houses."
"Thou meanest he would fain plunder the city," replied Attila, sternly. "But it must not be: Attila has pledged his word. Tell him to seek for food in the valleys, or, if his troops be women, who cannot bear an evening's hunger, let him lead them down into the plains beyond. There shall he find food enough! Yet stay, Onegisus, I would speak with thee on another matter. Ellac was busy at mine ear to-day with the beauty of this maiden, this Roman girl, who, some people say, is to be the bride of Theodore. Thinkest thou," he continued, putting on a tone of indifference--"thinkest thou that Ellac covets her for himself? That cannot be, you know, unless she herself be willing; for I have promised protection both to him and her."
"Not so, oh mighty king!" replied Onegisus, casting down his eyes, and, to speak but truth, appearing pained and embarrassed--"not so: Ellac has but lately taken unto himself a bride, as thou well knowest, and he seeks no other. He did but think that this maiden was too beautiful to be cast away upon a stranger. Perhaps he fancied that she were fair enough even to attract the love of such a king as Attila himself."
"Vain talk!" cried Attila, sharply. "She is very beautiful, it is true--as fair, perhaps, as the eye of man has ever seen--but Attila has other thoughts before him. Conquest! Victory! Onegisus, they shall be the brides of Attila. Bear Ellac my message, and tell Ardaric I would take counsel with him."
Onegisus retired without reply, and Attila remained waiting the coming of Ardaric; but the monarch had, with the words he had spoken, resumed his habitual self-command: the sound of his own voice had recalled him to himself; and no trace of the varying passions which had lately agitated him could now be seen upon his countenance.
But, alas! Attila was not what Attila had been. The firm immoveable nature which he now assumed had then been really his own. He had formerly been what he now appeared. A change, a sad change had come over him since he had fought without conquering. He felt fallen from that height of irresistible power which he had once possessed: he felt irritated at its loss; angry with himself for the very irritation that he felt; and obliged to have recourse to duplicity to conceal the change from himself and others. For that duplicity again he contemned himself, and gave way to many a wilder passion, which had formerly been controlled, in order to relieve his thoughts from irksome contemplation. He conquered almost all external appearances, however; the victory of his internal enemy was within. With him it was like a sudden strife in a banquet hall, where contention raged fiercely in scenes that had once been calm, and where few signs betrayed to those without that fury and wrath struggled within those halls, from the windows of which the lights beamed calmly, except when a passing shadow, flitting rapidly across, told of some violent movement, the nature of which could hardly be divined.
Thus seating himself in an ivory chair that stood at the farther side of the hall, he waited for his friend and counsellor with a calm countenance, playing with the hilt of his sword, and apparently listening to the murmurs of the river as it flowed by the building, and gazing upon the changeful light and shade as it danced upon the blue masses of the opposite mountains.