"Well," laughed the King, "thou hast spared me the trouble, Duke of
Apulia!"
"And the little duchess," added Valeria, "has, as if she had foreseen
what was coming, already adorned herself like a bride."
"In honour of _you_," said the shepherdess. "When I heard of this feast
as I entered the gates of Roma, I opened my bundle, as my grandfather
had bidden me, and put on my ornaments."
"Our betrothal," said Adalgoth to his bride, "has fallen upon the day
of the King's betrothal; shall our wedding take place also on the
wedding-day of the royal pair?"
"No, no!" interrupted Valeria hastily, almost anxiously. "Add no other
to a vow which is yet unfulfilled! You children of Fortune, be wise.
You have to-day found each other. Keep to-day fast, for to-morrow
belongs to the unknown!"
"Thou speakest truth!" cried Adalgoth. "Even today shall be our
wedding!" and he lifted Gotho upon his left arm, and showed her to all
the people. "Look here, ye good Goths! This is my little wife and
duchess!"
"With your favour!" said a modest voice. "When so much sunshine falls
upon the summits and heights of the nation, the lower vegetation would
also gladly share some of its warmth."
A homely-looking man approached the King, leading a pretty girl by the
hand.
"Is it thou, brave Wachis?" cried Earl Teja, going up to him. "And no
longer a bond-servant, but with the long hair of a freedman?"
"Yes, sir. My poor master. King Witichis, gave me my liberty when he
sent me away with Mistress Rauthgundis and Wallada. Since then I have
let my hair grow. And my mistress--I know it for a fact--was about to
free Liuta, so that we might be married according to the law of the
nation; but, alas, my mistress never returned to her home at Faesulae.
But I returned just at the right moment to save Liuta, for the very
next day the Saracens burnt the house and murdered all whom they found.
After Mistress Rauthgundis's death--leaving no one to claim the
inheritance, for a storm had buried her father Athalwin under an
avalanche--Liuta became the King's property; and therefore I would beg
the King to take me again as a bond-servant, so that we may not be
punished if we marry, and----"
"Wachis, thou art indeed faithful!" cried Totila, interrupting him.
"No! thou shalt contract a free marriage! Give me a gold-piece."
"Here, King Totila," said Gotho, eagerly taking one from her shepherd's
bag; "it is the last of six."
The King took the gold, laid it upon Liuta's open palm, and then struck
her hand from below, so that the gold-piece flew up into the air, and
fell ringing upon the mosaic pavement.
Then the King said:
"Liuta, thou art free! No bonds hold thee. Go in peace and rejoice with
thy bridegroom."
Earl Teja now came forward and said:
"Wachis, once before thou hast borne the shield of a luckless master.
Wilt thou now become my shield-bearer?"
With tears in his eyes, Wachis clasped the hand of the Earl in both his
own.
And now Teja lifted his golden goblet and solemnly said:
"Fortune befall you!
Already shines on you
The shimmering sunshine:
Yet thankfully think
Of the Dear and the Dead
With reverent remembrance!
He who strove unsuccessful,
The world-renowned warrior:
Witichis, Waltharis' worthiest son!
Though you celebrate cheerily
The feast of the fairest,
The Deity's darlings,
Yet honour for ever
The memory mournful
Of the Great and the Good!
I remind you, O revellers,
To drink to the dear ones;
To the manliest man,
And the worthiest woman;
To Rauthgundis and Witichis,
Deploring, I drink!"
And all solemnly and silently returned his pledge.
Then King Totila once more raised his cup and said before all the
people:
"_He_ deserved! _I_ received! To him be eternal honour!"
As he resumed his place--the other two betrothed couples had been
seated at the King's table--Earl Thorismuth, of Thurii (he had been
rewarded for his valour by the title of Earl, but, at his own request,
had retained his office of herald and shield-hearer), ascended the
steps, and lowered his herald's staff before the King, saying:
"I come to announce strangers, O King of the Goths! Guests who have
sailed here from afar. The large fleet, of about a hundred ships, which
was reported by thy coast-guards and from the harbour-towns, has now
run into the harbour of Portus. It has brought northern people, an old,
brave, and seafaring folk, from the land of farthest Thule. Their
dragon-ships have lofty decks, and their monstrous figure-heads terrify
the beholder. But they come to thee in peace. Yesterday the flag-ship
lowered its boats, and our noble guests have sailed up the river. I
challenged them, and received the answer: 'King Harald of Goetaland,
and Haralda (his wife, as it seems), wish to greet King Totila.'"
"Lead them to us! Duke Guntharis, Duke Adalgoth. Earl Teja, Earl
Wisand, and Earl Grippa, go to meet and accompany them here."
Presently, to the sound of strange and twisted horns made of shells,
and surrounded by twenty of their sailors and heroes clad in close
coats of mail, there appeared on the terrace two figures which far
overtopped even the slender Totila and his table companions.
King Harald bore upon his helmet the two wings--each several feet
long--of the black sea-eagle. The tail-feathers of the same bird
floated from his iron crest. Down his back fell the skin of a monstrous
black bear, the jaws and fore-paws of which hung from broad iron rings
upon his breast-plate. His coat, woven of iron wire, reached to the
knee, and was confined round the hips by a broad belt of seal-skin, set
with shells. His arms and legs were bare, but at once adorned and
protected by broad golden bracelets. A short knife hung from a steel
chain at his belt. In his right hand he carried a long forked spear
like a harpoon. His thick, bright yellow hair fell like a mane low down
upon his shoulders.
