Bissula. English

by Felix Dahn

  CHAPTER XXI.

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

  But the Duke remained unmoved. "I fear no danger from this man." Ashudder 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 youmerely wish to encourage the faint-hearted Ebarbold?"

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

  "You are Odin's favorite."

  "It is as I said. One of the men in our ranks has been serving in thearmy of the other Emperor; he came home on leave of absence, and saidthat such countless throngs of Goths had crossed the Danube and wereassailing that Emperor so closely that he certainly could not marchhere to his young nephew's assistance. Nay, the nephew's whole armywill perhaps be compelled to hasten to the uncle's relief. Because Iknew this I permitted, nay, commanded our young leaders to cross thefrontier early this spring to renew the war. But do you keep silenceabout it. And open your eyes wide in the Roman camp to-morrow: do notthink only of the child, much as I hope you may see her, perhaps ransomher, 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 libertyagain."

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

  "Note carefully the height of the wall, the depth of the ditch, theposition of the gates, the number of the tents, the direction of thepaths 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 withhim. Obey!"

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

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

  "How long is it since Suomar bought you?"

  "That's hard for Zercho to say. I can hardly count beyond the fingersof both hands, and there are more years than fingers. The little elfwas very small then. My master got me cheap, for the Romans had draggedmany, many of us as prisoners from the beautiful pastures of theTibiscus. He exchanged a horse and a net full of fish for me with thedealer 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 sevenyears old--I thought she was the wood maiden, red Vila, threw myself onthe ground and shut my eyes; for whoever sees her is blinded. Then heshouted a word in your language which I have often heard since,--itmeans an animal with horns,--and struck me. But never afterwards." Theslave had uttered all this very rapidly; he was afraid of the Duke, andkept 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 presenceof the Adeling and the old woman. You wished to tell me something thatthey 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 notbecome the captive of the kindhearted chatterer, Ausonius, but ofanother Roman."

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

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

  "You know that too?"

  "One doesn't need Odin's assistance 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. Yethe 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 asbefore. But Ausonius was there too?"

  "Yes, the foreigner who stayed so long in Arbor several years ago. Buthe 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 afine-looking man in glittering armor."

  "But he took his prisoner to Ausonius?"

  "Yes. Yet he did not lift her on Ausonius's white horse, as the latterseemed to ask, but swung the struggling girl upon another--a blackone--perhaps, yes, probably his own."

  The Duke remained silent and thoughtful. At last he said: "The Adelingis not to reach the Roman camp until twilight is closing in tomorrow.Before he rides forth he will receive some directions from me. Tell himso. And"--here he lowered his voice to a whisper, much to the surpriseof the slave, since there was no one in the tent--"if a faithful andcunning man should venture to introduce himself or some one else indisguise into the hostile camp and tell me what he saw there,--for Ifear they will not give Adalo much chance to look about him,--and thisman should be a slave, I would buy his freedom."

  "Great Father!" exclaimed the Sarmatian, throwing himself prostratebefore the Duke and trying to kiss his feet.

  The old man angrily thrust him back with the handle of his spear: "Areyou a dog, that you want to lick my feet?"

  "Zercho is a Jazyge," said the bondman, rising and rubbing his bruisedshins. "Thus my people honor one who is worthy of honor."

  "But we sons of the Ases do not bend the knee even to the mighty Kingof Asgard when we call upon him and desire to honor him. Now go.Perhaps it will be well that Adalo should not know what is to happen."

  "He must not hear of it until after it has succeeded, for he would notlet the others whom I must have go with me."

  "I do not wish to know in advance how the work is to be done. Sayoutside that no one is to enter till I strike the shield."

  The slave had scarcely gone when the Duke drew back the linen curtainwhose folds fell to the ground behind him, shutting off the rear of thetent, used as a sleeping-room.

  A man with long gray hair, scarcely younger than Hariowald, cameforward glancing cautiously around him.

  "We are alone, Ebarvin. Repeat your King's words exactly again. Forconsider, you must repeat them to his face, on oath, before theassembly of the people, if he deny them."

  "He will not deny them," said the graybeard sorrowfully. "He is tooproud to submit to you, but he is also too proud to lie."

  "It is a pity," replied the Duke, curtly. "He was a fearless man."

  "You speak as if he were numbered with the dead!" cried the other,shuddering.

  "I do not see how he can survive. Or, do you believe he will change hischoice?"

  Ebarvin silently shook his head.

  "How long have you borne his shield?"

  "Ever since he _had_ a shield. I carried his father's, too," sighed theman.

  "I know it, Ebarvin. And," he asked craftily, as if in reproach, whilehis gray eye blazed with a searching light, "and yet you betrayed him?"

  The man gripped his short sword angrily.

  "Betray? I accuse him openly, after I have often warned him loyally,after threatening that I would tell you all. He laughed at it; he wouldnot believe me."

  "And why do you do it? You have loved him."

  "Why? And yo
u ask that--you, who taught it to me, to us all? True, itwas not you alone--first necessity! Why? Because only this league ofthe Alemanni can save us from ruin, from the shame of bondage. Why? Oh,Duke, the oaths with which you bound us years ago, before the ash ofOdin, are terrible. Ebarvin will not forswear himself; I will not, aperjured man, drift through endless nights down the horrible river ofHel among corpses, serpents, and swords. And I have learned through along life that we must stand together, or the Romans will destroy usprovince by province. Oh, I would slay my own son if, disobedient tothe Duke and the Council of the people, he tried to burst our leagueasunder."

  Up sprang the old chieftain; his eye flashed with delight. Raising thespear aloft with his left hand, he struck the right one on theclansman's shoulder: "I thank you for those words, Ebarvin! And I thankthee, thou Mighty One in the clouds! If such a spirit lives in theAlemanni, the league will never be sundered."