IN THE NIGHT AND IN THE FIRE.
Days come and go and no man may hinder them. The vikings went to and
fro about _The Sword_ and she seemed lonesome to them, for they were
few and she was a great vessel. From time to time many sails were seen
near and far, but none gave chase to _The Sword_. Even pirates and all
merchantmen avoid what seemeth to be a warship.
"Winds have been both good and bad for us," said the jarl to Ben Ezra
at the close of a day. "What thought is in thy mind as to our nearness
to any land?"
"O jarl," said Ben Ezra, thoughtfully, "by the stars that I have
watched; by the sun and winds; by the islands which we have passed; by
a dim understanding which cometh to a man in such a case; by all the
signs which are given me, we are so near to our destination that we may
find a shore this night."
"And if a shore," said Ulric, "what shall it be?"
"Even the land that was given to the children of Israel by Jehovah,
their god," said the Jew. "It is ours yet, but the Romans have taken
the kingdom from us."
"Their gods are very strong," said Ulric, "and they are exceedingly
cunning. Else had Thor and Odin saved to us the swords that sailed with
us from the Northland. Thy god refused to fight with the gods of the
Romans. I think he was wise in that. But he agreed with them that they
should not harm his temple, and I will go and see it. I may meet him."
"Thou wilt not see him," said Ben Ezra. "He was seen by Moses, our
prophet, but to all others he hath hidden his face."
"I know not that," said Ulric. "They who see the gods are forbidden to
tell. Hilda, the saga woman, loved me, but she would tell me naught
concerning the dead save that they have a country of their own. There
is much good in that country and when I am slain I shall go to it."
"Thou art to die by the sword?" asked Ben Ezra. "How knowest thou that?"
"I am of Odin," said Ulric, "and a cow's death is not for me. There
will be blood in the hour of my going. If thou seest me on a bed, be
thou a Saxon unto me, and smite me through with a spear."
"So said Saul, our king, to his armor-bearer at the end of a lost
battle," said Ben Ezra, marveling somewhat. "I will do as thou sayest;
for verily thou art a jarl and of the princes of the North. Never
before saw I a man like unto thee for battle."
"Save Sigurd, the son of Thorolf, the sea king," said Ulric, "I have
met none that might stand before me. He too, is of one line of the hero
Asas, but not of Odin."
Ben Ezra was silent, thinking of these things, and _The Sword_ drove
onward. He and Ulric were at the prow as the darkness deepened. They
could see no more save the stars above and the glancing waves around
the ship, but they could hear the music of the lyre of Lysias on the
after deck. Knud the Bear was at the helm, and all that remained of the
crew were gathered there. They cared not to sleep in the cabins or in
the bunks, for some of them said that the dead came at night to look
again at the keel from which they had departed and that the evil spirit
came also.
"I saw him not," said Wulf the Skater, "but Vebba, the son of Ulric,
spoke to me, and I think he said the Nornir were at hand. So sayeth
Sigurd, the son of Thorolf."
Greatly dispirited were they all, and the lyre was a comfort, but the
song of Lysias was low-voiced and sad and they could not understand the
words.
Now from the fore deck came back to them one who had heard from the
jarl that they were to look out for a land and be ready to lower the
sail.
"Good!" shouted Tostig the Red. "O Sigurd, go to the jarl and ask if we
are steering rightly."
"That are we," said Sigurd. "Seest thou not the north star? Go we not
eastward? What need to trouble the jarl? I would that they who are dead
had obeyed him. Then had we all been more joyful."
"Never had crew such adventures as we are having," said Knud. "I think
we may gain some good fighting before long. My hand goeth often to the
hilt of my seax and my blood is unquiet."
"A good sign!" exclaimed Wulf the Skater. "I feel better for hearing
thee. O Greek, sing us a war song!"
Loudly answered the smitten lyre for a moment, and Lysias obeyed, but
quickly came back from the fore deck the command of Ulric, the son of
Brander.
"Silence, all!" he shouted. "There is a trumpet, far away southerly. We
are too few and we near the land. Hark to the breakers!"
