ATT 1 LA
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 I I), w 
 
 ILSiiN.
 
 A T T I L A
 
 ATTI L A 
 
 A TRAGEDY IN FOUR ACTS 
 BY LAURENCE BINYON 
 
 LONDON: JOHN MURRAY 
 
 ALBEMARLE STREET, W. 
 
 1907
 
 Edinburgh : T. and A. Constablf, Printers to His Majesty
 
 
 TO 
 
 C. S. R. 
 
 8602c38
 
 A T T I L A
 
 CHARACTERS 
 
 Attila, King of the Huns. 
 
 Hernak, a boy, Attila's youngest son. 
 
 Onegesius, a Greek, Attila's favourite counsellor. 
 
 SiGlSMUND, a Burgundian, foster-brother of Ildico. 
 
 Messalla, ^ ^ ^ 
 
 > Roman Envoys. 
 Laetus, J 
 
 RORIK, ^ 
 
 Burba, j-Huns of Attila's bodyguard. 
 ESLA, J 
 
 An Egyptian Soothsayer. 
 Chabas, a Greek Refugee. 
 
 ' [subject Kings of the Goths and Gepids. 
 
 V A i_i A. iVl 1 K. » J 
 
 Zercon, a Moorish Dwarf. 
 
 Huns, Burgundians, etc. 
 
 Kerka, Wife of Attila. 
 
 Ildico, a Burgundian Princess. 
 
 Cunegonde, Gisla, and other women attendant on Ildico. 
 
 Time : 453 A.D. 
 
 Place: A city of the Burgundians, conquered by Attila, 
 in the valley of the Upper Danube.
 
 ATTILA 
 
 ACT I 
 
 SCENE 
 
 Part of a town of the BurgundianSy occupied by 
 ATTILA. A gatcy left^ in a wally abutting on 
 which, at the back, is the front of the house of 
 iLDico. At the right the colonnade of a large 
 building, attila's headquarters. Beyond it 
 an open rampart. 
 
 Dawn. A comet in the sky, fading as the light 
 increases. Within the colonnade esla a^id a 
 group of armed huns ; in the space beyond a 
 few MEN and women, cloaked against the cold 
 air, come and go, with terrified glances at the 
 comet. siGiSMUND leans against one of the 
 further pillars. chabas lurks in the back- 
 ground. On the rampart a stationary figure, 
 the SOOTHSAYER, watclics the sky. 
 
 Enter from the left rorik and burba, with 
 two other huns. 
 
 Esla 
 All night it has so streamed, like a great torch 
 Blown by the wind.
 
 4 ATTILA 
 
 Burba 
 
 And now outglares the dawn. 
 Rorik, I like it not. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Quake in your flesh ! 
 It shall not fright me from my appetite. 
 These prodigies perturb a hungry soul. 
 Eat, eat and drink ! 
 
 [The HUNS sit down to drink and dice, chabas 
 comes forward, cringing. \ 
 
 Chabas 
 
 Speak for me to the King, 
 Sirs ! I have lent him moneys. I am lost. 
 The King forgets a poor man has his needs. 
 
 Rorik 
 Here 's pay for you ! [Strikes him.] 
 
 Burba 
 And usury too. Out, rat ! 
 [chabas, driven off, goes toward sigismund.] 
 
 Rorik 
 [lifting his cup to the comet\ 
 To Attila's splendour !
 
 ATTILA 5 
 
 Burba 
 
 [holdmg rorik's arm] 
 
 No, you drink our doom. 
 
 Chabas 
 Ten talents ! Listen, my lord Sigismund ! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 [turnmg his back] 
 Ten talents ! Will that buy back liberty 
 For my lost land ? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Is that a mortal man 
 Or rooted effigy that stands and stares 
 On this dishevelled star? 
 
 Burba 
 
 A man, but who 
 I know not. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 'Tis the Egyptian. 
 
 Burba 
 
 The Soothsayer? 
 The master of magicians?
 
 6 ATTILA 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Half the night 
 He has watched this witch-fire burning, motionless. 
 Look now, he turns. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Come, let us question him. — 
 O man of dreams and auguries, who read 
 Fate's crooked signs and characters, pronounce 
 This apparition's meaning. 
 
 Huns 
 
 Ay, what means it? 
 
 Burba 
 Famine, I fear. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Some prodigy of luck. 
 
 EsLA 
 
 For Attila what means it? Good or ill? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Is not great Attila King over kings? 
 
 Esla 
 But this hangs over Attila. Speak out.
 
 ATTILA 7 
 
 Soothsayer 
 You men of war, why seek to deal with powers 
 Who forge their ends behind the enacted scene? 
 Play your hot parts out ; strike, slay and be slain ! 
 To question bluiits the sword, palsies the arm, 
 Curdles the blood : oppose her as you will, 
 Calamity will come 
 
 All 
 
 Calamity ! 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Hastes not for terror, tarries not for hope.* 
 
 Onegesius 
 [cvko has entered fro^n the right during the 
 last ivords] 
 Who talks of terror and calamity? 
 For whom ? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 For some. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Ay, surely at this hour 
 The Roman streets throng with night-watchers 
 
 pale, 
 Who cower and cry that this means Attila, 
 The terror and calamity of Rome.
 
 8 ATTILA 
 
 Huns 
 
 Hear Onegesius 
 
 Burba 
 
 Over us it hangs. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Yes, over us, and over Attila. 
 
 Onegesius 
 Fools ! whom should Heaven give sign to but to 
 
 him 
 Whom long ago it chose and certified 
 A meteor among men, a captain star, 
 The master of the warriors of the world ? 
 Have you forgot the sword 
 
 Huns 
 
 Attila's sword ! 
 
 Onegesius 
 The miracle, the sword God flung from Heaven 
 There on the Scythian steppe : have you forgot 
 How when the Hunnish host stood in amaze 
 And terror as you stand now, Attila 
 Caught up the sword as 'twere God's thunderbolt 
 Of everlasting wrath ? Have you forgot. 
 Who have seen it blaze in Attila's right hand 
 And armies quail before it? While the sword
 
 ATTILA 
 
 Is with him, mortal cannot harm him. Now 
 
 This second sign, this glory out of night, 
 
 This plume, this flower, this fount of golden seed, 
 
 Attila takes to be his crest, a gift 
 
 From Heaven, a blazon of God's own device, 
 
 A brand to burn upon the battle's van 
 
 Lighting to victory. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Ay, if battle came ! 
 But Attila is changed ; we rust in peace. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 How glib the Greek is ! 
 
 Burba 
 
 Now, Egyptian, speak. 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Fear, fear ; 'tis wiser. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Still do you pretend 
 That Attila is menaced? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Attila 
 Himself may override the wave of doom. 
 I read not yet who shall be lost in it —
 
 lo ATTILA 
 
 A man may own a dearer thing to wound 
 Than his own body. Attila has sons. 
 
 Onegesius 
 This man talks treason. Seize him and keep close 
 In guard at the King's will. Away with him ! 
 [Tivo HUNS arrest and take away the sooth- 
 sayer.] 
 There let the raven croak to the blank walls. 
 But you, I charge you, if your tongues report 
 Or private conversation entertain 
 This madness, 'tis at peril of your life. 
 
 RORHC 
 
 Spare threats. Sir Counsellor, you waste your 
 
 words. 
 See, the thing 's quenched, and the sun 's up in 
 heaven. 
 
 [onegesius parts the curtains of ildico's 
 housey but is stopped on the threshold by 
 cunegonde.] 
 
 Cunegonde 
 The Princess sleeps yet. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Let her be awakened ; 
 She is summoned by the King. I shall return. 
 
 [Exit onegesius. cunegonde retires.]
 
 ATTILA II 
 
 RORIK 
 
 \pointing to ildico's house\ 
 There is the portent you should look to, Huns ! 
 No fiery mare's tail hung across the dark, 
 But one that wears a body, walks daylight, 
 A mischief with a woman's shape and eyes. 
 Plague strike and end all women ! 
 
 [burba touches rorik as hernak comes oict, 
 right.] 
 
 Ah, my prince ! 
 Now may my curse fall fortunate for him ! 
 
 Hernak 
 I have a new bow, Rorik. 
 
 Rorik 
 
 Let me try it. 
 A sweet note ! But for those young arms 'tis 
 tough. 
 
 Hernak 
 Give it me back. See, I can bend it full. 
 
 Rorik 
 Come soon the day when I shall see your shaft 
 Dive to the feathers home in Roman flesh. 
 Are you for hunting? Shall I go with you?
 
 12 ATTILA 
 
 Hernak 
 
 I go alone. Rorik, tell not my mother, 
 
 For she forgets I grow to be a man, 
 
 And a King's son, whose word tall men obey. 
 
 Rorik 
 There speaks your father's spirit ! Good hunting, 
 
 Prince ! 
 Be wary ; the King's son is a great mark, 
 And discontented dogs of every tribe 
 Infest this place, to snap what gain they can. 
 
 Hernak 
 I have my bow, my new bow, and sharp arrows. 
 
 Burba 
 A Hun of the Huns ! 
 
 Rorik 
 Why was he born the last? 
 
 Chabas 
 \i7itercepting hernak as he is going ouiy left\ 
 
 my young lord, a boon before you go ! 
 Speak favourably to the King for me. 
 
 1 have waited month on month, and am not 
 
 paid. 
 The King has many cares, and he forgets.
 
 ATTILA 13 
 
 Hernak 
 
 Speak to the Queen, my mother ; she will hear. 
 
 Chabas 
 My lord, I do beseech you ! 
 
 Hernak 
 
 Let me go ! 
 [hernak shakes him off and goes out. burba 
 and the other huns sit doimi to dice, rorik 
 paces up and doivn. ] 
 
 Rorik 
 Why was he not the first? 
 His brothers are but fit to follow him. 
 He captains them by nature. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 EUak and Gengis, 
 Where are they gone ? 
 
 Rorik 
 On foray, — quarrelling 
 As ever, which shall have the best of spoils, 
 Be it cattle or woman. 
 
 Burba 
 
 Hernak for me ! But come, 
 A hazard, Rorik.
 
 14 ATTILA 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Pest upon all women ! 
 
 Burba 
 
 Why, what 's the matter ? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Witchcraft ! Attila 
 Wavers, not strikes, stoops and not soars. And we, 
 That overstormed all Europe, Scythia, Thrace, 
 Sarmatia, Illyria, lands on lands 
 From Caucasus to Ocean, must we halt 
 Content as puddle-blooded citizens. 
 While Rome, that still defies us, is unwon ? 
 
 ESLA 
 
 There 's thunder on the King's brow ; when it 
 breaks 
 
 Burba 
 Old Rome will tremble. Ay, he has deep 
 
 thoughts. — 
 The luck 's all yours. 
 
 Rorik 
 
 'Tis witchcraft. Here we sit 
 With all the plains before us, cornered, cooped. 
 Stabled like oxen. O my soul is sick 
 Of being roofed and walled ! Air ! Bring a torch,
 
 ATTILA 15 
 
 I say, and let these pale Burgundians burn 
 
 With the proud girl that rules them. Slaves to a 
 
 woman ! 
 That ever Attila cast eyes — O gods, 
 This should be the Alps, and yonder Italy, 
 Vines, towers clashing all their bells in fear. 
 Rich cities quaking, walls to leap, and Rome. 
 
 Burba 
 The dice are dull toys. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Hark to Rorik ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Then 
 We rode like wind, we leapt like rattling hail ; 
 Danube in flood-time could not race with us. 
 But now we must make platters of our shields, 
 And see our royal eagle witched and tamed, 
 A strutting pigeon in a castle-court 
 That coasts about the housetops and alights 
 To preen and coo. Lightning wither them all, 
 Pinch their lips cold, and mildew their soft cheeks. 
 All women, all, but specially this one, 
 This Ildico, who wastes our Attila ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Is she the star with the long golden hair 
 That threatens all our heads?
 
 i6 ATTILA 
 
 Burba 
 
 She has a bloom, 
 And there 's a fiery warning in her eye 
 Would tempt a man to tame her. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 They are proud, 
 These same Burgundians. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 I will find a way. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Yonder 's her foster-brother, Sigismund, 
 Dogging her door ; he too 's her slave. 
 
 Burba 
 
 He 's pricked. 
 You have stirred him, Rorik. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Were it not for her, 
 We should be feasting in imperial Rome. 
 
 Sigismund 
 Never will that be ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Never ! that 's a word 
 We know not. Will your lordship say us nay?
 
 ATTILA 17 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Remember Alaric. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 He sacked Rome. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 And died. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Alaric was not Attila. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Rome is Rome ! 
 Your day is over, Huns ; your King is staled 
 With conquest, he has lost the joy of it ; 
 The terror of his end has come on him. 
 Three sons at odds, and you without a king ; 
 Three sons at odds, and none to lead you. Laugh ! 
 But you have seen the sign. [Pointing to the sky.] 
 
 Burba 
 [starting up] 
 
 Stop the fool's mouth, 
 
 Or I will. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 [stopping /lini] 
 Not yet. I 've a use for him. 
 
 B
 
 i8 ATTILA 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 You have seen the sign. Up, Huns, and save 
 
 yourselves ! 
 Seize what is yours. Attila scorns you. Up, 
 You are many ! Wield a purpose of your own. 
 Let Attila beAvare then ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 I say too, 
 Let Attila beware. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Look, the Queen comes ! 
 KERKA enters from the right. 
 
