And now there was confusion in the imperial palace; for word came
in haste from the Dacian border that Ruas, king of the Huns,
sweeping down from the east, was ravaging the lands along the
Upper Danube, and with his host of barbarous warriors was
defeating the legions and devastating the lands of the empire.
The wise Anthemius, prefect of the east, and governor or guardian
of the young emperor, was greatly disturbed by the tidings of
this new invasion. Already he had repelled at great cost the
first advance of these terrible Huns, and had quelled into a sort
of half submission the less ferocious followers of Ulpin the
Thracian; but now he knew that his armies along the Danube were
in no condition to withstand the hordes of Huns, that, pouring in
from distant Siberia, were following the lead of Ruas, their
king, for plunder and booty, and were even now encamped scarce
two hundred and fifty miles from the seven gates and the triple
walls of splendid Constantinople.
Turbaned Turks, mosques and minarets, muftis and cadis, veiled
eastern ladies, Mohammedains and muezzins, Arabian Nights and
attar of roses, bazars, dogs, and donkeys--these, I suppose, are
what Constantinople suggests whenever its name is mentioned to
any girl or boy of to-day,--the capital of modern Turkey, the
city of the Sublime Porte.
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