[Illustration: ST. LEO HALTING ATTILA AT THE GATES OF ROME] IV Shortly after leaving Italy Attila suddenly died. Only the day before his death he had married a beautiful woman whom he loved very much. The Huns mourned their king in a barbarous way. They shaved their heads and cut themselves on their faces with knives, so that their blood, instead of their tears, flowed for the loss of their great leader. They enclosed his body in three coffins--one of gold, one of silver, and one of iron--and they buried him at night, in a secret spot in the mountains. When the funeral was over, they killed the slaves who had dug the grave, as the Visigoths had done after the burial of Alaric. After the death of Attila we hear little more of the Huns. GENSERIC THE VANDAL KING FROM 427-477 A.D. I The Vandals were another wild and fierce tribe that came from the shores of the Baltic and invaded central and southern Europe in the later times of the Roman Empire. In the fifth century some of these people occupied a region in the south of Spain. One of their most celebrated kings was name Gen'ser-ic. He became king in 427, when he was but twenty-one years of age. He was lame in one leg and looked as if he were a very ordinary person. Like most of the Vandals, he was a cruel and cunning man, but he had great ability in many ways. He fought in battles even when a boy and was known far and wide for his bravery and skill as a leader. About the time that Genseric became king, the governor of the Roman province in the north of Africa, on the Mediterranean coast, was a man called Count Boniface. This Count Boniface had been a good and loyal officer of Rome; but a plot was formed against him by Aetius, the general who had fought Attila at Chalons. The Roman emperor at the time of the plot was Valentinian III. He was then too young to act as ruler, so the affairs of government were managed by his mother Placid'i-a. [Illustration: PLACIDIA AND HER SON VALENTINIAN] Aetius advised Placidia to dismiss Boniface and call him home from Africa. He said the count was a traitor, and that he was going to make war against Rome. At the same time he wrote secretly to Count Boniface and told him that if he came to Rome the empress would put him to death. Boniface believed this story, and he refused to return to Rome. He also sent a letter to Genseric, inviting him to come to Africa with an army. Genseric was greatly delighted to receive the invitation from Boniface. He had long wanted to attack Rome and take from her some of the rich countries she had conquered, and now a good opportunity offered. So he got ready a great army of his brave Vandals, and they sailed across the Strait of Gibraltar to Africa.