 Chabas 
 [throimng himself at kerka's/^^/] 
 Favour, O Queen, favour a wronged poor man 
 Who cannot reach the King's ear. Plead for me. 
 I ask no more than justice. Hear, I pray. 
 
 Kerka 
 Better thy fortune with the fortunate ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Enough of whining, fellow ; out of the way ! 
 
 Kerka 
 Where is Prince Hernak ? Have you seen my son?
 
 ATTILA 19 
 
 Burba 
 We saw him, — he was here some minutes since. 
 
 Kerka 
 I thank you. Is the King abroad ? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Not yet. 
 [S/ie goes to the rampart and gazes out, then 
 returns. The huns resume their dice.] 
 
 Chabas 
 That boy shall be my vengeance. The lion's cub 
 Shall pay me ransom. [He goes out, left.] 
 
 Kerka 
 [addressing the huns] 
 Am I not Queen among you? Did I not 
 Ride with you, hunger with you, thirst with you ? 
 Do I lose honour, or are you Huns no more? 
 O that the wide plains were about us still 
 Of our own East ! Then Huns were Huns indeed. 
 And Kerka wanted not for loyalty. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 [respectfully] 
 Mother of Hernak 
 
 Kerka 
 
 Thank you for that word I
 
 20 ATTILA 
 
 RORIK 
 
 We suffer change, being mortal ; there 's no help, 
 But we must bear the thing we cannot shun. 
 
 Kerka 
 Rorik, have Hernak in your care. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 I will. 
 
 \Exit KERKA.] 
 
 Burba 
 
 The setting sun ! 
 
 Pale in the sunrise. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Rather the moon that hangs 
 
 Rorik 
 
 Burba, here 's a thought. 
 
 Burba 
 
 Let 's hear it. 
 
 Rorik 
 
 This Burgundian serves our turn. 
 With such a spur shall Attila be pricked. 
 I '11 take this Frank, heap fuel on his flame. 
 Breathe discontent and wrongs so desperate 
 As stick at nothing ; then, a midnight plot.
 
 ATTILA 21 
 
 Swords out, and tumult ! Attila once roused, 
 If we strike not the old fire from his soul, 
 Call me a fool. 
 
 Burba 
 
 For a fight or for a feast 
 I am your man. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 And the Burgundian ? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Why, 
 We take him in the act. Kill, kill them all ! 
 Come now, and drink to warlike days again ! 
 
 [Exeunt all but sigismund.] 
 [iLDico appears at the door of her house, 
 folloived by cunegonde.] 
 
 Sigismund 
 Ildico ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Attila summons me. 
 
 Sigismund 
 
 Ildico 
 Speak then, but quickly. 
 
 Princess !
 
 22 ATTILA 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 The hour is come to act. 
 I have watched. I have planned. I have mingled 
 
 with the Huns ; 
 I know their thoughts. This streaming fire in 
 
 heaven 
 Affrights them ; they are muttering at their King, 
 Bated of prey and rapine. — Listen still. 
 I have men, I have swords. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 See ! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 [as ONEGESius enters, right\ 
 
 Onegesius ! 
 
 Onegesius 
 \to ildico] 
 The King commands your presence. He com- 
 mands 
 That you this day, with all your women, quit 
 This house, and enter his house. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 O shame ! Shame ! 
 Back to your tyrant ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Silence, Sigismund ! 
 I speak, and for myself. — Sir, I refuse.
 
 ATTILA 23 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 That is your answer? Attila shall hear it. 
 
 [Exit, right.\ 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Ah, now you understand him, Ildico ! 
 The Hun must die. This comet beacons us 
 To the fulfilment of that fear it writes 
 Already on these savage hearts. Not ours 
 But Fate 's the deed. We want but Ildico 
 To lead us. 
 
 Ildico 
 No more, Sigismund, of this. 
 Do I not know what it befits me do ? 
 Stir not till I give word. 
 
 Sigismund 
 
 I wait the word. 
 Yet send it quickly. O, you cannot choose 
 But strike with us. Princess, my life is yours. 
 Fear not. If need be, I will strike alone. [Exit.] 
 
 Ildico 
 O, put your arms about me, Cunegonde ! 
 I want a friend. 
 
 Cunegonde 
 You have one.
 
 24 ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 
 I have you. 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 And Sigismund. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Yes, Sigismund. But he 
 Would use me ; and I '11 be no instrument 
 Of his or any man's. He plots and schemes. 
 Fool, fool, to match himself with Attila ! 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 Together, not divided, you were strong. 
 
 Ildico 
 We were playmates together, girl and boy, 
 And dear remembrance knots our youth ; but now 
 We are not children, playing harmless games. 
 But face to face with terrible men. I count 
 The cost, and know sweet ties may break ; but 
 
 this 
 Is chosen and determined. I will meet 
 This our great enemy. 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 He never spares. 
 You have defied him ; think what power is his ! 
 O rather flee.
 
 A T T I L A 25 
 
 Ildico 
 Whither ? 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 With Sigismund. 
 
 Ildico 
 111 counsel, Cunegonde, to a king's daughter ! 
 Nothing is ever wise that is not brave. 
 All then were lost. 
 
 Cunegonde 
 
 But Attila — you know 
 That you have stirred his passion. If already 
 He has not snatched and taken you by force 
 And slain us all, it is that he will show 
 More surely now the savage Hun he is. 
 
 Ildico 
 He has spared till now. You wrong him, Cune- 
 gonde. 
 Can one man rule a sea of raging men — 
 Have power to kindle them and calm at will — 
 By being brute as they are? Attila 
 Is greater than ten thousand of his Huns. 
 By his greatness, or his weakness, I will move him, 
 Pleading for all of us. Go, Cunegonde, 
 Seek Sigismund. Forbid him stir a hand 
 Till I command it. This must be. Go, now !
 
 26 ATTILA 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 And must I leave you? Will you stay alone 
 For Attila? 
 
 Ildico 
 Alone. Fear not so much. 
 If I be driven to the uttermost, 
 If he should deem me like those Tartar women, 
 The only women of whose ways he knows, 
 Servile in blood and custom, that take pride 
 To be no more than a just-tasted cup, 
 A fortnight's fondling, a staled sweet, the last 
 Addition to his pleasure — if he think this. 
 Let me be accurst or he shall surely know 
 My difference. Sooner than a mouth of shame 
 He shall kiss death ! 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 What have you said? To kill 
 The master of the world ! No man of all 
 The thousands hating him has lifted hand 
 To dare a thing so terrible. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 'Tis true. 
 When some divine and more than mortal deed 
 Is to be done, the strong, the wise forbear. 
 And when a greatness through weak heart and 
 hand
 
 ATTILA 27 
 
 Stammers into the splendour of a deed, 
 Pronounce it madness. — Go, seek Sigismund ! 
 
 [Exit CUNEGONDE.] 
 
 ATTILA enters, right. 
 
 Attila 
 So ; I am defied ! 
 
 Ildico 
 The word is yours. 
 
 Attila 
 A woman ! Never man 
 Yet challenged Attila and lived : but now 
 A woman dares to brave him. — What are you? 
 A witch's incarnation, without use 
 Of bodily senses or the taste of pain ? 
 No, flesh and blood, I swear ! Bethink you 
 
 then, 
 If I but lift a finger, you are crushed 
 Into what doom I choose. — Look in my face. 
 You are quailing in your heart, — confess to it. 
 
 Ildico 
 What if I be? O, I can feel and fear. 
 No magic art defends me, no, nor hope 
 Of help ; my flesh fears, but not yet my soul. 
 Put chains upon my body. Do all your will. 
 I am not, shall not, cannot be your slave.
 
 28 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 So proud ? 
 
 Ildico 
 What would you have of me ? Hate, hate ? 
 Such an immortal hate 
 
 Attila 
 
 Have I struck fire? 
 Flame, then ! A woman's hate — I never knew 
 A woman kindle 
 
 Ildico 
 No, you never knew 
 A woman not a slave ; but we, but we 
 Women of the West are of another mould. 
 You smite in me a people. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Conquered ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 No, 
 
 You tread on fire. 
 
 Attila 
 My heel can stamp it out. 
 
 Ildico 
 But it will smoulder till it burst afresh.
 
 ATTILA 29 
 
 Attila 
 What 's this ? What do you speak of ? Tell me 
 
 more. 
 What seek you of me ? 
 
 Ildico 
 Attila's glory ! O, 
 Listen ! Within these sheltering walls a child, 
 That from these towers eyed often the vast plains, 
 The hills, and Danube rushing to the East, 
 Grew up ; and, ere she was a woman, heard 
 The rumour of the name of Attila 
 Come rolling like a thunder from afar. 
 She pictured him most royal ; she was born 
 Of generous free blood ; she saw him stride 
 A demi-god, a god, a destiny, 
 That plucked up kings like thistles : cities burned 
 To be his torches ; he was born to exceed 
 All measures of men's thought. — She was a child. 
 But now 
 
 Attila 
 But now? 
 
 Ildico 
 
 She is a woman now, 
 And she has known what madness in men's blood 
 Blinds them like hunger ; tasted the sharp breath 
 Of suffering, and beheld the different world
 
 30 ATTILA 
 
 Dark under cold heavens, deaf to anguished 
 
 cries 
 That pierced into her heart. And yet sometimes 
 She listens to her old thoughts asking her 
 Will Attila be less than she had dreamed? 
 Will he, even he, be nothing but the storm 
 That yesterday crashed on our roofs, and now 
 Where is it? None knows. O, you burn and 
 
 waste ; 
 But blackened earth teems richer for her loss 
 When all your Huns are past. — Speak, Attila ! 
 I have told my heart out, I am in your hand. 
 Take me, and bind me, and kill me — what you 
 
 will — 
 But let my people free ! I plead for them, 
 As I will answer for them. 
 
 Attila 
 [after a pause] 
 
 You are free. 
 \Then imth passion. \ Ildico ! — 
 
 [iLDico has disappeared into her house without 
 looking back.] 
 
 ONEGESius enters, right. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Is she humbled as befits?
 
 ATTILA 31 
 
 Attila 
 She is humbled as the hawk is when he mounts, 
 , Or Honess that's hunted from her mate ; 
 A mother-mould of stormy-hearted men ! 
 
 Onegesius 
 Better to take and to forget her, King. 
 
 Attila 
 I '11 have her soul, not only her body, mine ; 
 And surely as the heart beats at my ribs 
 Mine shall she be. To touch resistance, feel 
 Within my fingers the proud, delicate flower. 
 And not to harm what I could crush at will 
 In an instant — there 's an edge and zest in this 
 Those women of the East, of my own race, 
 Never provoked. But I shall tame her. Well? 
 
 Onegesius 
 This soothsayer 
 
 Attila 
 I have heard an oracle 
 Speak from a woman. Onegesius, what say you? 
 Shall the Hun plant his spear in the old earth 
 And strike a root, to branch abroad, and end 
 His wanderings? 
 
 Onegesius 
 The Hun's blood can never rest.
 
 32 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 Rome mocks me, mocks me with her thousand 
 
 years. 
 My spear should be the king-post of a house 
 Deep-founded and enduring. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 This soothsayer, 
 
 Attila 
 What mischief has he told ? 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Your soldiers fear 
 
 That nightly portent streaming past the stars, 
 
 And this man threatens. 
 
 Attila 
 Me? God's sword is mine. 
 
 Onegesius 
 'Tis not yourself he hints of peril to. 
 
 Attila 
 
 What then ? 
 
 Onegesius 
 Your line 
 
 Attila 
 
 My line? 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Your sons.
 
 A T T I L A 33 
 
 Attila 
 
 My sons ! 
 I '11 see him ! Were that true ? Now I remember 
 'Twas prophesied before. At Danube's passage 
 A witch croaked thus. I 'II see this soothsayer. 
 Bid him prepare : furnish him all his art 
 Has need of: he shall question Fate. My sons ! 
 I must have sons ; I am maimed without a son. 
 I melt and crumble like the summer ice 
 With all my empire, if I have no son ; 
 But I will be eternal as this Rome, 
 So I have sons. 
 
 Onegesius 
 When shall the man await your majesty? 
 
 Attila 
 Fear knocks upon my heart, lest this be true. 
 — To-night, to-night ! 
 
 Silence is safest. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Shall the Egyptian die? 
 
 Attila 
 
 No, I fear him not. 
 Whatever secret the locked lips of Fate 
 Yield to his art, be it good or ill, I '11 know it, 
 
 [£xii onegesius.] 
 c
 
 34 ATTILA 
 
 Dust ! to be ended and extinguished here 
 In my own body ! All of me that goes 
 Riding to conquer Time, lost, overthrown ! 
 And Rome remaining, Rome remaining ! 
 
 HERNAK enters, left. 
 
 Hernak 
 
 Father ! 
 
 Attila 
 There 's blood upon you, boy ! 
 
 Hernak 
 
 Father ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 Blood ! 
 Does it begin already? — You are pale, you tremble. 
 Where are your brothers ? Is there news of them ? 
 You are hurt, boy. Speak ! 
 
 Hernak 
 
 I am not trembling, father. 
 'Tis not my blood. I killed him ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 Tell me again. 
 — Could Chance, could Fate in fleshly form appear, 
 That were a thing to kill.
 
