The short man shrank away chinking a small bag that was attached to his belt, and his black eyes were glittering with anger.
"If I were a king," said Ulric, "I would find me better captains than he. I like not his face. He loveth his bag too well. Come on, now!"
The order went to his Saxons, but at that moment he heard the rabbi saying: "Let him sell all that he hath and come and follow me. So shall he have treasure in the heavens."
"Where are they, Ben Ezra?" asked the jarl.
"No man knoweth," replied Ben Ezra. "I think they are above the sky. It is the place of our people. Thou art a heathen and they have no part with Israel."
"I go to Valhalla and to the city of Asgard," said Ulric. "To the city of the gods. I want no treasure in any place of the Jews. Thou mayest have thy heavens to thyself. Lead on!"
Nevertheless, Ulric strode forward and stood for a moment before the rabbi looking him in the face.
"O thou of the sons of the gods," he said, "I also am of the line of Odin. I think thou wouldst make a leader of men. I will fight for thee if thou wilt."
"Thou art not far from the kingdom," said the rabbi, smiling wonderfully. "Go thou thy way, for thou wilt see me again. Thou wilt come unto me in the day in which I shall call thee."
"That will I!" exclaimed Ulric with an energy that was sudden. "But I think thou wilt need all the Saxons if thou art to contend with Cæsar. It will be a great battle when his legions meet thee. I have slain many Romans already. I am thy man."
"Thou knowest not yet what thou art," replied the rabbi, "but the Saxons also are my people. I shall send for them."
"That do thou," said Ulric; "and I, Ulric the Jarl, the son of Brander the Brave, the son of Odin, I will lead them for thee, for I am a jarl and a sea king. Fare thee well."
No answer made the rabbi, for he turned to speak to a woman in the crowd, and Ulric turned to walk away with Ben Ezra.
"The Romans will slay him," said Ben Ezra. "Thou wert imprudent. I wonder much. Can this be the Christ that is to come?"
"Who, then, is he?" asked Ulric, and as they went onward the Jew told him many things that were hard to understand.
"It seemeth to me," said the jarl at last, "that thou speakest a saga that Hilda of the hundred years told me in my childhood. Odin is to return bringing the gods with him, and some say he hath returned already and that he who saileth far enough to the eastward and southward may find Asgard. I must see this city, Jerusalem, and its temple, for now I do know that thy Jehovah is a god like Thor or Odin."