" said the Emperor, with a sigh of relief, "but
I thought you meant that my _hen_ 'Roma' had died."

Laden with spoils of priceless value, the creaking wagons of the Gauls
went southward. Alaric meant to lead them to the conquest first of
Sicily, then of Africa. But death overtook him amid the schemes of his
ambition. He died after a short illness, and was buried in the bed of
the river which washes the walls of Cosentia. The captives who reared
the tomb were massacred, that none might know where the hero lay. The
Visigothic kingdom of Spain, founded by the warrior tribe which he
first led into the West, is one of the most permanent results of his
invasion.

[Illustration: The Last Gladiatorial Contest.]

ATTILA

By ARCHDEACON FARRAR, D.D., F.R.S.

(REIGNED 434-453)

[Illustration: Attila.]

The Goths were "improvable barbarians;" but the Huns whom Attila led
to ravage the fair peninsula were mere Tartar savages of the lowest
stamp.

All the other invaders of Italy were of Teutonic origin, but the Huns
were Mongols--of such perfect hideousness that Jornandes regarded them
as the offspring of witches and demons. Attila, son of Mundzuk, "the
scourge of God," resembled his soldiers in his flat, swarthy features,
deep-set, fierce, rolling black eyes, and stunted figure. The Huns
were uncivilizable savages, who might harry a continent, but neither
under Attila, nor Genghis, nor Timour, could ever found an organized
kingdom. This terrific and brutal little Kalmuck, with his bead-like
eyes, this skin-clad devourer of raw flesh, delighted to lay waste
whole empires with fire and sword, and to terrify the world. In 434 he
became king of the Huns with his brother Bleda. In 445 Bleda died,
possibly by murder; and in 445 Attila, now sole king of the Huns,
invaded the Eastern Empire, and ravaged it even to the gates of
Constantinople. He was only bought off from destroying it by an
enormous tribute. The infamous plot to assassinate him by the
treachery of Edecon, who was one of his counsellors, was discovered
and foiled, and Attila sent message after message filled with insults
to Theodosius II. In 451 his vast army moved westward, and devastated
Gaul. It was met in the Mauriac plain and defeated by AEtius in the
tremendous battle of Chalons, after a carnage among the most frightful
that the world has ever seen. The Huns were only saved from final
destruction by the heroic boldness of Attila. He had a vast hill of