The jarl said nothing, for he watched the sea and the sky and he steered the ship.
"Nearer!" shouted Ben Ezra from the mast. "And the daylight cometh. I watch for the Romans. May the curse of Jehovah be upon them and theirs forever!"
Lysias was on the fore deck, and as he heard Ben Ezra he muttered angry words in his own tongue. Then he whispered softly to himself, or to a shadow, and his fair face grew white and his teeth ground together as if he were in agony. So do they suffer who have lost a love and know that it is forever gone, for Lysias had said:
"Worse far than if they had slain her! I would that she were dead and I with her. But I may live to slay Romans. Why did this Saxon jarl spare any of them? But he is captain, and they say he is a wise one."
In the small wooden fort for slingers and archers, high up the stout mast, sat Ben Ezra, and a viking sat with him.
"O Saxon," said the Jew, "would thy jarl spare them if they came with the day?"
"The son of Brander is jarl, not I," replied the viking, surlily. "Speak thou not carelessly of the leader of men. Thou art no seaman. He will strike when he is ready. Let that content thee."
For deep and strong was the hold of Ulric upon his older men, by reason of his skill as a seaman and as a captain and because of his good fortune; for they saw plainly that Odin and Thor were with him and that the gods of the Middle Sea could do nothing against him. Even the ice gods had been his friends and the god of the Druids had also helped him, sending him away from Britain unharmed. It was a great thing to have such a jarl, of Odin's line. They all knew, moreover, that Hilda, the saga woman, must by this time have gone down to the gods and that she willed exceedingly well to the crew of _The Sword_ and to her young hero.
"He is truly a leader of men," growled the Jew through his thick beard, "but I would once more smite these Philistines of Rome."
"In that I am with thee," said the viking, heartily. "Thou art a good sword. I would see thee in battle. It is pleasant to look upon a warrior that slayeth zealously. But our feast of blood will come to us. Wait."
Up sprang the sun above the blue waves of the Middle Sea, and all the Saxons shouted joyfully. It was true that there were no enemies in sight, nor present hope of any good fighting, but here was a land that they had never seen before. All seamen know the joy there is in finding a country that is unknown.
