Sad work it was to cast so many forms of dead heroes into the sea, but so had it been foredoomed by the Nornir, and there were some of the wounded who died while the task went on.
Then Ulric sat down by the hammer of Thor and bowed his head, for his heart was heavy.
"I can sing no song," he thought, "over such a fight as this. I think it will now be long before I see the fiords and the hillsides of the Northland. My fate hath changed for me in an hour, and I know not what cometh. O Hilda, was this thy dark saying, that I understood not?"
No voice responded, nor any motion of the air, but he looked upward and he saw birds that were flying eastward.
"So will I go," he muttered, "and they who are with me. There is too much blood upon this keel. I would she were burned with fire, for I hate her. The gods of the Romans have had their revenge upon me. I will never again speak lightly of any gods, for they have ways of their own and they are cunning. Who shall protect himself against an enemy whom he cannot see?"
Well blew the wind, and there was little now to be done save to steer and to rest. All ate and drank, and Ben Ezra seemed to love that dark, strong wine, but he used it sparingly.
"It is made in my own land," he said, "but this came from a Greek island, I think. There is good wine in Canaan. I would eat again of the grapes and the pomegranates of Israel and Judah. O my son! That he might have been with me! O my Rachel and my daughters and my firstborn and his brethren! The curse of Jehovah be upon Rome forever! Amen!"
So the old Hebrew warrior wailed in the bitterness of his soul, and _The Sword_ sprang on over the billows, bearing him to his own land, but she was now no longer a warship.
"We will not count the days," said Ulric to Lysias. "We will speak to none that we may pass."
"Pause not!" replied Lysias. "Thou hast thy life yet and I have mine. I have it in my mind that I shall see my Sapphira. I have had a dream in the night and she stood and beckoned me."
Ulric answered not, but that night he slept upon the deck dreaming, and in the morning he thought about his dream also.
"Hilda was there," he said, standing at the helm looking across the sea. "Behind her was the sun rising. Between her and the sun were many warriors, heroes of the gods, armed for battle. There was blood on some of them. But at the right hand of Hilda stood that dark and beautiful one, and there were flowers in her hair, and the flowers were both red and white."