Listening diligently, all ears heard the dashing of that water as if
upon rocks, and yet again came up from the southward that distant peal
of the trumpet.
"Struck!" suddenly exclaimed Sigurd. "We go upon a shore. Is this thy
land, O Jew?"
Not with a great shock, but glidingly and grating hard, did _The Sword_
go on a little while the sail was lowering. Then she stood fast, and
all on board of her knew that the end of her voyage had come.
Needing no command, the Saxon sailors made ready two of the small boats
and prepared to lower them.
"The trumpet is nearer," said Ben Ezra. "But this ledge of rocks cannot
be far from the mainland. Thy men seem to know not of fear and they
obey thee."
"No Roman arms or armor," shouted Ulric. "We land as Saxons and we will
leave behind us no token. Kindle a fire amidships."
To his cabin went he and Ben Ezra, and unto them shortly went Lysias,
but each prepared bundles of his own to carry to the boats.
"No man knoweth of thy treasure nor of mine," said Ben Ezra to Ulric.
"Let the Greek, too, have gold and silver coins, for he will need them.
He hath fought well."
In like manner was every man furnished speedily and the burdens were
not made uselessly heavy. Nevertheless, Ben Ezra said to Ulric:
"Never before landed boats of thy people bearing to any shore such
treasures as are these. We may buy any Roman governor if in so doing
we do not hire him to put us to the sword. We will say that we were
wrecked, but we must not be seen on the coast."
Now the boats were lowered and all entered them, but in every quarter
of _The Sword_ was a hot fire kindled. The Roman trumpet had not
sounded again when the Saxons rowed away into the darkness.
"Row harder!" commanded Ulric. "The light of the fire increaseth. We
know not how near may be an enemy."
Well had he spoken, for the flames were rising furiously and the light
wind fanned them well.
"A shore!" said Sigurd. "A sandy beach!" But all others were looking
back at _The Sword_, to see how fast she was burning, and at that
moment there swept past her, outside, as if nearing to grapple her, a
vast shape of a warship. Then arose suddenly a great volume of shouts
in the Latin tongue, and the notes of a trumpet sounding commands, but
Ulric said in a low voice to his comrades:
"A quinquereme! And she also is upon the ledge of rocks. What shall
save her from destruction by that fire?"
"She cannot escape," said Wulf the Skater. "It is as if we had set a
good trap. I think the fire hath already caught her sail. There will
many Romans perish this night."
"Pull!" commanded Ulric. "The beach! We are here. Haul up the boats.
Out with all cargo and leave them. Hark to the shouts of them who burn!"
Rashly in swift haste had the Roman warship dashed forward to discover
what might be this unusual thing, of a light that grew and of a crew
that replied not to a trumpet of hailing. Not of any rocky ledge had
her steersman or her sailing master been thinking, and her centurion
had deemed it his duty to grapple and to board this strange burning
trireme. He would yet have passed her once, only studying her case,
but his own ship had smitten a sunken rock, which forced her to swerve
aside heavily, plunging her alongside of her fiery destroyer.
In vain were then all struggles to release the quinquereme. In vain was
any effort to extinguish the swiftly devouring flames. Even of small
boats the Roman ship had but four, and there were sailors who secretly,
quickly lowered these, dropping into them to row away at once. Of these
hurrying runaways there were none but hired Ionian rowers, and they
cared for their lives only.
Ill fared it for legionaries in heavy armor, for if they sprang
overboard, it was to sink. Sad was the fate of many who went into the
water, crowding and clinging, for they perished grappling each other in
their astonishment and despair. The Roman warship was on fire from end
to end, and the side which was not yet burning was toward the sea. What
wonder that all discipline failed and that all thought of obedience was
gone? for every bond is loosed by fire.
"If any follow, they must not find us on the beach," said Ben Ezra to
Ulric. "I can see that the land riseth high and that there are great
rocks. Let us depart!"
"Odin!" responded the jarl. "_The Sword_ hath once more smitten the
Romans. Every man take up his burden. Follow me!"