At his left hand stood--scarcely shorter by a finger's length--the
Walkyre-like form of his female companion.
Upon her head she wore a golden open helmet, decorated with the small
wings of the silver-gull. Her bright red hair, which had a metallic
lustre, fell from beneath it in a long straight mass over the small
strip of white bearskin which covered her back--more an ornament than a
mantle--almost to her ankles.
A closely-fitting mail, made of little scales of gold, betrayed the
incomparable figure of the Amazon, yielding to every movement of her
heaving bosom. Her under garment, which reached half-way between the
knee and ankle, was tastefully made of the white skin of the snow-hare.
Her arms were covered by sleeves made of rows of amber beads, which
glittered strangely in the evening rays of the southern sunshine.
Upon her left shoulder was gravely perched one of the delicate white
falcons of Iceland.
A small hatchet was stuck into her girdle. She carried over her
shoulder a long sweeping harp, surmounted with a swan's head and neck
of silver.
The Roman populace--their eyes opened wide in wonder--pressed after
these singular figures, and even the Goths could not but admire the
wondrously fair complexion and the singularly light and sparkling eyes
of these northerners.
"As the black hero who received me," began the Viking, "assures me that
he is not the King, then no other can be he but thou," and he gave his
hand to Totila, first pulling off his fighting-glove of shark's skin.
"Welcome to the Tiber, my cousins from Thuleland!" cried Totila, as he
raised his cup and pledged his guests.
Seats were quickly prepared, and the royal visitors took their places
at the King's table; their followers at the table near them. Adalgoth
poured out wine from tall, two-handled jugs.
King Harald drank, and looked wonderingly around.
"By Asathor!" he cried; "but it is beautiful here!"
"Such I imagine Walhalla to be!" said his companion.
The Goths and the northerners could scarcely understand each other.
"If it pleases thee so well, brother," Totila slowly said, "then rest
amongst us with thy wife for some time."
"Ho-ho! Rome-King!" laughed the giantess, and tossed back her head so
suddenly, that the waves of her red hair shook.
The falcon flew screaming up, and circled round her head three times.
It then quietly returned to her shoulder.
"The man has not yet been born," continued the Amazon, "who could
conquer Haralda's heart and hand. Harald alone, my brother, can bend my
arm, and spring and hurl his spear farther than I."
"Patience, my little sister! I trust that soon a man of marrow will
master thy coy maidenhood. This King here, although he looks as mild as
Baldur, yet resembles Sigurd, the vanquisher of Fafner. You shall vie
with each other in hurling the spear."
Haralda cast a long look at the Gothic King, blushed, and pressed a
kiss upon her falcon's smooth head.
But Totila said:
"Evil befell, as the singers tell us, when Sigurd strove with the
Amazon. Rather let woman greet woman in peace. Give thy hand, Haralda,
to my bride."
And he signed to Valeria, to whom Duke Guntharis had very imperfectly
translated what was said.
Valeria rose with graceful dignity. She wore a long white Roman-Grecian
garment, which hung in soft folds, and was confined at the waist by a
golden girdle, and upon the shoulder with a cameo brooch. Bound her
nobly-shaped head was bound a branch of laurel, which Totila had taken
from Adalgoth's wreath to fasten into her black hair. Her beauty, and
the rhythm of her movements and the folds of her garments, seemed to
float around her like music. She silently held out her hand to her
northern sister.
Haralda had cast a sharp and not very friendly look upon the Roman
girl; but admiration soon dispelled the angry surprise which had
overspread her countenance, and she said:
"By Freia's necklace! thou art the most lovely woman I have ever
beheld. I doubt whether a Wish-girl of Walhalla could compare with
thee. Dost thou know, Harald, whom this Princess resembles? Ten nights
ago we laid waste an island in the blue Grecian sea, and plundered a
columned temple. There stood a tall, icy-cold woman, made of white
stone; upon her breast was the figure of a head surrounded with snakes;
at her feet the night-bird; she was clad in a garment of many folds.
Swen unfortunately broke her to pieces because of the jewels in her
eyes. The King's bride resembles that marble goddess."
"I must translate what she has said to thee," said Totila, turning to
Valeria with a smile. "Thy poetical adorer, Pisa, could not have
flattered thee more delicately than this Bellona of the north. They
landed, so we were told, at Melos, and there broke the beautiful statue
of Athene, sculptured by Phidias. You have made great desolation, I
hear," he continued, turning to Harald, "in all the islands between
Cos, Chios, and Melos. What, then, has led you so peacefully to us?"
"That I will tell thee, brother; but only after more drink." And he
held out his cup to Adalgoth. "No, do not spoil the splendid juice with
water! Water should be salt, so that no one could drink it unless he
were a shark or a walrus. Water is good to carry us upon its back, but
not to be carried in our stomachs. And this vine-beer of yours is a
wonderful drink. I am soon tired of our mead; it is like a tame sweet
dish. But this vine-mead! the more a man drinks, the thirstier he
becomes. And if one drank too much--which is scarcely possible--it is
not like the intoxication of ale or mead, which makes a man ready to
pray to Asathor to hammer an iron ring round his temples. No; the
intoxication of the vine is like the sweet madness of the Skalds--a man
feels like a god! So much for the vine! But now I will tell thee how it
was that we came here."