 ^ 
 
 ATTILA 35 
 
 Hernak 
 
 I am your son. 
 I killed him ; he is dead. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Who dead? How dead? Was there no stroke 
 from Heaven ? 
 
 Hernak 
 It was a Greek who supplicated me 
 When I was going out ; I would not hear, 
 And he came after me, and in the hollow 
 Down by the postern met me suddenly. 
 He had a horse and caught me to his saddle, 
 Swearing you should pay ransom for your son, 
 And spurred away. But I was not afraid. 
 
 Attila 
 No, Hernak. 
 
 Hernak 
 And my knife was in my belt. 
 I caught him by the throat and stabbed him. 
 
 Attila 
 
 How ? 
 
 Hernak 
 The Hun's way, so !
 
 36 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 [kissing /lim] 
 Brave Hernak ! That 's my boy ! 
 
 Hernak 
 I am a man now, father, am I not? 
 I would be like my father and hear men say 
 ' He is Attila's own son.' 
 
 Attila 
 \putling him a'way\ 
 
 More terrible 
 Than Attila, I hoped . . . 
 
 \\Vith sudden suspicion^ Where is your mother? 
 Speak, boy ! 
 
 Hernak 
 
 What changes and what angers you ? 
 Why do I vex you? 
 
 Attila 
 Did she set you on, 
 Smeared with false blood and tricked with a false 
 
 tale, 
 To play upon the father's pride in me? 
 
 Hernak 
 I told the truth. You never taught me lies.
 
 ATTILA 37 
 
 Attila 
 Go wash that blood off. [hernak mithdraim.\ 
 
 Whence fell that shadow? 'Tis but shadow, yet 
 How strangely colours as in fatal hues 
 What is mere accident ! The boy 's unhurt. 
 Why should Fate play these tricks, make mouths 
 
 at me 
 Behind a horrible mask, to snatch it off 
 And smile — and smile ! 
 \With sudden change.\ Hernak ! Son ! My son ! 
 
 My father 
 
 Hernak 
 
 \running back] 
 
 Attila 
 We 're not taken, spite of Fate 
 And all her gins ; we '11 make her omens laugh. 
 You and I, boy. You shall surpass me yet. 
 And we will war down everlasting Rome — 
 The weak can never wait, but I am patience — 
 Your son's son shall inhabit Csesar's house. 
 The ships on all the seas shall be his ships : 
 Far into Time I see them . . . sons ! My sons ! 
 
 CURTAIN
 
 38 ATTILA 
 
 ACT II 
 
 SCENE I 
 
 A imulted room. A door at the back, left, another 
 small one at the right, near which the sooth- 
 sayer stands with eyes fixed on a small stone 
 altar on ivhich aflame hums. 
 
 ATTILA enters , followed by onegesius. 
 
 Attila 
 What has the fierce star written ? What is hid 
 In heaven against me? Tell me of my sons. — 
 Onegesius, leave us. Wait without the door. 
 
 [onegesius goes out, closing the door. ] 
 
 [To the soothsayer after a silence.] 
 Thou art in my hand ! 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 And thou, O Attila? . . . 
 
 Attila 
 Find me the means to satisfy my soul ! 
 If holy or unholy arts have power, 
 If by persuasion or by force thou canst
 
 A T T I L A 39 
 
 Ravish from Time his secret, drag it forth ! — 
 I hear you famed beyond the common tribe 
 Of soothsayers ; magicians call you master. 
 Prove it ! Whence got you this so potent lore? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Chaldean sages taught me in their towers 
 That watch the stars ; in Egypt I was born ; 
 Their art is patient to conjure and charm 
 Out of their time the face of hours unborn. 
 
 Attila 
 Summon them up. 
 
 Soothsayer 
 What I can do, I shall. 
 But boast not more. 
 
 Behold, we walk our little hour of light 
 Toward this great dark that fronts us like a wall. 
 All we shall do is there, and all we fear. 
 
 Attila 
 Thrust and break in : seize Fate and force her 
 speak. 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Beware lest from her ambush, ere thou knowest, 
 She leap out at thee.
 
 40 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 
 What 's the peril ? Where ? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Thou art threatened. 
 
 Attila 
 Ah! 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 This meteor that makes pale 
 The natural lights of heaven 
 
 Attila 
 
 Speak ! what of this ? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 O Attila, a power stands over thee 
 
 Poising, but whether to strike out thy doom 
 
 Or to enrich thee, hangs uncertain yet. 
 
 The time awaits thy grapple ; thou shalt know 
 
 When Fate makes of thy hands her implements 
 
 And thou the accomplice bring her deed to birth. 
 
 Attila 
 What power is this whose menace I must fear? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 If my ancestral art have rightly spelled, 
 A woman.
 
 ATTILA 41 
 
 Attila 
 Of my race ? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 Nay, strange to thee. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Her name? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Sign tells not : this is not revealed. 
 Yet of her blood she is born thine enemy. 
 
 Attila 
 Enemy born, yet may be turned to boon 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Her destiny and thine are interlocked. 
 
 Attila 
 And nothing of the event? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 I read no more. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Is this thy boasted art and magic skill ? 
 Thou bat, thou owl, that chatterest in the dark 
 What every eye but thine sees plain by day ! 
 Thou keep'st the secret back.
 
 42 ATTILA 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 Patience, O King. 
 
 Attila 
 Bethink thee of some engine to extort 
 Fate's meaning, or I swear 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 Patience, O King ! 
 Thyself must question ; thou art in the plot, 
 The agent and conniving will : to thee 
 Fate will speak clear what is to others dark. 
 My office is to show thee how. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Begin ! 
 
 Soothsayer 
 All is prepared. Behold this altar-stone 
 
 Attila 
 What is the flame that burns so still on it? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Thy destiny ! — Take in thy hand this dust 
 Compounded of all secret roots that mean 
 All manner of untimeliness to man, 
 Plucked at conjunction of disastrous stars. 
 And sprinkle it upon the fire.
 
 ATTILA 43 
 
 Attila 
 
 What then ? 
 
 Soothsayer 
 If destiny, which is the flame, be bright, 
 'Twill be consumed, the fire will feed on it ; 
 But if the doom be short, the flame will die. 
 
 Attila 
 So. 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Seek thy fate then. 
 
 Attila 
 
 My fate? What of that? 
 My doom is dated somewhere in the book. 
 But I am girded with the sword of God 
 Which is the fate, part of whose will I am ; 
 No, but the after-days and after-doom. 
 My empire and succession's heritage — 
 This troubles me : a wild witch long ago 
 Predicted me misfortune in my sons. 
 I would learn their fate. 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 Nothing of thine own ? 
 
 Attila 
 Do as I bid thee !
 
 44 ATTILA 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Sprinkle then the dust, 
 Pronounce thy sons' names each in turn, and hold 
 His image in thy heart, nought else, the while. 
 
 Attila 
 {taking the dust in his hand\ 
 This then for thee, Ellak, my eldest born ! 
 The first that called me father — this for thee ! 
 Thy mother bore thee on the Tartar plain. 
 Ah, wild and headstrong then I rode and fought, 
 Not yet a king, and wild and headstrong thou. 
 Ambition went not to thy getting, boy ! 
 I would not have thee rule, save in such sort 
 As now, some subject tribe ; thou art a hand 
 But not a brain — Yet, this for thee. 
 
 \He casts the dust on the flame ^ which goes out 
 at once. ] 
 
 So sudden ? 
 A straw would have burnt longer. 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 Fate so wills. 
 
 [He rekindles the flame. \ 
 
 Attila 
 [taking another handful of dust] 
 Gengis, my second, this for thee. Is thine 
 As short a date ? Thou hast a subtle brain
 
 ATTILA 45 
 
 And goest about with eyes upon the ground, 
 Getting thy ends ; but no, thou art not loved. 
 Destiny will not choose thee. 
 
 \He casts the dust again, with the same result. ] 
 
 Gone ! thou too. 
 Drive me to the outpost, I am not subdued ; 
 But one remains, but one, yet he the best. 
 My Hernak ! Fortune ! if thou choose not him, 
 If thou use not this precious-metalled ore 
 To mould and to refine thy masterpiece, 
 But blindly waste it, then I '11 call thee all 
 That men have cursed thee for, convict indeed 
 Thy crooked and capricious purposes 
 In their proclaimed futility. Why then, 
 The world were chaos, Destiny no more 
 Than a giant idiot with a random hand 
 Stumbling and striking. 'Tis impossible ! 
 
 [He is about to cast the dust, then hesitates.] 
 If it should be? Hernak, my Hernak, brave. 
 Wise past his years, courteous, contained, beloved. 
 Flesh of my flesh, will of my will — all prayers 
 I ever prayed are in this hand ! 
 
 [He casts the dust on the flame, "which leaps 
 a moment then goes out.\ 
 
 [To the soothsayer] 'Tis false. 
 Thou vile pretender ! Thou hast been suborned. 
 Confess ! I '11 tear the life out of thy limbs, 
 Cut shrieking into pieces ! I '11 have all
 
 46 ATTILA 
 
 Thy tribe of sorcerers suddenly put out 
 As these brief fires ! 
 
 Soothsayer 
 Perform thy threats ; 'tis vain : 
 The Gods bear witness. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Tush ! — 'tis true, 'tis true. 
 \He begins to pace up and doivn.\ 
 The badge of blood was on him for a sign, 
 And I would not believe ! My boy, my boy ! 
 I thought to shoot an arrow fast and far : 
 It falls before my feet. . . . 
 When he was sucking at his mother's breast 
 My hope was big in him ; but now — but now — 
 Must I be balked of all my soul begot? 
 I stamp upon the ground, and armies spring. 
 Thou shalt not have him, Death, or if thou dost. 
 By all the fiends and furies that rush in 
 To make their hell-home in the heart of man, 
 I swear that for each pang I suffer now 
 I will exact a thousand from the world, 
 I will spare nothing : Italy shall be 
 My vineyard, and the wine of it be blood — 
 Red spirting blood beneath my dancers' feet ; 
 And Rome, Rome, Rome, out of her orphaned 
 mouths,
 
 ATTILA 47 
 
 Out of the cinders of her burning streets 
 Feast me with curses ! Did I dream of peace? 
 'Tis blown to air. I '11 fix me on no throne, 
 But harry, scourge, be vengeance, storm, and 
 
 plague ; 
 And I will laugh as Fate now laughs at me. 
 Robbed of my lion's whelp. 
 
 \Turning suddenly on the soothsayer.] 
 Get hence before I slay thee, mouth of evil ! 
 Thy work is done, my work begins ! 
 
 Soothsayer 
 
 O King, 
 Remember yet the woman ! [£xil, lef/.] 
 
 Attila 
 
 Ildico, 
 Ildico, Ildico? You gods ! is this 
 Your meaning? Is her beauty the fell star 
 That strikes and blasts my sons? The sacrifice? 
 Now terrible and clear the omens read. 
 'Tis so, 'tis she. It must be. — Fate is Fate, 
 But Attila is Attila. So be it. 
 Let all behind be tossed into the waste, 
 My agony with it, all former hope 
 Razed out, life springs, life shoots and bursts 
 
 anew ! 
 She should bear royal children.
 
 48 ATTILA 
 
 KERKA enters hurriedly^ and throws herself 
 at his feet. 
 
 Kerka ! 
 
 Kerka 
 
 Woe, 
 Woe to our house ! 
 
 Attila 
 Speak ! 
 
 Kerka 
 
 Our two elder sons ! 
 News comes that on a foray quarrelling 
 
 Attila 
 You talk of ghosts that wander the wild air ! 
 
 Kerka 
 They are dead ? You know it ? 
 
 Attila 
 
 Dead ! 
 
 Kerka 
 
 If it be true 
 That miserably they have slain each other, 
 Still we have Hernak. 
 
 Attila 
 We?
 
 ATTILA 49 
 
 Kerka 
 
 O Attila, 
 Thank we the Gods still for our best-beloved ! 
 
 Attila 
 Ha, ha ! 
 
 Kerka 
 Why do you laugh so dreadfully? 
 
 Attila 
 The hounds are yelping at the quarry's heel ; 
 Their fangs grin ; Death hallooes. The boy is 
 
 down. 
 Gather your wailing-women, make the grave! 
 He is dead ! 
 
 Kerka 
 He lives ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 A moment, and no more. 
 
 Kerka 
 You rave! Remember how you prayed for him, — 
 The youngest, yet you swi^e he was the best, 
 Since on your knee he sat and with small hand 
 Drew your great sword a little from its sheath, 
 And looked into your eyes. 
 
 D
 
 50 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 
 No more of that ! 
 Out, grief, out of my bosom ! Say no more. 
 I have put this all behind me. 
 
 Attila ! 
 
 Kerka 
 
 Attila 
 The oracle has doomed him. 
 
 Kerka 
 
 It is false ! 
 If it were true, my heart would know it first, 
 The heart beneath the breast that suckled him. — 
 Will you not use one fond word to your wife 
 That bore him you ? 
 
 Attila 
 I loved you. 
 
 Kerka 
 
 » 
 
 Loved, loved, loved ! 
 O bitterest of words to her that loves ! 
 
 Attila 
 You should have borne another. It is too late. 
 Better to have been barren from the first 
 Than breed such hope, to blast it in the flower. 
 A malediction lies upon that womb !
 
 ATTILA 51 
 
 Kerka 
 Ah ! it is Ildico, not me, you love. 
 
 Attila 
 I say, that you are wife of mine no more. 
 
