"You have planned all this alone?" asked the young noble.
"Ha, more, far more than this! Like the wolf of hell, this Rome opens
her jaws to swallow all Mittelgard. What? They are not willing to grant
us land enough on the northern shore of the lake to feed our growing
population? Well, let us see whether, in punishment to the insatiable
robbers for new and old crimes, the gods will not deprive them even of
the districts they have hitherto held by force,--the northern shore!"
Adalo's astonishment was increasing.
"Their proud giant ships will float against us from Arbor to-morrow;
those which escape the midnight conflagration will not, I hope, be
received again, when they fly homeward, in the eyrie whence these birds
of prey went forth."
"What! Arbor?"
"I have long tried to persuade our eastern districts also to make
common cause with us; they did not refuse reinforcements to the league,
as people here suppose because they did not see the men of the eastern
provinces. Besides,"--he smiled craftily,--"most of the eastern
districts have kings. It was not necessary to have all these kings
here, when Ebarbold's fate was to be decided. Meanwhile, they will help
where I sent them: on the southern shore. But not they alone.
"We wished to free the brothers of our race still enslaved by Rome. For
a long time the Alemanni and the other colonists--more slaves than free
men--have borne, grinding their teeth, the yoke which every year
pressed heavier. But they were held in check by the fortresses on the
other side, from the Linden Island behind Brigantium, beyond Arbor and
Constantia. They had long been ready to fight, but the lake fortresses
seemed to be too strongly garrisoned. They dread these fortifications
from long experience. They required to have aid from us.
"Well: least of all now, with the Emperor so near and a Roman army on
the northern shore, least of all now, do the tyrants fear an attack
upon their fortresses in the south. To-morrow nearly all the soldiers
who usually guard Arbor will come across on the ships to share the gay
expedition for booty; only a small guard will be left behind. But as
soon as the camp on the Idisenhang is burning,--a magnificent torch,
kindled by Zio himself,--the infuriated colonists will attack Arbor
from the land side. Thousands of free Alemanni from the eastern
districts will aid; they have stolen in small parties through the
mountain passes from far, far beyond Brigantium, and remained hidden in
the forests and farm-houses of the colonists for the last two days. At
the same time our men from the eastern marshes (Suomar commands them)
in thirty boats, under cover of the darkness (this is why I could not
move while the moon-goddess was in the sky), will go to Arbor, burst
the chains of the harbor, and unless the Christian God should descend
from the clouds to save the fortress, the morning sun will see the free
and the enslaved Alemanni on the walls of Arbor.
"Many times already we have won it, plundered it, half burned it, and
then left it, so that the Romans could establish themselves there
again: we will be so foolish no longer. If we conquer this time, we
will remain there forever! Then one link of the iron chain will be
broken, and we shall find it easier to subdue the other fortresses at
the left and the right, from Brigantium to Constantia.
"I shall not live to see the day, but you will, young warrior, the day
when the southern shore of the lake and the country far, far into the
lofty mountains whose peaks are crowned with eternal snows, will be the
possession of the free Alemanni: then think of this hour and old
Hariowald."
He started up, intensely moved, his white hair and silver beard waving
proudly in the breeze.
"My Duke," cried Adalo enthusiastically, "this is magnificent! Speak,
when to-morrow we have won this great victory according to your plans,
will you not then, instead of Count, bear the name of _King_ of the
Linzgau and the Ebergau, if Ebarbold fall?"
"No," replied the old man quietly, "that would not be wise. I have
reflected upon it a long time. Odin's will, I think, is different for
our people. Ebarbold has no descendants: after his death I will propose
that they shall not elect another king.
"That will be well; for the time is close at hand, though, it is true,
not yet fully here, when one king, a single one, will gather all the
districts of the Alemanni under his rule. The path will be more open,
easier for this universal king to traverse, the fewer kings and the
more counts rule the districts. We two will smooth, not block, the path
for the future king of the people. No, no! And, besides, the men of the
Ebergau must not say: 'Ebarbold was forced to fall because Hariowald
wished to be called King.'
"That king of the people is coming! Then, it is true, the nation will
scarcely remember me or you. Only perhaps some harper, in the hall of
the One King, will sing how Hariowald, the old chief and Adalo, the
young one, defeated the Romans three times in a single night. But we,
Adalo, shall then look down upon the free land of the Alemanni,
stretching from the Alps to the Vosges. We shall look down from Odin's
table. And I may probably expect that, when I cross the threshold of
Valhalla, the Lofty One will rise from his throne and come to meet me,
with the drinking-horn in his hand. For many men--far more through my
counsel, which always advised war, than by my spear--have I sent up to
him by the red death in the last fifty years, to fill his hall and
increase his army. Yes, my Adalo, we shall then look down upon the
glory of our people and say, laughing joyously: 'We two also helped to
build it that night on the Idisenhang.'
"So, Adalo, so I praise you: your cheek is glowing, your eye is
flashing! That is the right spirit, Odin's spirit, which is now taking
possession of you. And that alone, that ardor for battle, will also
give you the most ardent desire of your heart; not the dull despair of
the last few days, in which, unhappy youth, you sent that secret
message to the two Roman Generals!
"Hush! Of course I knew it. It was not difficult to guess the contents
of the letter you forwarded after they had disdained everything else
you had to give. But I also knew positively that they would refuse you
too. That is the sole reason I allowed your messenger to pass through
the barricades, as you thought, undetected. I too would gladly see her
at liberty, the wild red rosebud of the hillside by the lake, the red
flower in our people's garland of oak-leaves. But your Bissula is
yonder, with victory, in the Roman camp. If you want her, hew her out
at the same hour with conquest and the salvation of your people.
"No, do not thank me; do not talk! Go now! I must be alone."