"Alas! alas!" replied Neva; "I fear her coming bodes no good. She is skilled in healing, and dwells among the wives of Attila; and I doubt not that she has been sent to see if thou art still as ill as we have reported."
At these words Ildica herself turned pale, and gazed anxiously upon the countenance of Neva. She had no time, however, to inquire further; for scarcely had the woman left the tent when there was a cry of "Attila! Attila! The king! the king!" and the domestic attendants, who had followed the fair Roman girl and her mother through all their fortunes, ran in with looks of apprehension from the outer tent, and surrounded their beloved mistress.
The moment after the cry of "Attila! Attila!" was repeated, the hangings were again drawn back, and the dark monarch of the Huns advanced at once into the tent. There was a mortal paleness upon Ildica's countenance; but, from the moment that the cry of "Attila! Attila!" had sounded on her ear till the moment that he came into her presence, the eyes of those who surrounded her saw an expression of high and noble resolution gathering upon that fair, lofty forehead, as the electric clouds upon a summer's day may be seen rolling round some mountain peak, till that which, in the morning light, was all clear and fair, becomes, ere noon, awful in the proud majesty of the coming storm.
All rose and retired a step as Attila entered, except Ildica; but she, with queenlike calmness, kept her place: and it was wonderful to all eyes to behold that sweet and gentle girl, full of tenderness and soft affections, changed in a moment, by the power of a great mind and mighty resolution, into a proud and lordly being, fit to cope with the great conqueror of one half of the earth. There she sat immoveable, gazing with the unquailing light of her lustrous eyes upon the dark monarch as he advanced towards her; and even Attila himself--though the cause was surprise and admiration only--paused for a single instant midway in his approach, and scarcely could believe his eyes, that this was the same creature whom he had last beheld dissolved in tears beside her departing brother. Her beauty, however, was as radiant, though it shone through another air; and, again advancing, he seated himself beside her calmly on the cushions, saying, "They have deceived me: they told me you were ill!"
"I have been ill, oh king!" replied Ildica, in a voice not a tone of which faltered, even in the slightest degree, "I have been ill, very nearly unto death."
"Illness seldom wears so lovely a form," replied Attila, in a softened voice. "Attila trusts that thou art better, fair maiden; else thy beauty belies thy state."
"I am better, oh king," answered Ildica; "and I trust that a few days more of repose may restore me completely unto health."
"Were it not better for thee," said Attila, "to seek the open air, and draw in the pure breath of the summer day, than, sitting here in the close atmosphere of a tent, to waste the hours of sunshine?"
"The covering of this tent, oh king," replied Ildica, boldly, "shuts out from me more things than the pure air; and if, in going forth. I should gain advantage from the sweet breath of heaven visiting my lips, the sights that I should behold would carry tenfold poison to my heart by the sure channel of the eye--at least, if all be true that I have heard."
"What hast thou heard?" demanded Attila, quickly, rolling his eye over those that surrounded them, "what hast thou heard, sweet Ildica?"