s that the twelve vultures, which were said
to have appeared to Romulus when he founded the city, signified the time
during which the Roman power should endure. The twelve vultures denoted
twelve centuries. This interpretation of the vision of the birds of
destiny was current among learned Romans, even when there were yet many
of the twelve centuries to run, and while the imperial city was at the
zenith of its power. But as the allotted time drew nearer and nearer to
its conclusion, and as Rome grew weaker and weaker beneath the blows of
barbaric invaders, the terrible omen was more and more talked and
thought of; and in Attila's time, men watched for the momentary
extinction of the Roman State with the last beat of the last vulture's
wing. Moreover, among the numerous legends connected with the foundation
of the city, and the fratricidal death of Remus, there was one most
terrible one, which told that Romulus did not put his brother to death
in accident or in hasty quarrel, but that

"He slew his gallant twin
With inexpiable sin,"

deliberately and in compliance with the warnings of supernatural powers.
The shedding of a brother's blood was believed to have been the price at
which the founder of Rome had purchased from destiny her twelve
centuries of existence.

We may imagine, therefore, with what terror in this the twelve hundredth
year after the foundation of Rome the inhabitants of the Roman Empire
must have heard the tidings that the royal brethren Attila and Bleda had
founded a new capital on the Danube, which was designed to rule over the
ancient capital on the Tiber; and that Attila, like Romulus, had
consecrated the foundations of his new city by murdering his brother; so
that for the new cycle of centuries then about to commence, dominion had
been bought from the gloomy spirits of destiny in favor of the Hun by a
sacrifice of equal awe and value with that which had formerly obtained
it for the Roman.

It is to be remembered that not only the pagans but also the Christians
of that age knew and believed in these legends and omens, however they
might differ as to the nature of the superhuman agency by which such
mysteries had been made known to mankind. And we may observe with
Herbert, a modern learned dignitary of our Church, how remarkably this
augury was fulfilled; for "if to the twelve centuries denoted by the
twelve vultures that appeared to Romulus we add, for the six birds that
appeared to Re