'
'Speak of Alaric--our time is short,' interrupted the other fiercely.
'I answered not a word to their taunts,' resumed his companion, 'but I
called out loudly that I was a Gothic ally, that I brought messages to
Alaric, and that I had the privilege of audience like the rest. My voice
reached the ears of the king: he looked forth from his tent, and
beckoned me in. I saw his hatred of my nation lowering in his eye as we
looked on one another, but I spoke with submission and in a soft voice.
I told him how his chieftain whom he had set over us secretly deserted
his post; I told him how we had seen his favoured warrior for many
nights journeying towards the suburbs; how on this night, as on others
before, he had stolen from the encampment, and how you had gone forth to
track him to his lurking-place.'
'Was the tyrant angered?'
'His cheeks reddened, and his eyes flashed, and his fingers trembled
round the hilt of his sword while I spoke! When I ceased he answered me
that I lied. He cursed me for an infidel Hun who had slandered a
Christian chieftain.
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