At a council of all the commanders, it was agreed that this great number of vessels would divide into several fleets, and those into several squadrons, and that the Roman Empire should be attacked in many places; also that several squadrons should sail for the Mediterranean, and a time and special places were fixed for vessels to meet before the coming of winter.
After the plan of campaign had been settled, the horns were sounded to order the departure of the fleets. They divided themselves as had been arranged, the red shields were hoisted on the mastheads, and a mighty shout of war rose from every ship, far and wide, spreading like the thunder along the sky, or the sound of a mighty torrent breaking everything that existed. It bade defiance to the Roman world and empire.
It was no easy matter for each fleet to depart in the midst of this great forest of masts, but the good seamanship of the Vikings mastered the difficulties, and but few casualties took place.
CHAPTER IX
IVAR’S DEFEAT OF THE ROMANS
If one could have been on the most northern extremity of the peninsula of Jutland after the departure of the fleets, he would have seen for several days ship after ship ploughing the sea, rounding Cape Skagen, and then disappearing below the horizon. Some of these were going southward, others westward.
Some were to make warfare in Friesland, others in Gaul and Britain and the Mediterranean. Some were going to Scotland, whence they were to pour their host upon Britain.
Less than two months afterwards, a wail of sorrow and anguish burst in every Roman province bathed by the sea. Couriers went to Rome from every one of these to ask for help, but Rome was powerless to help them, for the Norsemen were masters of the sea, and could land armies wherever they pleased. “The country that owns the sea owns might,” they used to say. The whole Roman Empire was in dread and fear of these Vikings, who were continually coming in countless hordes; their number seemed inexhaustible as they poured from the basin of the Baltic and the shores of Norway, year after year, and had done so for two centuries. This last invasion of the provinces of Rome was one of the most, if not the most, formidable that had ever taken place. Fire and sword were carried everywhere by the Norsemen.
Hjorvard had gone to make war in Britain, while his son Ivar, with his three foster-brothers and a large force, had landed on the northern shores of Gaul, where the present Boulogne now stands. There the Romans had built strong fortifications, but many a time their centurions had seen with dismay the Viking fleets pass before them, ascend the Seine, and take possession of many islands.
Before landing, every warrior washed, and combed his hair, and took a good meal, in order to be strong for the day’s fight, and was dressed in his best war clothes, so that if he was fated to die he might enter Valhalla as befitted his rank. The red shields had been hoisted as a token of war.