into Rugiland (then Noricum, and the neighbourhood of Vienna) and
utterly destroyed those of the Rugier who had not gone into Italy
under his banner. They had plundered, it is said, the cell of his
old friend St. Severinus, as soon as the saint died, of the garments
laid up for the poor, and a silver cup, and the sacred vessels of the
mass. Be that as it may, Odoacer utterly exterminated them, and
carried their king Feletheus, or Fava, back to Italy, with Gisa his
'noxious wife;' and with them many Roman Christians, and (seemingly)
the body of St. Severinus himself. But this had been a small thing,
if he had not advised himself to have a regular Roman triumph, with
Fava, the captive king, walking beside his chariot; and afterwards,
in the approved fashion of the ancient Romans on such occasions, to
put Fava to death in cold blood.

The records of this feat are to be found, as far as I know them, in
one short chapter (I. xix.) of Paulus Diaconus, and in Muratori's
notes thereto; but however small the records, the deed decided the
fate of Italy. Frederic, son of Fava, took refuge with the
Ostrogoths, and demanded revenge in the name of his royal race; and
it is easy to conceive that the sympathies of the Goths would be with
him. An attack (seemingly unprovoked) on an ancient Teutonic nation
by a mere band of adventurers was--or could easily be made--a
grievous wrong, and clear casus belli, over and above the innate
Teutonic lust for fighting and adventures, simply for the sake of
'the sport.'

Dietrich went back, and from that day, the dream of eastern luxury
was broken, and young Dietrich was a Goth again, for good and for
evil.