A Captive of the Roman Eagles Part 12

"I am doing so; but I also consider the firmness of the Roman camp."

"But meanwhile our foes are strengthening themselves too. Their proud galleys already lie anch.o.r.ed opposite in Arbor; they will soon bring fresh cohorts over."

"Let them do so." The old Duke laughed softly; his look expressed a grim, mysterious joy. "Meanwhile," he added after a pause, "I will send an envoy to the foe to-morrow."

"Send me!" exclaimed Ebarbold eagerly.

"No. Adalo, you will go."

"He! He will not bring back peace."

"No, but keen scrutiny, and--" he whispered to the youth--"perhaps Bissula."

"Thanks! Thanks!"

"I," cried Ebarbold wrathfully, "would surely bring home to our people--"

"Subjection!" said the Duke. "That is just what you must not do. If the Italians reject fair proposals, then I will ask the Council of the people, the whole army, for its decision--"

"I know in advance," Ebarbold angrily interrupted, "what they will determine, guided by you, you disciple of Odin, you giver of victims to Zio! But your decision is one thing; it is another--"

He checked the word on his tongue and hesitated.

"That you will do, you wish to say. King of the Ebergau! I warn you, Ebarbold. Your father was a gallant hero; he fell by my side twenty winters ago in the murderous battle against Julian. Remembering him, I once more warn you: beware!"

"Look to yourself," cried Ebarbold angrily. "You are not my guardian!"

Springing up, he rushed out of the tent.

CHAPTER XXI.

Adalo, too, rose hastily. "Will you let him go in this threatening mood? Shall I follow?"

But the Duke remained unmoved. "I fear no danger from this man." A shudder ran through the youth's limbs and he started, as the old chief, lightly raising the spear, added: "He is dedicated to Odin."

"You will--?"

"Not I. He will--must sacrifice himself. Do not wonder. Wait."

"And the news about the Goths, Duke? Were you in earnest? Or did you merely wish to encourage the faint-hearted Ebarbold?"

"Aha, do you credit me with such craft in the good work?" asked the old man, smiling?

"You are Odin's favorite."

"It is as I said. One of the men in our ranks has been serving in the army of the other Emperor; he came home on leave of absence, and said that such countless throngs of Goths had crossed the Danube and were a.s.sailing that Emperor so closely that he certainly could not march here to his young nephew's a.s.sistance. Nay, the nephew's whole army will perhaps be compelled to hasten to the uncle's relief. Because I knew this I permitted, nay, commanded our young leaders to cross the frontier early this spring to renew the war. But do you keep silence about it. And open your eyes wide in the Roman camp to-morrow: do not think only of the child, much as I hope you may see her, perhaps ransom her, or save her by stratagem. For, by Frigga's girdle, she is lovely!

and I would fain see the fairest ornament of our land at liberty again."

Adalo clasped the Duke's right hand; but the latter withdrew it, adding sternly:

"Note carefully the height of the wall, the depth of the ditch, the position of the gates, the number of the tents, the direction of the paths between them, so that you can report everything accurately to me.

Now go, and send Zercho the bondman. No, do not ask what I want with him. Obey!"

Adalo left the tent. His heart was throbbing violently. "I shall see her; ransom her! I will give all my property; nay, if necessary, my estate, the land I have inherited--or sell it. But will she desire to be ransomed? Will she not prefer to go with the clever-tongued Italian to his sunny home? And what if he will not release her? Well, then there will at least be one way to bring her forth, known only to the Duke and my father's oldest son."

Fiercely agitated by such thoughts, he sent the bondman, who was crouching beside the fire, to the tent. The slave stood timidly before the mighty soldier.

"How long is it since Suomar bought you?"

"That's hard for Zercho to say. I can hardly count beyond the fingers of both hands, and there are more years than fingers. The little elf was very small then. My master got me cheap, for the Romans had dragged many, many of us as prisoners from the beautiful pastures of the Tibiscus. He exchanged a horse and a net full of fish for me with the dealer over in Vindonissa."

"Suomar has praised you to me. He has never been obliged to flog you."

Zercho made a wry face and rubbed his ear. "Yes, my lord--once."

"And why was that?"

"When I first saw the little elf--she was then a child about seven years old--I thought she was the wood maiden, red Vila, threw myself on the ground and shut my eyes; for whoever sees her is blinded. Then he shouted a word in your language which I have often heard since,--it means an animal with horns,--and struck me. But never afterwards." The slave had uttered all this very rapidly; he was afraid of the Duke, and kept on talking to deaden his fear.

"You are faithful to the young girl?"

"I would be cut to pieces with the ploughshare for her."

"You plucked me by the cloak when you made your report in the presence of the Adeling and the old woman. You wished to tell me something that they ought not to know."

"That is true, great Father! How did you discover--?"

"That was not hard to guess. But I suspect more--the girl did not become the captive of the kindhearted chatterer, Ausonius, but of another Roman."

The slave looked up at him in fright. "Did your Odin, your terrible G.o.d who knows all things, reveal this to you?"

"No, he only gave me the power of reading men's eyes. So she is another's prisoner; I suspected it. And you did not wish to plunge into still deeper grief both the old grandmother and the Adeling; for he loves the child ardently."

"You know that too?"

"One doesn't need Odin's a.s.sistance for it," replied the Duke, smiling.

"I was young once too. You wished to spare the youth?"

"Yes, great Father. He would wear himself out with rage and grief. Yet he can do nothing to save her."

"He would only destroy himself, and perhaps our best hope of victory, by some desperate deed. I am pleased with you, slave. Keep silence as before. But Ausonius was there too?"

"Yes, the foreigner who stayed so long in Arbor several years ago. But he didn't seize the child; it was another, younger man."

"Did you not hear his name? Was it anything like Saturninus?"

"My lord, his name was not spoken, or I did not hear it. He was a fine-looking man in glittering armor."