 Kerka 
 She ! she ! Yet Hernak lives. I know he lives ! 
 
 [After a pause.'] 
 I am my lord's. I must bow even to this. 
 Heaven is just. Heaven will hearken. In that day 
 Remember me. You love out of your race, 
 Out of your blood. Think you that Ildico 
 Will be as Kerka? She will love, may be, 
 But with exactions, with suspicions, proud 
 In contraries to try you ; something always, 
 As Western women in their nature use, 
 You '11 not possess, some citadel apart ; 
 She '11 never give you of her very soul 
 As I you cast away. 
 
 Attila 
 Farewell. 
 
 Kerka 
 
 My sons ! 
 [kerka goes out as onegesius eiiten.]
 
 52 ATTILA 
 
 Onegesius 
 What said the Egyptian? Ellak, Gengis slain? 
 What of the oracle? 
 
 Attila 
 
 Sponge out the dead ! 
 The wound is here, but the hot iron put to it. 
 From now my soul despises to be hurt. 
 Fate strikes me to enrich me, stings to spur, 
 To stubborn and enkindle. I am chosen. 
 Destined. 
 
 Onegesius 
 What mean you? 
 
 Attila 
 
 Attila is awakened, 
 And he will match him with this mighty Rome 
 That boasts her birth beyond the count of time. 
 
 Onegesius 
 If it please you, hear 
 
 Attila 
 
 I, I will be eternal ; 
 Out of the teeming chaos that 's to be 
 My will shall fetch and mould to form and flesh 
 Its long-unborn fulfilment : I have seen 
 In vision rising up a line of kings. 
 And each more terrible than the last.
 
 ATTILA 53 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 The present 
 
 • Attila 
 
 No counsel, Onegesius. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Who should be 
 Mightier than Attila? 
 
 Attila 
 
 He shall come, I tell you, 
 And Ildico shall mother him. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Beseech you. 
 Beware of Ildico, beware of her, ,g 
 These same Burgundians are a sullen folk, 
 That cherish wrongs like oaths and sacred vows. 
 This marriage is unholy in their eyes. 
 Your death is dearer than their lives to them. 
 Take heed, lest perfidy stab home at you. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Pish ! Gnats of summer, let them bite their fill. 
 What hour is it? 
 
 Onegesius 
 Past midnight ; dawn draws near.
 
 54 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 Get you to bed. I shall not sleep. 
 
 [oNEGESius is going out, then returns.\ 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 My lord. 
 
 Attila 
 
 What now ? 
 
 Onegesius 
 The Egyptian sorcerer. 'Twere well 
 That he were silenced. I fear blabbing tongues. 
 This man 's a danger. 
 
 Attila 
 
 End him as you will. 
 I have used him. Let all go that serv^ed my past. 
 The world arises new, and I with it. 
 — What was that noise? 
 
 Onegesius 
 [listening at the door] 
 
 Some stirring in the town, 
 Far off. All 's still now. 
 
 Attila 
 
 So the future stirs. 
 To bed ! I '11 see the dawn up. Time's new dawn.
 
 A T T I L A 55 
 
 SCENE II 
 
 The same scene as in Act i. Night, rorik, 
 BURBA, a7id other huns gather near the gate. 
 
 Burba 
 
 What of the King? 
 
 Rorik 
 
 I wait for Esla's word. 
 
 Burba 
 Is it past midnight? 
 
 Rorik 
 
 The first cock has crowed. 
 
 Burba 
 Give us our cues again. 
 
 Rorik 
 
 Stand to your stations : 
 You, Burba, there ; I by the doorpost here. 
 The rest behind. No noise until the signal. 
 
 Burba 
 Three knocks upon the gate, and on the third 
 We drop the bolt. 
 
 Enter esla hurriedly. 
 
 Rorik 
 
 What now ?
 
 56 ATTILA 
 
 ESLA 
 
 A curse is on us. 
 The King is not abed, cannot be found. 
 He is gone with Onegesius, none knows where. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 That crafty Greek is ever crossing me. 
 
 Burba 
 What's to be done? 
 
 ESLA 
 
 They whisper that he tries 
 The oracles of that Egyptian. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 O, 
 
 We 'II find him matter for his auguries. 
 
 This shall be richer sport. He shall be roused, 
 
 Fear not ; I '11 parley with this Sigismund, 
 
 Say Attila is warned, the secret known. 
 
 He must hammer on the door and come, swords 
 
 out, 
 For open fight. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Well thought. 
 
 Burba 
 
 My fingers itch.
 
 A T T I L A 57 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Soft ! not so loud. Already I have primed 
 
 A score of men to hold the several gates 
 
 And at the signal make such clamouring show 
 
 The town shall seem invaded and at arms. 
 
 Meanwhile we keep these Franks in noisy fence 
 
 Till the King comes ; and when the hubbub grows 
 
 So huge a roaring as would start the dead, 
 
 And Attila with anger in his eyes 
 
 Strides in, why then — let swords leap all about 
 
 him ; 
 We '11 spice his nostril with the scent of war, 
 Cry ' Kill ! ' and ' Lead us ! ' 
 
 Burba 
 
 There '11 be slaying then ! 
 
 A merry time ! 
 
 ESLA 
 RORIK 
 
 Hush, all ! 
 
 Burba 
 
 Is it yet the hour? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Some minutes still : wait for the knocking ; now 
 Like mouse to hole. 
 
 {The HUNS retire to their hiding-places. After
 
 58 ATTILA 
 
 a brief pause ildico comes out jrom her 
 house and sits doimi on the steps, her head 
 in her hands, cunegonde follows her^ 
 ajid touches her 07i the shoulder. ] 
 
 Cunegonde 
 Here in the cold air? 
 
 Ildico 
 
 O, I could not sleep. 
 I stifled. Will it soon be dawn ? 
 
 Cunegonde 
 
 Quite soon. 
 Come, — come to bed. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 What do you listen for? 
 
 Cunegonde 
 I thought there was a sound without the gate. 
 
 Ildico 
 You tremble. [Seising her arm.] 
 
 Cunegonde 
 Come away !
 
 ATTILA 59 
 
 Ildico 
 
 What do you fear? 
 What do your eyes seek yonder in the dark? 
 No, I '11 not come till you have answered me. 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 It is not fear, but hope. Yet I fear too. 
 Sigismund — hark ! — Sigismund is in arms. 
 He has mustered all the boldest of our folk, 
 And strikes to-night for freedom and for you. 
 
 Ildico 
 My word was pledged he stirred not. Cunegonde, 
 Did you not carry my command to him? 
 
 Cunegonde 
 He is a man : he would not listen. Ah ! 
 He is in peril ; would you thwart him now? 
 
 Ildico 
 Woe to you ! You have betrayed me ! You, my 
 
 friend. 
 Where is the King? 
 
 Cunegonde 
 He sleeps. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 What was that sound ?
 
 6o ATTILA 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 A sword striking the wall. 
 
 He must be warned. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 The King, the King ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Back ! no one enters here. 
 [ildico and cunegonde retire behind the 
 colonnade. Three knocks sound iipon the 
 gate. ] 
 
 RORIK 
 
 ycoining fonimrd\ 
 Knock louder, man ! Louder ! The King is 
 
 warned ! 
 No use for secrecy. Make show as if 
 An army came. Hammer, to fetch him up ! 
 A loud alarm ! Then we shall take him here 
 Trapped and alone. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 \withont\ 
 Open ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Let fall the bolt.
 
 ATTILA 6i 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 [rushing in with a troop q/"BURGUNDiANS] 
 Attila, Attila ! Where hides the Hun ? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 He comes. 
 
 Burba 
 Meanwhile a bout of fencing, friend. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Lights, Esia, lights! [n\3NS brifig torches.] 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 [defending himself \ 
 
 What devilry is this? 
 
 Burba 
 Stand to your guard ! Now were we not at play, 
 Your head were cloven through. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Where hides your King? 
 Let fall your blade a breathing-space. 
 
 Burba 
 
 Good sport ! 
 \An uproar without begins and increases.]
 
 62 A T T I L A 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Now we will rouse him. Huns, he shall see blood ! 
 
 [He kills a burgundian.] 
 
 BURGUNDIANS 
 
 Flee ! Treachery ! 
 
 [Some flee, pursited by the huns, zvho try to 
 shut the gate. ] 
 
 Huns 
 Kill, kill ! Attila ! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 [still defending himself \ 
 
 Snake, devil ! 
 Was this your trap ? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 For simple souls like you 
 Such traps are made. vStay, Burba, hold him yet, 
 And he shall have his stroke at Attila. 
 
 [iLDico comes out among the?7i.] 
 
 Ildico 
 [to rorikJ 
 
 Free this man ! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Ildico !
 
 ATTILA 6s 
 
 RORIK 
 
 At whose command? 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Not that namCj Ildico. 
 
 Ildico 
 In Attila, the King's name, I command. 
 
 Attila 
 [suddenly appearing from the right] 
 Who speaks for Attila? 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Ildico, my lord. 
 I am shamed. I knew not of this thing. I thought 
 My people heeded my command, — and yet, 
 Give me this man's life. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Let me kill the slave. 
 He meant your murder. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Free him ! By God's wrath, 
 Do you know your King? 
 
 [The HUNS release sigismund, but disarm him 
 first. ] 
 
 Your bladea are ready ; come, 
 I '11 stop this hubbub. Burba, take your guard.
 
 64 ATTILA 
 
 Speed to the north gate, put the riot down. 
 Rorik, with me ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 To the world's end, my King ! 
 Now Attila is Attila again. 
 
 [attila and the huns disperse right and left.] 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 I had him in my hand. A thousand curses I 
 
 Ildico 
 He shone like fire. O, this was Attila ! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 The traitor, the damned snake ! And O, fool me ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Hark how the uproar at his coming dies. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Ildico ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Hark! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Ildico ! Have you drunk 
 Of poison, are you witched with sorceries. 
 Is your blood changed, to have used that hateful 
 name ?
 
 He set you free. 
 
 For your sake. 
 
 ATTILA 65 
 
 Ildico 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Ay, that's the bitterest sting ! 
 
 Ildico 
 For my sake, yes, for my sake. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Have you no shame to feel and to be stung? 
 — Ah ! do you dream of empire, and with him, 
 Because you own a corner of his mind 
 And are the last thing that has pleased his eye. 
 To-morrow loathed, enjoyed, and cast away? 
 
 Ildico 
 No more of outrage. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Ildico, I love you 
 To my life's end. I am mad with love and hate ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Sigismund, he will crush you with his heel. 
 Go. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Never will I see you bride of him ! 
 Either he dies, or I. 
 
 E
 
 66 ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 Go! 
 [siGiSMUND goes out US ATTILA returns.\ 
 
 Attila 
 
 Ildico ! 
 If these few mutinous swords had been a thousand, 
 This petty tumult the whole world in arms, 
 I would have borne you from the midst. Mine, 
 
 mine ! 
 ^Tis written in the unalterable stars. 
 I have heard to-night God crying out of heaven 
 ' Ildico, Ildico ! ' 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Not yet, not yet 1 
 
 Attila 
 Now ! For Heaven puts from me the wife I had. 
 A curse is on her, but on you the choice. 
 The oracle has spoken ; we are bound 
 In destiny together. O, by my soul 
 I love you ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Is it written so, past strength 
 To break or alter, past all strength of will. 
 Of fear, of anguish?
 
 ATTILA 67 
 
 Attila 
 
 It is written so ; 
 You shall be mine. 
 
 Ildico 
 My captain and my King ! 
 Let me not think : I totter. O blind me, blind me 
 In love that burns up all I cast away ! 
 Let it all burn, and one great single flame 
 Clothe us for ever ! Hide me, thou strong tower ! 
 [She buries her head in his breast, then looks ttp.] 
 
 Attila 
 My love is fierce, never will let thee go. 
 
 Ildico 
 O turn not eyes so terrible on me ! 
 
 Attila 
 Ah! seest thou, seest thou? — Give me back my 
 
 sons ! 
 Thou bitter sweet, canst thou so much atone ? 
 Canst thou ? Thou shalt ! Heaven swears it me, 
 
 thou shalt ! 
 Down, images of terror, to the gulf 
 You sprang from ! I defy you ! Here and here 
 Out of black night I kiss thee, life for life.
 
 68 ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 What agony shakes from you such wild words ? 
 What haggard sights are staring? 
 
 Attila 
 
 Scorching leaves, 
 Where hundred hopes were green ! Thou hast 
 slain my sons. 
 
 Ildico 
 I? 
 
 Attila 
 Thou. 
 
 Ildico 
 They live. 
 
 Attila 
 
 The flutter of a spark, 
 No more. The hour's dated. They are sentenced. 
 
 O, 
 When thou didst come, shining across my path, 
 God hung their doom in heaven, a fiery sign 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Look where the black-winged clouds have fleeted 
 
 off- 
 Yonder it burns again !
 
 ATTILA 69 
 
 Attila 
 
 By that bright doom, 
 By my soul's waste and desert, by the pang. 
 The loss, the fury, thou shalt all avenge. 
 Thou famine and thou feast, thou desolation 
 And thou all future joy ! 
 
 [Putting a torch above her head. ] 
 Stand in the light, 
 Thou challenge of mortality, thou Queen ! 
 Is it of mortal stuff that thou art made. 
 That housest Time's great secret? 
 
