"You hear the words of this wise young maid," he said. "Would it
not please Ruas the king to be the friend of the emperor, a
general of the empire, and the acceptor, on each recurring season
of the Circensian games, of full two hundred pounds of gold as
recompense for service and friendship?"
"Say, rather, three hundred pounds," said Eslaw, the chief of the
envoys, "and our master may, perchance, esteem it wise and fair."
"Nay, it is not for the great emperor to chaffer with his
friends," said Pulcheria, the princess. "Bid that the stipend be
fixed at three hundred and fifty pounds of gold, good Anthemius,
and let our guests bear to Ruas the king pledges and tokens of
the emperor's friendship."
"And bid, too, that they do leave yon barbarian boy at our court
as hostage of their faith," demanded young Theodosius the
emperor, now speaking for the first time and making a most stupid
blunder at a critical moment.
For, with a sudden start of revengeful indignation, young Attila
the Hun turned to the boy emperor: "I will be no man's hostage,"
he cried. "Freely I came, freely will I go! Come down from thy
bauble of a chair and thou and I will try, even in your circus
yonder, which is the better boy, and which should rightly be
hostage for faith and promise given
"How now!" exclaimed the boy emperor, altogether unused to such
uncourtier-like language; "this to me!" And the hasty young Hun
continued:
"Ay, this and more! I tell thee, boy, that were I Ruas the king,
the grass should never grow where the hoofs of my war-horse trod;
Scythia should be mine; Persia should be mine; Rome should be
mine.
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