He was now near the city,
and they had no army strong enough to send against him. Rome
would have been again destroyed if it had not been for Pope Leo I
who went to the camp of Attila and persuaded him not to attack the
city. It is said that the barbarian king was awed by the majestic
aspect and priestly robes of Leo. It is also told that the apostles
Peter and Paul appeared to Attila in his camp and threatened him
with death if he should attack Rome. He did not go away, however,
without getting a large sum of money as ransom.
IV
Shortly after leaving Italy Attila suddenly died. Only the day
before his death he had married a beautiful woman whom he loved
very much.
The Huns mourned their king in a barbarous way. They shaved their
heads and cut themselves on their faces with knives, so that their
blood, instead of their tears, flowed for the loss of their great
leader. They enclosed his body in three coffins--one of gold,
one of silver, and one of iron--and they buried him at night, in
a secret spot in the mountains. When the funeral was over, they
killed the slaves who had dug the grave, as the Visigoths had done
after the burial of Alaric.
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