 Wound and bliss. 
 Cruel and precious with the cost of death, 
 I kiss thy robe, 
 Thou nourisher and mould of kings to be ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Ah ! take my body, take my soul, take all 
 I am and was and shall be — but a woman, 
 Only a woman ! 
 
 Attila 
 Woman, and my bride ! 
 Yon streaming star of loss and death shall change 
 His omened fire to be our nuptial torch. 
 The morrow comes 
 
 Ildico 
 Look how the east is pale !
 
 70 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 Dawn ! The new day, new heaven, and new earth. 
 Now Attila has shaken off his sleep 
 And you shall see him kindled. He whose hand 
 Holds over us that wonder in the sky 
 Wields also me. I am the sword. And lo, 
 Yonder the world that waits us ; all the world ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Ah ! thither, thither let us speed, my King, 
 Speed on fast horses : let us drink the wind. 
 There is no rough fare that shall not be sweet. 
 No bed not soft, no hardship not delight, 
 So I am with you. Take me, carry me 
 Out of all this, out of all this, for ever ! 
 
 [A trumpet sounds in the distance. \ 
 A trumpet in the night ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 I know that peal : 
 It challenges my fate. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 \Trumpet again y nearer. \ 
 Hark, hark again ! 
 
 Attila 
 I have heard that sound upon the blood-red field 
 A hundred times. Ildico, Ildico,
 
 ATTILA 71 
 
 Our horses' hoofs shall stamp the Sacred Street, 
 And you shall sit throned in the Capitol ; 
 For pleasaunce walks you shall have continents, 
 For jewels, subject cities {Trumpet again.] 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Attila ! 
 What summons blows? The dawn is breaking. 
 Hark! 
 
 Attila 
 It is Rome's trumpet — You shall reign in Rome. 
 
 CURTAIN
 
 72 ATTILA 
 
 ACT III 
 
 SCENE I 
 
 The same scene as in Act i. Midday. Groups 
 of people passing by or loitering^ among them 
 BURBA, ESLA, and other huns. Enter from 
 the right rorik, in haste. 
 
 Burba 
 
 Rorik ! 
 
 Rorik 
 War ! By the Dragon, war ; we shall have war ! 
 I tell you Attila is stirred at last ; 
 These mouldering days are done. 
 
 Burba 
 
 Tell us of the envoys. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 These Romans 
 
 Burba 
 Has he sent them packing home 
 With a challenge? Did he threat them ? Did you 
 hear?
 
 ATTILA 73 
 
 RORIK 
 
 They have not seen him. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 How? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Refused, contemned ! 
 You shall see them in a minute come this way 
 With flouted faces muttering anxiously 
 In one another's ear. 
 
 Good ! 
 
 No, 'tis ill. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 He would not see them ? 
 Burba 
 
 RoRIK 
 
 Whichever way, 'tis war. 
 
 Burba 
 I like it not. His thought's all Ildico. 
 To-night he weds her : he '11 have none of war 
 Nor state affairs ; the woman fills his eyes, 
 He sees nought else. The world may howl for him. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 A week, and he 'II be sated. Could a woman 
 Kindle him as last night we saw him kindled?
 
 74 ATTILA 
 
 Did you not note the lightnings in his eye, 
 And how his words leapt after, quick as thunder? 
 That was a good night's work — if but he had let me 
 Slit the long throat of that fool Sigismund ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 The fellow lurks about still. 
 
 Burba 
 
 Yet I doubt. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 What say you then to this? The Gothic kings 
 Are summoned hither. 
 
 Burba 
 
 To the marriage-feast? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 They come with armies. Look across the plain, 
 Yonder 's a moving glitter. It is they ! 
 The spears of Ardaric and Valamir. 
 
 Down to the gate ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Down to the gate ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Come on ! 
 [The HUNS^o out, left.]
 
 ATTILA 75 
 
 A crowd of people come noisily on the scene, 
 followed by the Roman envoys messalla 
 and LAETUS, before ■whom the Moorish 
 dwarf ZERCON marches with antic ges- 
 tures. 
 
 Zercon 
 The King shall hear you. I have power with him. 
 I have my own cause too that I shall plead. 
 Trust me, you men of Rome ! I wield a sword 
 And wag a tongue as well. 
 
 A Man 
 
 Your champion, Romans ! 
 
 A Woman 
 
 Faint hearts, a champion ! 
 
 Men and Women 
 
 Zercon ! 
 
 Zercon 
 
 Follow me, 
 People ! I go to give the Gothic kings 
 My welcome. [Exeunt all but the Romans. J 
 
 Laetus 
 Are all mad, or is it we?
 
 76 ATTILA 
 
 Messalla 
 This is the future, Laetus. We are past ; 
 These are our conquerors. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Rome, what a rabble ! 
 Here's all the quartered world jostling in frag- 
 ments. 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Our mould is cracked ; here is the molten ore 
 Streaming and seething. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Were I Caesar now, 
 I 'd catch and cage these motley chatterers 
 And watch their apish antics, for the jest. 
 And yet our errand 's as fantastical. 
 I thought it always mad, but madder now. 
 A princess of the purple, Csesar's sister, 
 Proffers her troth, her uninvited troth, 
 To this barbarian ; sends a ring to him, 
 And wooes him, wooes this wild boar in his den. 
 'Tis a wild story ! — Come, we are refused, 
 Scorned, slighted : what can profit to stay on? 
 We have seen 
 
 Messalla 
 But have not conquered. No, I stay 
 And win this audience. Attila shall hear.
 
 ATTILA 77 
 
 Will you go back and tell Honoria 
 
 ' We went, and we did nothing, and return ' ? 
 
 Laetus 
 Her pride will rage at this indignity. 
 
 Messalla 
 Yes, if we fail, but not if we succeed. 
 I find that Onegesius the Greek 
 Contrives all here. I spoke with him apart. 
 I think — but see, he comes. 
 
 Enter onegesius. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 It is all madness. 
 
 Well? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Onegesius 
 Attila will hear you — upon condition. 
 
 Messalla 
 The terms? 
 
 Onegesius 
 A public audience. 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Impossible.
 
 78 ATTILA 
 
 Onegesius 
 Speak what you will, but speak it before all. 
 King Attila will hear and welcome you. 
 
 Messalla 
 Our matter is for him and him alone. 
 
 Onegesius 
 His ways are open ; he keeps no private ear. 
 
 Laetus 
 Renegade Greek ! Let us back to Rome, Messalla. 
 
 Onegesius 
 As you will. [Exii^ right.] 
 
 Messalla 
 Patience ! 
 
 Laetus 
 
 I am sick of patience ! 
 Do you imagine, were Honoria here 
 And saw her foolish daydream by daylight. 
 And found herself a gibe and castaway 
 Among these hideous Huns, she would endure 
 An instant? O, post back to Italy ! 
 Think of your garden on the Aventine, 
 Your library, your fishponds, waiting you
 
 ATTILA 79 
 
 Messalla 
 They are waiting always, Laetus. 
 
 [siGiSMUND, hooded^ comes up to them. ] 
 
 Who is this ? 
 
 Laetus 
 He stares at us intently. 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Are you a Hun ? 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 A Hun ! I would rather go upon four legs 
 Than be a beast on two. 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Yet you are here. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 This is my land, not theirs. 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Then Attila 
 You love not? 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Were my fingers at his throat ! — 
 You are from Rome. He is your enemy 
 Eternal. You will see him face to face — 
 O were I you !
 
 8o ATTILA 
 
 Messalla 
 What then ? 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 \wiih a gesture^ 
 
 A little thing. 
 
 Laetus 
 This is a little thing. [Shoimng a dagger.] 
 
 Messalla 
 Your thoughts run fast. 
 But Attila refuses us, my friend. 
 We are dismissed his presence. 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Attila 
 Is ruled. 
 
 Messalla 
 How? 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 By a woman. 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Who is she? 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Burgundy's last of royalty, Ildico, 
 My foster-sister.
 
 O happy Hun ! 
 
 ATTILA 8i 
 
 Laetus 
 
 What, another princess ! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 To-night he weds her. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Weds! 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 Unless — You are Romans, you bring news from 
 
 Rome, 
 Business of moment, doubtless, that shall turn 
 His mind to heavier issues. What is a woman 
 When policy is in the balance? Go, 
 Get his ear, divert him. Women love to taste 
 Their power upon a man. Seek Ildico, 
 She will persuade him. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Excellent foster-brother ! 
 
 Messalla 
 Where is this princess? 
 
 SiGISMUND 
 
 I will bring her to you. 
 [SIGISMUND ^rtjj-^j into iLDico's house.\ 
 
 F
 
 82 ATTILA 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Wedded to-night ! Honoria's dream 's a dream ! 
 Home again, home : all 's ended, come ! 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Not yet. 
 
 Laetus 
 What? 
 
 Messalla 
 Let it be a dream. I never feared 
 Its coming true, or would have stayed at home. 
 Attila will deride it, I know well. 
 But I have promised to Honoria 
 To give the ring, and I will give the ring. 
 Moreover, I will see this Hun, whom Rome 
 Pays tribute of her fear to. 
 
 [iLDico comes out attended by cunegonde and 
 maids.] 
 
 Laetus 
 
 O, she 's fair ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Are you from Rome ? 
 
 Messalla 
 Princess, we are from Rome.
 
 ATTILA 83 
 
 Ildico 
 What brings you hither? Do you await the 
 King? 
 
 Messalla 
 We crave a private audience of the King 
 Which he refuses. Must we go empty away 
 And say in Rome that Attila [He hesitates.] 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Say on. 
 
 Messalla 
 That Attila unroyally withholds 
 His ear from honourable embassies, 
 Abstaining from that ancient courtesy, 
 The privilege of kings? Shall we report 
 That Attila is afraid? Princess, you know 
 'Tis not so, but I think he is abused 
 In counsel. Could we see him face to face, 
 Then would he listen, then would be himself; 
 But it seems Onegesius holds the power. 
 
 Ildico 
 Onegesius ! I will ask the King. I think 
 That you shall have your audience. Stay mean- 
 while. 
 Fetch some wine hither ! Do you refresh yourselves. 
 [She sig7is to her maids, who re-enter the 
 house. ]
 
 84 ATTILA 
 
 Messalla 
 Princess, we thank you, from our hearts we thank 
 you. 
 
 [Exit iLDico into the house of attila. cune- 
 GONDE remains in the background.^ 
 
 Laetus 
 Who would have sought such beauty here?— She 
 rules him. 
 
 Messalla 
 For the moment. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 What new thought possesses you ? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 I listen : I can hear the coming roar 
 
 Of chaos, when the keystone 's struck away 
 
 From this rude arch of empire. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Attila? 
 
 Give that Burgundian opportunity — 
 
 [Two maids return, bringing wine and cakes on 
 gold dishes, then retire.] 
 I am weary. Drink ! To the fair Ildico ! 
 
 [He drinks, but sets down the cup ivith a ivry 
 face.\ 
 And may she come not to as sour an end ! 
 O, golden dishes ! [Nibbles at a cake.]
 
 ATTILA 85 
 
 Messalla 
 
 What was in that sigh ? 
 
 Laetus 
 Nothing ; a memory. A bath, Messalla, 
 Some olives, and a bath ! 
 
 Ildico 
 [re-enteri?ig\ 
 
 King Attila 
 
 Gives audience — but to one. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Not both ? 
 Ildico 
 
 To one. 
 
 Laetus 
 Then you, Messalla. 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Now? 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Immediately. 
 
 Messalla 
 Thanks, noble princess, for your intercession. 
 Would that our gratitude could match your grace ! 
 
 [Exit messalla.]
 
 86 ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 Tell me of Rome. 
 
 Laetus 
 
 What shall I say ? A city 
 That is utterly aweary of itself. 
 Why, did you pace upon the Roman streets, 
 You 'd find yourself a wonder ; next, a worship ; 
 Flowers, odes, a hundred lovers at your feet ; 
 And on the morrow, nothing : out-of-date, 
 A yesterday ; we love not yesterdays. 
 We live for pleasure, princess — a hard life ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Is every Roman so ? Yet Rome is feared. 
 Is there no pith and mettle in her sons? 
 No spirit and no daring? 
 
 Laetus 
 
 I have heard 
 Those words, but never used them, mettle and 
 
 daring ; 
 And it was on such lovely lips as yours 
 I heard them last, with such indignant tone. — 
 Rome boasts a princess whom our poets hymn 
 The moon of Italy, the rose of fame, 
 Though I would sv/ear the face I look upon 
 Would turn them traitors.
 
 ATTILA 87 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Only a woman, then? 
 Does it not shame you to be called a man ? 
 How is she named ? 
 
 Laetus 
 Honoria. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 And a princess? 
 
 Laetus 
 The Emperor's sister. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 She should be your queen — 
 O, can you not catch fire from such a heart? 
 
 Laetus 
 'Tis prettier pleasure to see others burn 
 Than burn oneself. Unhappy Honoria ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Unhappy? I perceive this is a soul 
 You cannot understand, of purest flame 
 That wastes itself unfuelled ; yet I think 
 She is happier than you that mock at her. 
 
 Laetus 
 She is unhappy, for she sits and sighs 
 Beside her palace window all day long.
 
 88 ATTILA 
 
 And gazing over roofs and roar of Rome 
 Dreams of a hero, fancying, poor she, 
 If the north wind blow, it may bring her news 
 Of Attila. 
 
