Roland lowered his sword, and leaned heavily upon it, his great body trembling.
"Take up your blade; defend yourself!" he gasped.
Olvir saw how his face whitened with anguish; but his own only grew the more bitter, and his voice stung with relentless irony: "What hinders the Christian from smiting the heathen,--the Frank from stabbing his friend? He is but an outlander. Strike, and have done."
"O my God, my God!" cried Roland, and the scalding tears ran down his cheeks. The Northman trembled, yet his face lost none of its hardness.
"How is this?" he said, "My friend is weary. He would have me do the deed myself. Say the word, foster-brother, and I fall on my own sword."
Roland opened his lips; but the only sound that came from them was a groan. With slow and awkward fingers he put back his great blade into its sheath. Vainly he tried again to speak; his tongue refused to obey. He could no longer endure the Northman's look. He turned and went away like one in a daze, staggering in his walk.
Olvir watched him go, without a shade of softening in his hard stare; nor did he move until the bowed figure of the Frank was lost to view in the coppice. Then he lifted his sword from the ground; a kiss for its mirror blade, and the point was at his breast. Already he was bending to fall upon it, when a smothered cry in the thicket caught his quick ear.
"What's that?" he muttered, and he stood listening. All was silence. His eye returned to the sword. How the bright hues played on the polished steel! The red stone burned like a gout of blood from the heart of fiery Surt. How fiercely its red light had shone in battle--in battle! Thor! he could hear the arrows whistling, the joyous clash of swords!
The black eyes flashed. He whirled the sword about and grasped its hilt in fierce delight.
"There's joy yet in Manheim,--wild play in Odin's game!" he cried; and again he kissed the blade. "Al-hatif! Al-hatif! king of swords! You would have slain me,--even as that other friend; yet you shall still be my friend,--henceforth my only friend and love!"