ointments, with lofty crests and gleaming armor, with
shimmering spear-tips, prancing horses, towering elephants, and mighty
engines of war and siege, with archers and spearmen, with sounding
trumpets and swaying standards and, high over all, the purple labarum,
woven in gold and jewels,--the sacred banner of Constantine. Marching
and counter-marching, around and around, and in and out, until it seemed
wellnigh endless, the martial procession passed before the eyes of the
northern barbarians, watchful of every movement, eager as children to
witness this royal review.

"These are but as a handful of dust amid the sands of the sea to the
troops of the empire," said the prefect Anthemius, when the glittering
rear-guard had passed from the Hippodrome. And the Princess Pulcheria
added, "And these, O men from the north, are to help and succor the
friends of the great emperor, even as they are for the terror and
destruction of his foes. Bid the messengers from Ruas the king consider,
good Anthemius, whether it were not wiser for their master to be the
friend rather than the foe of the emperor. Ask him whether it would not
be in keeping with his valor and his might to be made one of the great
captains of the empire, with a yearly stipend of many pounds of gold, as
the recompense of the emperor for his services and his love."

Again the prefect looked with pleasure and surprise upon this wise young
girl of fifteen, who had seen so shrewdly and so well the way to the
hearts of these northern barbarians, to whom gold and warlike display
were as meat and drink.

"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 makin