They came, at last,--great, fierce-looking fellows, not at all
pleasant to contemplate--big-boned broad-shouldered, flat-nosed,
swarthy, and small-eyed, with war-cloaks of shaggy skins,
leathern armor, wolf-crowned helmets, and barbaric decorations,
and the royal children shrunk from them in terror, even as they
watched them with wondering curiosity. Imperial guards, gleaming
in golden armor, accompanied them, while with the envoys came
also as escort a small retinue of Hunnish spearmen. And in the
company of these, the Princess Pulcheria noted a lad of ten or
twelve years--short, swarthy, big-headed, and flat-nosed, like
his brother barbarians, but with an air of open and hostile
superiority that would not be moved even by all the glow and
glitter of an imperial court.
Then Eslaw, the chief of the envoys of King Ruas the Hun, made
known his master's demands So much land, so much treasure, so
much in the way of concession and power over the lands along the
Danube, or Ruas the king would sweep down with his warriors, and
lay waste the cities and lands of the empire.
"These be bold words," said Anthemius the prefect.
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