"A good captain," muttered Ben Ezra. "I will cleave unto him. But
verily our lives are worth but little. I would that we were among the
mountains, even in Gilboa or in Lebanon, or in the wilderness of Judea."
"Guide thou after daylight cometh," said Ulric. "I would find crags and
trees."
On went they, climbing a steep, and ever and anon they looked behind
to watch the awful splendor of the burning of the two ships upon the
ledge.
"Here may we halt," said Ulric at last. "We are on a height. It is a
forest beyond us. The fire burneth lower. There will be no pursuit."
There they sat down, therefore, wearied with their burdens, putting
these aside, and ere long they slept, every man, without fear.
At the ledge of rocks in the sea there was silence, for the two
ships burned to the water's edge and there was little left of them.
Nevertheless, of the swimmers there were a number who reached the
shore, but all were of sailors unarmored, and no officer or legionary
was among them. Here at the beach they found the two small boats
left by the Saxons, with oars in them, but the four boats of the
quinquereme, with the Ionian rowers, had landed further on. There was
little to be done by these exhausted swimmers but to lie down and rest,
and the Ionians were likewise waiting for day, being full of fear over
what they had been guilty of in taking away the boats of their ship.
Only the sword could await them if they were found by a Roman patrol of
the coast, for they were to be accounted deserters from their assigned
posts.
Not long was the remainder of the night. The morn came, and when the
sun arose Ulric, the son of Brander, sat upon a rock, under an oak
tree, looking out upon the blue waters of the Middle Sea. Beside him
sat Sigurd, the son of Thorolf, and scattered around upon the grass
were the other Saxons. Lysias stood and leaned against the rock, but
Ben Ezra was nowhere to be seen. In the hand of Ulric was the long,
straight sword that had been found with Annibaal at the ruined city on
the African shore, but it was sheathed, and the jewels of its golden
hilt were glittering.
"There are men upon the shore by our boats," said Sigurd. "They are
escaped from the burning vessel."
"Look southward!" replied Ulric. "A squadron of Roman cavalry. Let us
see what they will do, but let us step back behind trees out of their
sight. They are too many for us."
"Worse than that," said Lysias. "Horsemen might carry an alarm and
legionaries on foot might hunt us in these forests."
The cavalry rode fast, and the men at the beach looked mournfully into
each other's faces, for there was no fleeing from riders. Quickly came
these and their officer sprang to the ground, speaking loudly.
The light of the burning ships had been seen from afar, and even now a
swift galley had arrived, rowing around the rocks of the ledge, while
they who were on board of her studied well the charred fragments.
The officer questioned with care the rowers, and a small boat from the
galley came to the shore with another officer.
"Were there other boats than these?" he asked, pointing at the twain
left there by the Saxons. "These are from a warship."
"Yea," said the centurion of the cavalry, "and these deserters took
away all chance for the escape of our comrades."
"We all swam ashore," they said, "and we found these boats here. Other
men than we made off with them, We are innocent."
The two centurions looked at each other and they were of one accord in
this matter. At a word of command soldiers dropped from their horses
sword in hand. At another word the work of punishment began and the
stern justice of the Roman military law was done in utter injustice,
for not one of these who were slain had sinned.
"They had done somewhat in other days," said Ulric, "and the vengeance
of their gods found them here, bringing upon them a sword. No man
escapeth the gods. But I see another man down the beach. He is fleeing
as if for his life. I think, therefore, that these were not all who
came to the shore in some manner."
Great was the wrath and the dismay of all those Romans at this terrible
affair of wreck and fire, but there was no sign to suggest to them the
presence of Saxons on the sea or on the land.
Unto the four boatloads of Ionian rowers at their landing place, where
they still lingered, came running the one of their number who had gone
forth as a scout. Pallid with fear and horror he gasped out to them the
thing that he had seen, and he fell to the sand breathless with running.
"To the mountains!" they shouted. "We are slain if we are found on the
coast. They now know not that we are here."
Then it could be seen that not only had they taken plenty of weapons
even in their hasty flight from the burning ship, but that their
apparel was decent. Also their talk indicated that they had many coins
of money, and that they knew this country whereupon they had landed.
