Part 35 (1/2)
”A true seer! There comes the first ox-span, and Anselm waving to us.
It is well he rides with the train, else we should never have seen them.
None but oxen could have come at all with wains so laden.”
”Tribute gold of a dozen burgs and all the plunder of the Ebro valley!”
muttered Olvir.
”Not all, brother. Your sea-wolves bear theirs upon their own shoulders.”
”Where it is safest. They 'll yield it with life,--no sooner.”
”One and all, they 're welcome to their loot, and welcome to bear it. I trust mine in Anselm's care.”
”Mine is yet safer. My Saracen gems lie in Floki's bosom. What thief would risk the bill of the Crane?”
”Only one utterly reckless of life. But why do we talk of safety? We have put even Kasim behind us. Would to Heaven we 'd first met the traitor! Yet now all that is past. We go home to enjoy our war-loot.”
”Rather, to push on to wilder war-fields.”
”Ah, brother, if only we may ride together! Yet I fear that his Majesty may leave me on the Garonne, or send me back to my Breton Mark.”
”You shall go Rhineward with us, though I bend knee for the favor.”
”We shall soon see. Now to horse. The oxen press upon us.”
”To horse, and forward!” the command pa.s.sed down the waiting ranks.
Four thousand heavy-armed Franks swung into the saddle; four thousand war-steeds wheeled into column. The ancient Roman way shook with the tread of hoofs. At the head of the column the black Arabs pranced and curvetted, no less pleased than their riders to be off, after the long wait.
”Now we fare homeward!” exclaimed Roland, and he gazed up joyfully at the towering peaks and precipices. But a sudden shadow fell on Olvir's face.
”Homeward!” he echoed. ”I trust it may not yet be the homeward faring for me.”
”Saint Michael, no! Surely, there is nothing now to draw you back into your frozen North. As to your s.h.i.+ps, we 'll sail them around into the Rhine.”
”My s.h.i.+ps will soon be sailing the North Sea; but they may steer for another haven than Rhine Mouth. My sea-wolves are fairly glutted with plunder, and I dread lest these fells recall too well the cliffs of our Trondir fiords.”
”But what if the little vala bids her warriors stay? Never doubt, brother; we 'll sail to the North as we sailed to the South,--unless the king sails with us.”
”Not he. You Franks are not fond of brine. But with Rothada aboard, we could hold fast all the crews,--Dane and Norse alike.”
”I could swear to that. And we shall soon put her power to the test.
By nightfall we will overtake the host, and can tell the little maiden of our wish.”
”Before nightfall! Already we scale the pa.s.s, and Anselm urges on the ox-drovers. Their beasts follow close upon our rear.”
”Yet, at the best, they 'll drag their wains all too slowly up these steep gorges,” grumbled Roland. ”How the grim cliffs tower above us!
Here is fitting abode for fiends and evil sprites.”