"Stay!" cried Liuthari, "look!--on the topmost slab of the barricade there is something written; perhaps the name of the house. I think I can yet see to read it."
"I could not read it," laughed the other, "even if the sun stood high at noon. What do the Runes say?"
And Liuthari read--slowly, laboriously, deciphering letter by letter:
"Hic--habitat--felicitas--nihil--mali intret."
Struck with surprise, motionless, the young man was silent for a while. His heart beat--the blood rose throbbing in his temples.
"How strange!" said he then to himself. "Here dwells happiness--the happiness that I am seeking? And the shooting star--did it on that account guide here my steps?"
"Now, by the wondering Wotan," said Haduwalt, "have the Runes enchanted thee?"
"Why, yes; this may indeed have been engraved to direct me to a blessing, protecting enchantment."
The old man hastily seized the king's son by the shoulder and wished to draw him away.
"Then let us retire," whispered he anxiously. "I would rather force my way through two lines of Romans than through a magic spell. See, already thou seemest spell-bound before the entrance. What is the meaning of the Runes?"