The Columbia Democrat. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1837-1850, 1837-09-23

"hast thou betrayed me, tOo!'
mo, on my life dear YOUTH" cried the
king of tile Gepide, catching him in his
powerful arms; "we thought thee dead;
thou camest not at the 1ime''
GLOW could come" cried Theodore,
"Waylaid on every shore, tossed by the
tempest, turned hack. delayed; how could
| come! But unhahd me, Arderic; am
mad with injury and revenge! and will
in to yonder false, laithess tyrant, and die
for my levenge!"
"Theodore," said Arderic, holding him
still with his left hand, but pointing with
the other to the stream of blood which
flowed from beneath the door of Attila's
chamber; 'ether the hand of some god, or
her cwh, has avenged thee and thy poor
tldica already!'
Theodore gazed on it for moment, and
an awful glow of satisfaction rose in his
countenance. Then darting forward from
the grasp of Arderic, he laid his hand upon
the door, and attempted 10 open it. 1t re-
sisted, and setting his powerful shoulder a
gainst it, he shook it with all his strength.
Again he shook it to and fro! The fast
nings within gave way, and it burst open
with loud and sudden crash. Theodore
took step forward, aud then paused, while
all the others rushed in:
The light streamed down from windows
near the roof. and passing through the silk
en- curtains, which both served for orna-
ment, and to exclude the air of night; pour
ed sofened, into the chamber. 1t was an
awful scene, on which that calm, solemn
) light, fell tranquility
There, OH the floor; scarcely two PAGES
: from the door, clothed in the same splendid
robes, which, for the first and last time in
: life, he had worn, with the jeweled circle
on his brow, the blazing diamonds on his
broad chest and his sandals, lay the dark
: and fearful monarch Of the Huns, the victor
of thousand fields-the mighty conquereI
of unnumbered nations! Mighty no more
t Awful still! awful in death! and from {
t small spot on the silken vesture which Gov
l cred that breast, wherein forso many years
had lain the fate Of empires, and the desti'
ny of world, proceeded the dark stream o
blood, thick and clotted, but not yet dried
: up, which had once throbbed in that lion
heart, and now had left it cold and vacant
= The ground around was flooded with the
t stream of gore; his vesture was soaked and
l dabbled in it; but it was clear that he had
4 fallen at once without an effort or a strug'
gle; for there he lay as calm as if in Sleep
with even a smile of joyous triumph on his
lin, as he had entered that fatal bridal cham
; ber, which was to be unto him the hall OF
: death.
) 1t was an awful sight! but still more aw.
ful, still more terrible was the object on
t which the eye rested when it was raised
from Atila. A few cubits beyond him, in
seat, wherein she had evidently waited
!; his coming, sat Ildica, the beautiful Dalma'
: tian bride. On table beside her stood q
lamp, just dying out; on her knee rested
her right hand, with the fair, delicate fin
! gers clasped tight round the hilt of small
= dagger, from the point of which some drops
of blood had fallen upon her snowy gar
ments; her other hand grasped tight the arm
of the chair. One of the shining tresses of
her long dark hair had dropped from the
pin that held it, and fallen upon her bosom,
but in all else her dress was as she ap-
peared at the altar. Her cheek, her brow,
her neck, were clear and pale as ala5aster
The only crimson left was in her lips.
Some have written that she was weep
ing, but they lied She wept not! Not a
drop of moisture was in her eye, though its
liquidlight, pure and unquenched, beamed
there as bright as ever But those dark lus-
trous eyes-as if the whole world had van
ished from her thoughts--as if to her the
whole universe, except one dark and fear
G,I obie.t WAS annihiIated-were Il xed i'm.