"Death!" now rang forth in many voices.
"I knew it," said the fisherman quietly. "Farewell, countrymen. I wish you victory and prosperity."
But the Duke continued:
"What death must he die? By the willow-withe? By water? By the red stroke of the knife? Or by the red flame of burning branches?"
One of the two old men stepped forward again, saying: "By his deed he has offended Zio the war-god and Odin the giver of victory. Zio demands blood upon the stone of sacrifice; Odin's will is that he shall blow in the wind. Odin is the greater god and the father of Zio: the lesser yields to the greater; the son to the father. Odin's right is first: the oath-breaker is consecrated to Odin, He shall be hung by willow ropes under the chin, with his face toward the north, from the withered yew, a wolf at his right hand and a wolf at his left--the oldest symbols of quarrelsome, reckless lawbreakers."
"He is consecrated to Odin," the judge repeated solemnly--"if Odin desires him. We will ask the god."
All gazed in astonishment, the fisherman with a faint thrill of hope, at the old man, who now continued:
"It is dishonorable and shameful for the man to swing among the branches, between the sky and the mountain top. And hitherto he has been brave--only he could not be strong enough to bear the weeping of his child. He will die useless to his people, if he hang high aloft on the tree. Well then, we will ask Odin if, perchance, he will forgive him. You all, like the accuser himself, at first wished to let the act pass unpunished. That will not do. To the Lofty One we must offer his right; but--perhaps--he will not take it. I advise that Fiskulf shall venture upon a deed in which, for his people's welfare, he will fall, inevitably fall, unless Odin himself take pity on him and bear him away in his floating mantle."
"Speak, speak! What may I do?" cried the fisherman, with sparkling eyes. "All! All! Gladly will I die by the spear. Only not the rope of shame!"
"You shall be the first, in advance of all the others, to leap on the proudest Roman galley and--you understand how to kindle flames so well--set fire to its sails."