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Updated: May 12, 2025
'Will it please your Illustrious Magnanimity to eat with us? 'I will eat when I choose. Fetch here Venantius. Marcian despatched the porter, and in a few moments Venantius appeared, behind him his armed men. A hand lightly on his sword, as though he played with the hilt, his head proudly erect, the Roman noble paused at a few paces from the Hun, and regarded him with bold steadfastness.
Marcian, a year or two his elder, was less favoured by nature in face and form: tall and vigorous enough of carriage, he showed more bone and sinew than flesh; and his face might have been that of a man worn by much fasting, so deep sunk were the eyes, so jutting the cheek-bones, and so sharp the chin; its cast, too, was that of a fixed and native melancholy.
Marcian, on his double mission of spy in the Greek service and friend of the Goths, had naturally sought out Venantius; and the description he gave to Basil of the fortress above Nuceria filled the listener with enthusiasm. 'I would I could live in the same way, Basil exclaimed. 'And why not? My own villa in Picenum might be strengthened with walls and towers.
Surely, her voice sank, 'you could not have let me feel so happy if Basil were dead? 'He lives. 'Then why do you look so strangely at me? Ah, he is a prisoner? 'Not so. No man's liberty is less in danger. She clasped her hands before her. 'You make me suffer. I was so light of heart, and now your eyes, your silence. Oh, speak, lord Marcian!
It is true, for I believed what Marcian had said to me, and nothing had befallen to disturb my gladness. I lived with my serving woman privately, in quiet and hope. This morning, yielding, alas! to a wish which I thought harmless, I went forth with my attendant to the waterfall. As I stood gazing at it, the lord Marcian came forth on horseback.
A score of slaves and peasants looked after what remained of the dwelling and cultivated the land attached to it, garden, oliveyard, vineyard, partly on the island, partly beyond the river in the direction of Arpinum, which historic city, now but sparsely peopled, showed on the hillside a few miles away. Excepting his house in Rome, this was all the property that Marcian possessed.
Marcian, with that air of authority which he well knew how to assume, commanded the attendance of the leading citizens and spoke with them in private. At present, there seemed to be no more danger, the marauders having gone on into the Apennines; so Marcian obtained lodging for Veranilda and for himself in the priest's house.
It was well that Alexandria and Constantinople should be perpetually struggling, but it was not well that either should become paramount. Dioscorus thereupon broke off communion with him. Rome and Alexandria were at issue. In a fortunate moment the emperor died; his sister, the orthodox Pulcheria, the friend of Leo, married Marcian, and made him emperor. A council was summoned at Chalcedon.
'That is Chorsoman, said Marcian, as soon as he could distinguish the captain's feature, 'the commander at Cumae. 'Then it is not to Cumae that they have carried her! exclaimed Basil, surmising at once that the Hun was come in pursuit of Veranilda. 'Time enough to think of that, growled Venantius, as he glared from under black brows at the advancing horsemen. 'What are we to do?
The listener moved, raising his arm and letting it fall again. But he breathed no word. 'This did he tell me, she added. 'I went back to the villa to my chamber. I sat thinking, I know not how long; I know not how long. Then, unable to remain any longer alone, driven by my dreadful doubt, I came forth to seek Marcian. I descended the stairs to the atrium. You saw me alas! alas!
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