"By my father's sword, this is cold greeting," he muttered.
"We have marched swiftly, sire," suggested Count Anselm. "May it not be that Count Kasim is taken unawares by your coming?"
"He will do well not to wait for our knock," said Karl, grimly. "So! here is ground more level. Halt! Raise the standard."
Roland unfolded the banner, and pushed forward to the left of the king, while behind the two the courtiers spread out in line to right and left, all eager to see and hear what should follow.
At the word to halt Liutrad had wheeled about, bearing a command from Olvir; and the vikings, as they came up, opened out their ranks wider than the line of the Franks. Karl turned in his saddle and looked inquiringly from the warriors to their leader. But the expression of the Northman's face cleared away his doubt. There was a smouldering fire in Olvir's eyes as he watched for the appearance of his kinsman, but the stern lines of his mouth told of perfect self-control.
The king turned to Eggihard.
"Wind your horn," he commanded. "We shall see if these Southland folk are dumb."
But as the steward raised his silver trumpet, a great mass of Saracen spearmen, with Vali Kasim in the lead, burst from a grove not two bow-shots away, and swooped down upon the royal party in wild disarray, screaming and yelling like madmen, and urging their swift horses to the utmost speed.
Karl, who had been forewarned as to the Saracen custom of honoring a superior by feigned attacks, wheeled his horse, and gazed calmly at the approaching whirlwind of riders. But there was one among his liegemen who lacked his faith in the blinking vali.
Hardly had the Moslems burst from their covert when Olvir stood up in his stirrups and made a sign to his vikings. The response was a deep muttering roar, that merged into the clash and tread of rushing warriors. Before the Franks could comprehend the movement, they found themselves in the heart of the viking wedge, fenced about by a sevenfold line of warriors. At the point of the wedge they could see the Norse sea-king on his red mare, calmly facing the charge of the turbaned spearmen; while beside him stood Floki the Crane, smiling in grim anticipation as he balanced his terrible halberd. Behind them, Liutrad loosened the great axe in his belt, and plucked a dart from the sheaf which he grasped with the staff of his earl's banner.