They stood still for a moment, and they swore to one another by their
gods that this should forever be a secret, and then they marched away
up the steep and were hidden in the forest.
Neither had they failed, in their talk upon the shore, to wonder much
concerning the first burning vessel which had been the cause of their
own disaster. They knew not of the Saxon boats, but they had said of
themselves that they would not willingly fall in with any who had
escaped lest their peril might be increased.
"It were death," they said, "and we must at once put any such men to
the sword."
The Saxon men, whom they did not know, but of whom they had been
speaking, were gathered together on the mountain.
"O jarl," said Tostig the Red, "well that thou didst order us to bring
provisions, also, for our first needs. Shall we not now go on into the
forest and find a place where we may kindle a fire?"
"O Tostig," said the jarl, "Ben Ezra is our guide. This is his country.
What sayest thou, O Jew?"
"Only this," replied Ben Ezra; "that we are upon Mount Carmel, and that
the forests thereof are deep. We are safe if we are prudent. It is a
wilderness into which not many come at any time, but there are villages
and cities not far away."
"Lead on thou, then," said Ulric. "Let every man bring all his burden.
We will keep up strong hearts, and we will see to what this strange
coming on shore will take us."
They had need of cheerful words from their jarl, for upon them all was
a shadow deeper than any of the shadows of the forest. Their faces were
dark, but among them all was there no face like that of Lysias, the
Greek. There was no light in it, but rather a bitter sullenness.
"Sapphira! Sapphira!" he muttered, walking apart from the rest. "Am I
indeed nearing thee? Am I to find thee? Am I, then, to love thee again
or am I to slay thee? Thou shalt not live to be the bondslave of a
Roman, even though he be a prince and a ruler!"
Ulric the Jarl heard him. It was as if he had been spoken to concerning
the Hebrew maiden whom he had seen with Hilda.
"I think that she is somewhere in this land to which I have been
guided," he thought. "I will go on and I may find her. This forest is a
dense cover of this mountain. I shall be glad to look upon that which
is beyond it."
Ben Ezra led onward rapidly, but the way by which he went grew steeper.
They came out at last, much heated by their heavy burdens, upon a level
place, where were no trees, and here he halted.
"Here let the fire be made," he said to the jarl. "But if thou and
Sigurd will walk with me a little distance further ye will see
something."
Gladly did the wearied Saxons pause and make their camp, but their jarl
and Sigurd followed the Jew. Not far did these go until they came out
upon a bold, high promontory of rocks.
"Look!" said Ben Ezra. "The Middle Sea."
There were no trees to hinder sight and the air was pure, so that they
saw afar. There were many sails and there were also galleys which might
be warships.
"O jarl," said Ben Ezra, "thou art escaped from a Roman fleet. Thou
wouldst not have done so but for the ledge of rocks and the fire which
destroyed thy vessel. Thou art on the front of Carmel. Now turn thee
to thy left. What seest thou?"
"A heap of stones," said Ulric. "They have been shapely, but now they
are broken down. Was it one of the altars of thy god?"
"Not so," said Ben Ezra, "but our fathers made that heap for a sign of
remembrance. In the ancient days there was on that spot an altar to
Jehovah. Upon it the prophet Elijah sacrificed oxen and the fire of our
god came down and consumed both the sacrifice and the altar. Here was
Jehovah's victory over Baal, the god of the heathen, and here were all
the priests and prophets of Baal slain with the sword."
"If thy god is here," said Ulric, "I am willing to remain, for I think
he hath befriended us. But I have no quarrel with Baal or with any
other god. I think Odin and Thor to be at peace with thy Jehovah, but I
like not at all the cunning gods of the Romans."
"Jehovah destroyeth them in the day of his appointing," said Ben Ezra.
"They cannot stand against him. He is mighty."
The jarl was silent, gazing out upon the sea, and Sigurd looked around
him among the trees.
"O jarl," he said, "I like not this mountain, full of gods. The men
have kindled fires. Let us eat and drink and then let us depart."