 Ildico 
 Of Attila ! 
 
 Laetus 
 
 Her hero. 
 Her Attila, her world-subduing king, 
 Whose name is text and comment on our ways. 
 Whose greatness canopies the day, the night. 
 And puts the stars out. Ah, mere dreams, mere 
 
 dreams ! 
 Unhappy she ! Your fame shall make Rome 
 
 envious ! 
 Princess, 
 More happy than Honoria, farewell ! 
 
 [Exit LAETUS. CUNEGONDE comes fon^ard.\ 
 
 Ah, Cunegonde ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 \coldly\ 
 
 Cunegonde 
 I heard. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 If this be a Roman, 
 
 Rome is a bubble.
 
 ATTILA 89 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 And Honoria? 
 This lady that has all men at her feet 
 
 Ildico 
 What of her? 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 Nothing. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Tell me, what of her? 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 This only, that she loves your Attila, 
 And sends these envoys 
 
 Ildico 
 
 She ! High state affairs, 
 Not woman's messages they come upon. 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 And yet 
 
 Ildico 
 No more. Go ! 
 
 \Exit CUNEGONDE.] 
 
 Now, if that were true. 
 And Attila listen? Shame, O shame for me ! — 
 O what is love, that we should speak of it
 
 90 ATTILA 
 
 So fair and fondly? It is fierce, not kind ; 
 Cruel, not tender ; 'tis not a thing we own ; 
 It clutches us, and will not let us go ; 
 It is a stream we drown in, a strong stream 
 That sweeps us out of sight of home, of friends. 
 Of our own souls, of everything. 
 
 [With sudden change of to?ie.\ 'Tis written 
 In heaven that I am his, my Attila's ; 
 A bond unbreakable, and in that bond 
 My body is made holy to him, and I 
 More wonderful than woman. 
 
 Honoria? 
 The truth ! I '11 seek him ; I must know the truth ! 
 
 [Exit, right.] 
 
 SCENE II 
 
 An audience-chamber, plainly furnished, attila 
 is seated on a loiv dais, left, messalla stands 
 at the right, the slave rvho carries the treasure 
 stands behind. A t the back a curtained door. 
 MESSALLA has just finished speaking. 
 
 Attila 
 I find no matter for my private ear 
 In this. I think my patience is abused.
 
 ATTILA 91 
 
 Messalla 
 My prologue 's ended. But for what 's to come 
 I crave your secrecy : this is a theme 
 Nearer and more familiar. But meanwhile 
 Let Attila accept a gift from Rome. — 
 Pour out your treasure, slave, at the King's feet. 
 \The SLAVE advances y but is stopped by a 
 gesture from attila.] 
 
 Attila 
 Hold ! Come no nearer. Leave the treasure there. 
 Dismiss the slave. We are alone. Speak on. 
 How, hesitating? Do you moisten lips 
 For this that was so instant to be said ? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 I doubt to find the words that shall commend 
 My mission. 
 
 Attila 
 State affairs are suited best 
 With plain words. What would the Emperor 
 with me? 
 
 Messalla 
 Your pardon ! I must seek to tune my speech 
 To other issues, though an old man's lips 
 Discourse them strangely ; yet, if I am old, 
 I have seen the more, and ageing with my kind
 
 92 ATTILA 
 
 Know nothing 's strange that 's human. Wisdom is 
 Not to despise : the thread of fate, wherein 
 Events are bound and huge dominions hang, 
 Is often spun of tissue delicate 
 
 As sighs, as dreams, a thread that one might burst 
 Against the beating of a woman's heart. 
 
 Attila 
 Come, come ! what would you speak of? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Of a woman. 
 It is a woman uses speech in me. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Is Rome so manless and emasculate 
 That women send ambassadors? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Hear yet 
 Before you judge, O Attila. It is 
 A woman, but imperial, sends me hither. 
 You know the Emperor has a sister, young, 
 A ripe eighteen — Honoria ; she is one 
 Whose nature will not starve in custom's mould. 
 But breaks in precious fire — how shall I say? 
 You will not understand how I am moved 
 In speaking of her ; a spirit that rebels 
 From seeming what she is not, chooses, wills,
 
 ATTILA 93 
 
 And stops not at the halting-place of fear. 
 Whatever moves her, moves her to the quick. 
 She is proud ; yet giving, she gives absolutely : 
 Her nature is a queen. And C^sar fears her, 
 Grudges her scope, sets spies upon her, mews 
 Her wings in palace walls that prison her ; 
 Even now debates within some convent's gate 
 For ever to exile her. 
 
 Attila 
 
 What of this? 
 Caesar may dungeon half a hundred sisters, 
 I will not stir to help or draw the bolt. 
 What 's this to me ? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Alas ! upon this theme 
 My tongue grows garrulous. Then, to be brief. 
 This young, imperious, and unmated heart, 
 Finding about her none to incarnate 
 The greatness that she dreams of, — for she dreams 
 Of such a Caesar as the Julian star 
 Mourned, when the master of all nations fell — 
 Would sponge away five hundred years, to breathe 
 Heroic times again, and living caged 
 Fosters the more such fancies as, you know. 
 Flower in a prison, wither in the world, — 
 She turns from Rome to far horizons : there
 
 94 A T T I L A 
 
 She hears one name fill all the North with dread, 
 The rumour of one spirit matching hers 
 In greatness of adventure and desire. 
 
 Attila 
 Whom do you speak of? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 Whom but Attila? 
 As queen to king, she sends her embassage ; 
 Proudly and freely thus declares her heart. 
 Honoria weds with Attila or none ; 
 In proof and pledge whereof she sends this ring 
 Affiancing her heart and destiny. 
 
 Attila 
 Give me the ring. What story or device 
 Is wrought upon the gem ? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 It shows the fleece 
 Old poets tell of, like that bearded star 
 We watched last night, hung golden in the gloom 
 Of jealous forests, and the dragon coiled 
 About the tree-trunk with a burning eye. 
 ApoUodorus, the Sicilian, made 
 The gem : for modern workmanship 'tis well. 
 Though I could show you in my cabinet
 
 ATTILA 95 
 
 Attila 
 [wilk sudden change of tone] 
 What talk is this of toys and g"irls and rings? 
 Say now what business brought you ? 
 
 Messalla 
 
 All is said. 
 A girl's whim, doubtless, 'tis but a girl's whim. 
 She should have paced an ampler age than ours. 
 We maim her, a proud marble of old time 
 In dust and wreck found beautiful, but maimed ; 
 But I — I am her friend, and for my friendship 
 She chose me for this errand, and because 
 My years perhaps seemed fitter to commend 
 Her act as not a folly, though a folly 
 To Attila it is ; and if 'tis so 
 She is answered : but to Attila's own ear 
 I have committed it ; my duty 's done. 
 
 Attila 
 [starting np] 
 So with this patched and most unlikely tale 
 You thought to blind me, and behind this mask 
 Of trumpery and words to carry off 
 Your baffled plot ! You have not fooled me. No, 
 Your errand was my murder ! 
 
 Messalla 
 
 God forbid !
 
 96 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 Am I a dolt, a round-eyed innocent, 
 That know not your Italian practices? 
 'Twas tried before : Byzantium bribed a man 
 To stab me in close audience ; now 'tis Rome. 
 You meant to do it while that slave of yours 
 Poured out the gold and while I fingered it. 
 
 Messalla 
 I swear 
 
 Attila 
 What were you hired with to remove 
 Rome's nightmare, and pull down the hated Hun ? 
 Why, Caesar's purple, Valentinian's throne 
 Were less than just reward ! 
 
 Messalla 
 
 King, I confess. 
 Were Attila no more, Rome would sleep sounder ; 
 But not a Roman stirred a finger here. 
 
 Attila 
 I say, my death was plotted ere you came. 
 Ay, chuckled over in the Capitol ! 
 
 Messalla 
 Not so, I swear, no, nor a dream of it. 
 I come, ambassador to Attila, 
 And with no thought but of my embassy.
 
 ATTILA 97 
 
 An office sacred out of time to kings, 
 As mine should be to you. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Ambassador ! 
 Embassy from a girl — a shameless girl, 
 If what you say be truth ; if truth, 'tis folly 
 That merits no respect ; but it is false, 
 Pretence and pretext. Do you think to escape 
 Because you are foiled, or that I honour names 
 Put on for cloaks, or spare because you are old — 
 The older, the worse fool ? 
 
 [Calling RORIK, who appears instantly.] 
 Take out this man. 
 And tie him up to be an archer's mark, — 
 My Huns have lacked a target — and proclaim. 
 Thus Attila deals with traitors, and with spies 
 Usurping honourable offices. 
 
 Messalla 
 So be it : let my death dishonour you, 
 
 Attila. No matter : my term 's ripe. 
 A Roman dies — but Rome remains. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Come back. 
 
 1 have a word yet. — Rorik, wait without. 
 
 [After a pause. ] 
 I did not think Rome bred such spirits still ; 
 
 G
 
 98 A T T I L A 
 
 Come, sir, be open. Coward you are not, 
 
 Nor should be fool. Put off the mask : you are 
 
 free. 
 What deeper purpose brings you to this place? 
 No hand shall harm you, so you tell me all. 
 
 Messalla 
 It is all told, condemn it as you will 
 For folly or for fiction ; truth it is 
 Princess Honoria sent you the ring, 
 Praying me earnestly to deliver it 
 Into your very hands ; nothing but this 
 Was my commission, nothing else my purpose. 
 
 Attila 
 [io himse/f] 
 It's true, then, this mad story of the ring. 
 A woman, again a woman ! 
 
 [To messalla.] What's your name? 
 
 Messalla 
 Messalla. 
 
 Attila 
 Go, Messalla ; you have seen 
 That Attila is armed, yet can be mild. 
 Go back to Rome
 
 A T T I L A 99 
 
 Messalla 
 
 If I am free to go^ 
 I pray you, let me take the ring again, 
 Honoria's silent and sufiicient answer. 
 
 Attila 
 No ; tell your princess I accept the ring, 
 'Tis on my finger, say you saw it there, 
 And say besides that at my chosen time 
 I come to claim her. How, not pleased? What's 
 
 ill? 
 Pluck laurel for your brows, ambassador ! 
 Honoria shall crown you. 
 \Calling to rorik, who appears.] Rorik, give 
 This Roman escort. He is free. 
 
 [Exit MESSALLA imtJl RORIK.] 
 
 Bald fool ! 
 If this be she Fate points her finger at, 
 Not Ildico, but she? A Roman girl, 
 Essenced and puny, and that has no shame 
 To cast herself before an unknown man ! 
 Such women please me not at all. And yet 
 Rome on my finger ! The gem glitters at me. 
 A world of cities, old and populous. 
 The ports of traffic with wide seas between, 
 Enfortressed armies, tributary kings, 
 Rivers and corn-lands, mountains veined with gold, 
 The hopes, the fears of hundred nations, all
 
 loo ATTILA 
 
 Contracted to one point of changing light 
 Upon my finger. 
 
 [Calling.] Onegesius ! 
 What was it the sorcerer said? A woman, a woman ! 
 Enemy born, yet may be turned to boon. 
 Honoria chimes as well as Ildico. 
 Doubt wins upon my soul, but it is she. 
 
 [A SLAVE enlers.] 
 Call Onegesius ! — Must I dance a puppet 
 And women pull the strings? I? What's one 
 
 woman 
 More than another? 
 
 ILDICO enters. 
 
 O, she comes ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 My lord, 
 
 Am I admitted now ? What is afoot ? 
 
 Tell me — your brows are knitted — tell your bride 
 
 What brought these Romans hither? 
 
 Attila 
 
 Ildico 
 Trouble? 
 
 Attila 
 
 No trouble. 
 
 State affairs. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Good, then?
 
 ATTILA loi 
 
 Attila 
 
 Who can tell ? 
 
 But there 's no trouble possible, when my eyes 
 
 Have joy of you, my Ildico. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 My lord, 
 Is it true you love me? 
 
 ONEGESius enters. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Doubt all else but that. 
 
 Ildico 
 Even to the end? 
 
 Attila 
 Even to the end. But see, 
 Grave counsels call me. Onegesius comes. 
 We must unravel intricate affairs — 
 And then to feast ; and then 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Have you no more 
 To tell me ? 
 
 Attila 
 Till to-night, sweet, till to-night ! 
 [ildico goes out slowly, onegesius comes 
 forward.] 
 Is she not fair?
 
 I02 ATTILA 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Too fair not to be feared. 
 But you '11 not hear me. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Is she not a shape 
 To body forth the purposes of Gods ? 
 Can they create such meaning to the eye, 
 Inscribe all-glorious hopes and histories 
 On form and feature, but to gull the soul 
 That is the eye's dupe? O, I doubt she 's nothing ! 
 Mortal flesh, a fair body, nothing more ! — 
 Fetch me that sorcerer, I have need of him. 
 
 Onegesius 
 He is dead. 
 
 Attila 
 Since when? 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 He died at your command. 
 
 Attila 
 I never ordered 
 
 Onegesius 
 But consented. 
 
 Attila 
 
 O, 
 By plague and thunder, you have served me ill !
 
 A T T I L A lo: 
 
 Onegesius 
 What need to ply him further? All is known. 
 The oracle 's already part fulfilled, 
 The rest 's to come. 
 
 Attila 
 
 I tell you, all 's not known. 
 Look on ny hand. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 A ring ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 A Roman ring, 
 A gift. 
 
