“Of course I think so. She recommends you to be well clothed and well armed.”
“That is certainly good advice, but is that all?”
“Listen, listen! she is going to speak again,” said the danneman.
The seeress resumed:
“The fool thinks he will live forever if he avoids the combat; but even age will not give him peace: the destroyer comes with his spear. Do you understand? Do you know what I mean to say?”
“Yes, yes, Karine!” cried the danneman, now quite satisfied. “You have spoken well, and now you can go to sleep again; the children will watch over you, and you shall not be troubled again.”
“Leave me then,” said Karine; “now, the vala falls into the night.”
She hid her face in the bedding, and her thin body seemed to sink and disappear in her mattress of eider-down, a rich present which had been made her by the danneman, who regarded her with the utmost veneration.
“I hope you are contented,” he said to Christian, as he took a long cord from a corner of the room; “the prediction is good.”
“Yes, very good,” replied Christian. “This time, I understood. Prudent people gain nothing by hiding themselves; the best way is to march straight on the enemy. Well then, forward, my dear host! But what are you doing with that cord?”