 Onegesius 
 From C^sar? 
 
 Attila 
 
 No, from Caesar's sister. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Honoria? 
 
 Attila 
 She. And with the ring she gives 
 Her heart and fate, her body and her soul. 
 What say you ?
 
 I04 ATTILA 
 
 Onegesius 
 Rome itself is in the ring. 
 
 the imperial hostage ! 'Tis an army- 
 Given over to you in the enemy's camp. — 
 Why, this speaks clearer than all oracles 
 Rome shall be yours. 
 
 Attila 
 Think you so? Think you so? 
 'Tis like the silent action of immortals 
 To crown us with the long despaired of prize. 
 
 1 have heard of stars that tumbled in the lap 
 
 Of despised women, and enthroned them queens. 
 But O, to pluck and wrench this rooted joy 
 Out of my breast ! Honoria 's a name 
 Unwelcomed, thrust on me : but Ildico — 
 Her lips have been on mine, and I had built 
 An image high as heaven in desire 
 Of her fulfilling soul. — Well, crumble, dreams ! 
 Be it only her sweet body, she is mine ! 
 Are the armies summoned? 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 Valamir and Ardaric 
 Are come, their hosts are camped at hand. 
 
 Attila 
 
 'Tis well. 
 Hernak yet lives. What if the omens lied ?
 
 ATTILA 105 
 
 My curse on weakness that entreats for signs 
 
 And promises contemptuously cast 
 
 As bones to dogs ! These double-dealing Fates 
 
 Laugh at us, when we dread them. From this hour 
 
 They shall dread me. Let shifting omens point 
 
 To Ildico or to Honoria, 
 
 I laugh, for both are given me, both are mine ! 
 
 Onegesius 
 Nay, take my counsel : choose. To clutch at both 
 May be to lose both. 
 
 Attila 
 By this glittering ring 
 I will have Rome. — Take means to set on foot, 
 To-morrow, our preparation for the march. 
 And Ildico 
 
 Onegesius 
 Forswear her, Attila. 
 
 Attila 
 Tumble the towers of earth and heaven, not I ! 
 No, though the superstitious glory 's gone. 
 She 's my possession. If the world is mine 
 To break within my hands, shall I renounce 
 The spice and sting that 's at the core of it? 
 
 Onegesius 
 Ay, better so, when the Gods give you Rome.
 
 io6 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 Onegesius, hark ! We that rode over earth 
 And trod it down, we are masters ; shall not we 
 Invade these Powers that lurk within the cave 
 Of time to be, and mock and baffle us? 
 Show me the thing that boldness cannot quell ! 
 I swear, did we burst in, our swords should find 
 Fate cowering there. 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 As perilous a world, 
 Perhaps, you are invading now. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Onegesius 
 
 What mean you ? 
 
 A woman's soul. 
 
 Attila 
 O women, women, women ! 
 Flowers to be plucked, — what force is in a flower 
 To harm or to be feared? Flowers to be plucked ! 
 
 curtain
 
 ATTILA 107 
 
 ACT IV 
 
 SCENE 
 
 A hall set out "with small tables and imth a double 
 throne, left, on a dais. At the back, between 
 two pillars, an inner chamber masked by heavy 
 curtains. 
 
 As the curtain rises, hernak is discovered, 
 seated on the throne, alone, kerka enters, 
 right. 
 
 Kerka 
 
 I have sought you- 
 
 Hernak 
 I am here. 
 
 Kerka 
 
 On the king's throne ! 
 
 Hernak 
 One day I must be king. 
 
 #
 
 io8 ATTILA 
 
 Kerka 
 
 [embracing kwi] 
 
 My noble boy ! 
 In you I live, in you I am avenged. 
 May she be barren, may she have no child, 
 She that usurps me ! May her beauty be 
 A flower that withers and is tossed away ! 
 May she too drink the cup that I drink of. 
 And may it be thrice bitter to her soul ! 
 Son, my own son, live, for I live in you ! 
 
 Let me go, mother ! 
 
 Hernak 
 
 Kerka 
 
 Hernak, promise me ! 
 
 Hernak 
 
 What? 
 
 Kerka 
 This : be absent from the feast to-night. 
 
 Hernak 
 I am to stand upon the King's right hand. 
 
 Kerka 
 Yes ; always. But to-night your place shall want 
 you.
 
 ATTILA 109 
 
 The King shall want you and shall ask for you ; 
 But you '11 be absent. For my sake do this. 
 
 Hernak 
 
 I was to stand upoji the King's right hand. 
 My father will be angered. 
 
 [Relenting.] Yet, I will. 
 But let me go now ; I must seek abroad 
 Among the captains, for they talk of war. 
 
 Kerka 
 
 O no, stay by me ! 
 
 Hark ! the music comes. 
 We must be gone now. Music for her feet ! 
 Nay, swifter, swifter ! dance her to her doom ! 
 
 [A file of girls holding above their heads a long 
 white scarf enters in a rhythmical dance, 
 preceding ildico, ivho takes her stand upon 
 the dais, kerka standing with hernak, 
 over agaiitst 11.DICO, right.] 
 Ay, glory now ! Be flushed, be blind with bliss ! 
 Heap up the dizzy moment with delight 
 Ere it be spilt, as soon it shall be spilt, 
 And thou, supplanter, be supplanted ! Then 
 Shalt thou come hither where now Kerka stands, 
 With no son by thy side ; that haughty head 
 Be humble, and thou discarded and abhorred ; 
 And then the Roman woman in thy place
 
 no ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 
 [speaking in exaltation] 
 I fear not any woman upon earth. 
 I have that certainty within my soul 
 Which mocks at past and future. So, hate on. 
 I pity thee, so poisoned. 
 
 Kerka 
 
 Pity rather 
 Thine own awakening to reahty, 
 With thy lost faith fixed on a faithless man. 
 
 Ildico 
 Fixed in the great heavens shines unchangeable 
 My destiny for ever. 
 
 [Music. The huns begin to troop in to the 
 banquet, chanting the conclusion of a ivar- 
 song. ] 
 
 Where the Dragon-banner streamed, 
 Armies quaked and rolled asunder ; 
 Lightnings on our lances gleamed, 
 Cities splintered at our thunder. 
 
 Riding like the whirlwind's breath 
 We were Famine, we were Death ; 
 Send us such another day, 
 Attila, our Attila ! 
 
 [As the HUNS take their seats, ardaric and 
 VALAMiR come in and occupy each a high
 
 ATTILA III 
 
 seat. ATTILA enters^ holding out his arms 
 to HERNAK, i<oho tums frovi him and goes 
 out ivith KERKA. ATTILA ivith a laiigh 
 passes on to the throne. ] 
 
 Attila 
 Kings, princes, warriors, whose assembling swords 
 Array our bridal banquet, welcome all ! 
 Out of our birth-land of remotest East 
 What goad of God has pricked us, and driven on, 
 A storm against all storms, like thunder-wind. 
 Hither across uncounted plains and streams 
 You know ; and here a white flower of the West 
 To my rough soul, so lately scarred with loss, 
 Brings balsam, and my fortune crowns afresh. 
 Heaven prophesied this in yon sudden star. 
 Behold my bride, the gentle Ildico ! 
 Behold your queen, the noble Ildico ! 
 Pledge us in wine, in the red wine, my Huns, 
 To your queen ; drink ! To the fair Ildico ! 
 
 Huns 
 
 Attila, hail ! Ildico, hail ! Attila and Ildico, hail ! 
 hail ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 No word of war. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Wait, there 's a word to come.
 
 112 ATTILA 
 
 Burba 
 111 comes of wedding with a Western bride. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 [rising] 
 My King, I pledge thee in the cup, and drink 
 To the glory of Attila. 
 
 Huns 
 
 Attila, Attila ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Where your King rides, there Ildico will ride. 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Hear you that, Burba ? Royal as she 's fair ! 
 
 Attila 
 Wine, kings and captains, let the wine go round. 
 Laugh your full hearts out, revel at your ease. 
 No trumpet cries us to the field to-night. 
 No, nor to-morrow. Come, a long regale, 
 That tosses care into the dancing cup. 
 The cup of mirth and joy. 
 
 [Alovement of disappointment among the 
 
 HUNS.] 
 
 Burba 
 
 Pah, fondling hands ! 
 He dotes upon her with a glistening eye.
 
 ATTILA 113 
 
 [zERCON enters^ martially arrayed in grotesque 
 magnificence , amid the laughter of the 
 banqueters. ] 
 
 Zercon 
 Majesty, a boon ! 
 
 \He draws his sword with a fierce air as a hun 
 intercepts him.]^ 
 
 Fellow, my falchion 's bare ! 
 Hands off, or I shall split you, crown to fork ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Toss the imp to me. 
 
 Zercon 
 Majesty, a boon ! 
 
 Attila 
 A song, then, for the boon. 
 
 Huns 
 
 Zercon, a song- ! 
 
 Zercon 
 I mouth no songs ; I am a man of deeds. 
 
 Huns 
 Zercon, a song ! A battle-song, a war-song ! 
 
 H
 
 114 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 Let the knave speak. 
 
 Zercon 
 
 O King, this night gives you 
 A wife, but me it robs ; I had a wife. 
 A yellow Goth has stolen her from me. 
 Avenge me ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Man of deeds ! 
 
 Zercon 
 
 The monster fled ; 
 He feared me. 
 
 Attila 
 You shall have another wife, 
 And I will choose her. Women are the spoils 
 For heroes, Zercon. 
 
 Zercon 
 
 The King's choice for me ! 
 Most bounteous thanks. Some wine, give me 
 some wine ! 
 
 Huns 
 A song, a war-song ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 War!
 
 ATTILA 115 
 
 Attila 
 
 What, still untuned 
 To revel ! Does the bull stamp in the stall? 
 Drink deeper ! Camps of mire in the foul fog 
 And sinew-biting frost, — would you have all 
 You toiled in, rather than the toil's reward? 
 Feast and carouse ! Bethink you of the drouth. 
 The fiery dust, the thirsts unquenchable, 
 Then relish the full beaker ! Parch your throats 
 With hot remembrance, that the flooding wine 
 May drown it. Come, unharness those swift 
 
 thoughts. 
 Tastes not the wine well? Must you hear the 
 
 sound 
 Of axe and arrow ere you savour it ? 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Now mark ! 
 
 Attila 
 Forget ! can you not quite forget 
 Music of battle, sword on helmet ringing, 
 Spear dinting shield? 
 
 A Hun 
 
 Give us that sound again 
 
 Burba 
 
 \ Then we will revel ! 
 
 I
 
 ii6 ATTILA 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Swords for Attila ! 
 Huns 
 
 ' Send us such another day, 
 Attila, our Attila !' 
 
 \The HUNS raise their swords, and gather 
 nearer attila. ] 
 
 Attila 
 Huns ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 The King speaks. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Huns ! 
 
 Many Voices 
 
 Hark to Attila ! 
 
 Attila 
 Huns, that have over-ridden earth with me, 
 Will you not rest? 
 
 Huns 
 
 Never ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 Nor sit at ease, 
 Warriors of mine? The pleasant earth is yours.
 
 ATTILA 117 
 
 Huns 
 
 To horse, to battle ! Let us ride again ! 
 
 Attila 
 Huns, I exult to see you, hear you, feel you. 
 When I have reined my horse in, stamping earth 
 Before the charge, and quivering in the flank, 
 So have I felt a mettle answer mine, 
 As now in you it answers. 
 
 RORIK 
 
 War at last ! 
 
 Attila 
 What ! Did you deem me idle, sleep-benumbed 
 And sloth-corrupted? Me? Then know my soul 
 Smouldered, because it burned more deep within ; 
 And while you chafed and muttered — did you not? — 
 My purpose swelled and ripened. The hour strikes 
 To show it. 
 
 Huns 
 Show it us ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 King Ardaric, 
 How many spears are counted in your host? 
 
 Ardaric 
 
 Five thousand by the river, and seven times more 
 Beyond the pass.
 
 ii8 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 King Valamir, say you 
 How many can you add? 
 
 Valamir 
 
 Not a man less 
 Than thirty thousand for my summons wait 
 Beside the ford of Danube. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Huns, you hear? 
 Now, Hun and Goth and Gepid, since the time 
 Chimes with your temper, and my mood with both, 
 Behold the Sword ! 
 
 [He shows the sacred siiwd at his be/t, and 
 drawing it, holds it erect. ] 
 
 All 
 The Sword of God ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 You know 
 My meaning. When this Sword is girded on. 
 You know my vows are taken, and my resolve 
 Not put from me till this is put from me : 
 And my will holds to march. 
 
 All 
 
 Whither, whither?
 
 ATTILA 119 
 
 Attila 
 
 On Rome ! 
 
 All 
 On Rome ! Rome shall be ours ! 
 Rome ! Rome ! 
 
 [Amid the excited cries of the huns, sigismund 
 suddenly enters. \ 
 
 Sigismund 
 
 Huns, let a word be spoken in your midst 
 Of one that tasted your King's clemency. 
 To-night he weds with a Burgundian bride : 
 Shall Burgundy be silent? Here and now 
 I dedicate my sword to Attila. 
 
 [Drawing his sword, he rushes at attila. 
 iLDico throivs herself in his way, but 
 SIGISMUND is at once cut down by the 
 
 HUNS.] 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Sigismund ! 
 
 Sigismund 
 \expiring\ 
 
 Ildico ! traitress Ildico ! 
 \A black cloak is flung over the body, which is 
 carried out while attila speaks.\
 
 I20 ATTILA 
 
 Attila 
 A victim, Huns ! A victim that the Gods 
 Slay for my glory. He who seeks my life 
 Finds his own doom. Not twice nor thrice a stab 
 Has meant me and has failed. An omen, Huns, — 
 The Gods, the Gods have Attila in charge, — 
 An omen on the threshold of our war. 
 Let not this fool's irruption on our feast 
 Distaste your mirth and cloud your revelry ; 
 Yet, for my bride's sake, to your several homes 
 Pass and disperse. To-night is for the feast, 
 To-morrow trumpets us to Italy, 
 And greets us in the saddle with the sun. 
 
 {The HUNS pass out clashing shields and crying 
 '■Rome! Rome!* \\jd\co has been stand- 
 ing transfixed with horror, attila turns 
 to her exulting. ] 
 Now, crown of joys ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 That spilt blood curses me. 
 O that 'twas I had fallen at your feet. 
 Pierced by his steel, my body given for you ! 
 
 Attila 
 What, yon poor madman, gulping at his doom ? 
 For simple serpents and contriving doves 
 There is no room in nature. But for us
 
 ATTILA 121 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Attila, I gave, and you have taken. 
 
 1 have cast away all, all that was my own, — 
 See, my own blood judges and curses me ! — 
 Say it again, say it is willed in Heaven, 
 Say that you love me ! By that starry bond. 
 That bond of faith which knots us even to death. 
 Give me oblivion, give me 
 
 Attila 
 [suddenly seising her in his arms] 
 
 Ildico ! 
 Ildico 
 Hold me and hide me and drown me in your love, 
 The greatness and the glory of your love ! 
 
 Attila 
 Toss all away that burns not in this kiss — 
 Be strained, you sweetness, strained into my arms. 
 They shall crush out remembrance into wine 
 Of ecstasy so fierce you shall not think, 
 Fear, hope, remember, in the pangs of joy ! 
 I 'd cast a kingdom in the seas to-night, 
 For the Gods envy me. 
 
 \Holdi7ig her at arin's length.] 
 O never yet 
 In teeming Time was such a beauty born 
 As lives in you and flames. It stings, it maddens ! 
 Thou red wine, I will drink thee !
 
 122 ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 \catching his hand to hold him off] 
 
 Ah, you hurt ! 
 — What is that ring upon your hand? Not mine ! 
 
 Attila 
 No, but 'tis mine. Do you covet it, the gem ? 
 See in the core of it a winking fire 
 Glows like a dragon's eye ; now it is changed 
 To colder than a moonbeam, splintered ice, 
 And now again all angry. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Give it me ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 It ravishes your eye? It is from Rome. 
 A cunning craftsman made it. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Rome? From Rome? 
 Honoria, Honoria sent it you ! 
 
 Attila 
 Who has blabbed ? What know you of Honoria? 
 No matter, it is mine. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Fling it away !
 
 ATTILA 12: 
 
 Attila 
 Ha, ha ! 
 
 A dream-sick girl, mewed in a palace cage. 
 That hunts her wandering fancy on the wind. 
 And dotes upon a man she never saw — 
 A milky-hearted girl, in love with dreams. 
 She sends me this. 
 
 Ildico 
 You suffer it ? Accept ? 
 Give me the ring ! 
 
 Attila 
 What will you do with it? 
 
 Ildico 
 Trample it with my heel, grind it to dust, 
 Since you forget my honour and your own. 
 
 Attila 
 Soft, soft ; I keep it for my uses, sweet, — 
 State matters you 've no need acquaintance of. 
 Let the toy be, I shall not wear it more 
 Till 
 
 Ildico 
 Perjury ! If any meaning lives 
 In such a token, such a gift, this hand 
 Is false, and plighted to Honoria. 
 This was the Roman's errand that you hid
 
 124 ATTILA 
 
 So secret, and for this you march on Rome 
 Nor tell your bride a word ! O perjured hand ! 
 — I '11 not believe it ! Say you jest. 'Tis cruel 
 To jest so, yet I '11 pardon. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Ay, a jest, 
 A good jest ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Then give me the ring. 
 
 Attila 
 
 Not now. 
 Another time. We waste our life's delight. 
 This night's for sweeter use than argument. 
 Come, kiss and pardon. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 No, you love me not ! 
 You love me not, that wear another's ring, 
 Exile me from your inmost purposes. 
 And tell me last what you should tell me first — 
 Me whom you vowed the passion of your fate. 
 Queen of your destiny, your soul, your star 
 
 Attila 
 The stars are broken ; I am destiny. 
 In the night's crooked characters let fools 
 Read their own folly.
 
 ATTILA 125 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Is it nothing, all 
 You vowed to me beneath that burning star 
 With earnest eyes and dedicating lips, 
 Prophecies that entwined us to all time, 
 False? 
 
 Attila 
 
 A false prophet gulled me with his lies. 
 I am I, and you are mine. 
 
 Ildico 
 
 You love not me ! 
 
 Attila 
 O, by all torments of desire, I do ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 False ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 Yes, all 's false but beauty ; all is false, 
 A wilderness of falsehood, but your hair 
 That stings me, and the crimson of your mouth. 
 And white throat, and warm panting of your 
 
 breast — 
 And they are mine, they shall be mine, mine ! 
 
 Hark! 
 How my Huns revel ! We will plumb a well 
 Of bliss beyond their thought.
 
 126 ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 [breaking molently from hini\ 
 
 O shame, O shame ! 
 A woman such as you would toss to wive 
 With that misfeatured Moor. False, false, false ! 
 
 Attila 
 
 Ah! 
 
 Stand so, and let the lovely anger blaze ! 
 I '11 not begrudge it fuel. Let it spark 
 Cheek and eye ; beauty is thrice beautiful 
 So passionately coloured. I am drunk 
 With joy of gazing on this beauty. — Yet, 
 Where I am, I am master ; and these arms 
 Can crush as well as cherish. So, be taught. 
 Come, come ! I did but tease that angry mood. 
 Here are your maids to tire you. Wait me 
 
 quickly. 
 
 [attila goes out as cunegonde enters with 
 attendant 2vomen.] 
 
 Ildico 
 A moment, yet a moment, Cunegonde ! 
 
 [cunegonde retires.] 
 Traitress ! No, no ! I am not that, no, no ! 
 All terror is come true. It must be done! 
 
 [She kneels down and prays.] 
 Gods of my fathers, I have sinned against you :
 
 ATTILA 127 
 
 My eyes were blinded, and I could not see. 
 Change this distempered fever, that I thought 
 Was love, and noble ; purge it from my heart ; 
 Let me be clean. O, if you did withhold 
 Your presence for this time, now doubly fill 
 My soul, my veins! Lift me from weakness up. 
 O send me strength, strength, agony, but strength ! 
 Let me not now be humbled by this man ; 
 Let me be one remembrance of my blood 
 That never yet was vile or bore a shame, 
 And being shamed rises to be avenged. 
 Make these hands strong to strike him ! 
 [Rising and calling to cunegonde.] Cunegonde ! 
 [cuNEGONDE, GiSLA, and maids enter with 
 robes, a silver mirror, etc. During this 
 scene cunegonde speaks ivith intense and 
 bitter irony. ] 
 
 Take off this robe ! 
 It weighs me down. 
 
 Cunegonde 
 This robe is the King's gift. 
 It is woven of one piece ; the hands that sewed 
 Were hands of princesses, as smooth as flowers, 
 Of Eastern princesses, of captive queens. 
 It has been charmed and hallowed. The world's 
 
 empress 
 Might covet such a gift.
 
 128 ATTILA 
 
 Ildico 
 {throwing it from her] 
 
 The robe is soiled ! 
 Take off these jewels. 
 
 CUNEGONDE 
 
 Jewels of such price 
 Would ransom twenty captains — who shall say 
 How far outvalue one man's lifeblood spilt 
 For his country ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Cunegonde ! 
 [To the maids.] Go, one of you, 
 Fetch me that jewel which my mother wore. 
 
 GiSLA 
 
 Of simple bronze? It is not royal gold 
 
 Cunegonde 
 Befitting for the bride of Attila ! 
 
 Ildico 
 [to the maids, one of whom goes to fetch the jewel] 
 
 Do as I ask. 
 
 [7b GISLA.] Is not your father sick? 
 You should be tending upon him, not me. 
 
 GiSLA 
 
 The mirror, Queen !
 
 ATTILA 129 
 
 Ildico 
 
 [holding the mirror] 
 
 Is it I? 
 
 GiSLA 
 
 You are changed to-night. 
 Your gaze is starry, you are far from us. 
 
 [All the maids but cunegonde retire.] 
 
 Ildico 
 
 I am ready. — Sooner than a mouth of shame 
 He shall kiss death. 
 
 Cunegonde 
 [kneeling and kissing ildico's hand] 
 
 I have wronged you, O my Queen ! 
 Pardon ! 
 
 Ildico 
 
 [moving as if to throw her arms round cunegonde, 
 
 then checking herself, fearful of losing self-control] 
 
 Good-night! Go! [The bolting of a door is heard.] 
 
 Go! 
 [Cunegonde goes out. Ildico stands motionless. ] 
 The end of the world ! 
 
 I
 
 I30 ATTILA 
 
 [With sudden excitement.] I have no weapon ! 
 
 Now, 
 You Gods, if there be justice, answer me ! 
 
 [She turns, hearing the step of attila approach- 
 ing, and as he enters nnarmoured faces 
 him, very calm. She sees the sword still 
 at his belt, and her face is illuminated.] 
 
 Attila 
 [zmth astonishment and admiration in his voice] 
 Thou miracle ! Thou vision ! Ildico ! 
 No word? I like thy coldness, my chaste bride. 
 I swear thy anger did not shine more fair 
 Than now — light breathes so through the end of 
 
 rain — 
 Comes thy submission. Lead me in, my bride ! 
 
 Ildico 
 My lord, command me. Do you wear a sword? 
 
 Attila 
 The sword that fell from heaven. I have bound 
 
 it on 
 Because my vows are taken ; but to-night 
 Your fingers shall unbuckle it. 
 
 Ildico 
 \kneeling and zmfastening the swoj^d] 
 
 Is it true
 
 ATTILA 131 
 
 That Attila is proof to every blade 
 But this? 
 
 Attila 
 [Imighing] 
 My Huns believe it, Ildico. 
 
 Ildico 
 It is heavy. 
 
 Attila 
 With my fate. — Beyond this night 
 Who knows what waits me, what the storm of hours 
 Shall hurry me to meet, when the great thunders 
 Are breaking, and earth crimsoned, far and far, 
 To what wild seashores of the world ? Come all ! 
 To-night my heart sits on an easy throne, 
 Joy fills me, and love fills me ; I am filled 
 With joy of you, my bride, my Ildico. 
 I am come into my kingdom. Lead me in ! 
 
 [They pass in together, ildico hearing the 
 szvord, to the inner chamber. The stage 
 is left empty. Noise of the huns revelling 
 •without is faintly heard, changed suddenly 
 to a different tone, as exclamations and 
 questions rise to a dull uproar, coming 
 closer. Out of the confusion at last distinct 
 cries are heard. Hernak ! The King ! 
 Hernak ! They have killed Hernak !]
 
 132 ATTILA 
 
 Voice of Rorik 
 Knock on the door ! 
 
 Voice of a Hun 
 I dare not! 
 
 Voice of Rorik 
 
 He shall know ! 
 The King shall know that they have slain his son ! 
 Open ! 
 
 [iLDico glides out of the inner chamber and 
 crouches panting. ] 
 
 Ildico 
 I struck so hard, the hilt has hurt my hand ! . . . 
 Horrible vision, leap not out at me ! 
 It was not I that did it ! I am weak ! 
 And my hands tremble, tremble! 
 
 Voice of Rorik 
 
 Burst the bolt ! 
 Ildico 
 Ah ! terrible strong Gods that raised me up. 
 Fling me not down, cast me not quite away ! 
 
 [The door is burst open. SJie rises to her full 
 height, rorik and other huns with swords 
 and torches rush in.\ 
 
 Rorik 
 The King!
 
 ATTILA 133 
 
 ESLA 
 
 Hernak is slain ! 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Where is the King? 
 
 Ildico 
 
 Go back, go back ! You shall not enter here. 
 I have killed him, I have killed him ! He is dead ! 
 [rorik passes her, and goes to the inner cham- 
 ber, then staggers hack, as if struck.] 
 
 ESLA 
 
 What shakes you ? 
 
 Rorik 
 Tell me that I dreamed, not saw ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 {looking in and returning] 
 The Sword is in his heart, — the Sword of God ! 
 
 Ildico 
 Here, here in me ! Bury your blades in me ! 
 
 ESLA 
 
 She is mad with horror.
 
 134 ATTILA 
 
 RORIK 
 
 Attila is dead, 
 And God has slain him, God has smitten him ! 
 \They pass out into the crowd without ; wails 
 and furious cries 7'epeat themselves into the 
 far distance.] 
 
 Ildico 
 
 [listening transfixed] 
 The pillar of the world is broken down : 
 And yet heaven has not fallen ! O Attila ! . . . 
 
 Gods of my country, now you are avenged ! 
 
 CURTAIN 
 
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