"As well tell the king himself, simple heart! No, dearest, we had best wait. It will not be for long, I trust. And now, remember, should I not see you sooner, the counts are to join my vikings in the Yule games. The king himself will take part. Be sure to come. There will be merry play, and the Moselle is like a burnished shield. I will teach you to skate."
"I was taught long since, Olvir. Berga, my maid, is a Frisian. So I shall soon learn again. And I shall not fail to attend the games,--to--to see the deeds of the king, my father."
For a moment the violet eyes were upraised in a look of tender mockery, and then their owner was darting off to join the queen's following.
CHAPTER VII
Fish of the wildwood,
Worm smooth crawling.
VOLSUNGA SAGA.
Never had Frank or viking known fairer weather for the Yule games. Each day the sun shone bright through the frosty air; the snow lay hard and firm on field and river-bank, and the Moselle offered to the feet of the skaters its broad street of glassy ice.
In the meadows before the villa, hazel rings for the wrestling had been enclosed, racing-courses marked out, and targets set up for the contests with spear and bow. Northmen and Danes, skilled in their own sports, burned to outmatch the king's men in the games of Frank Land, and the proud counts, whether East Frank or West Frank, Saxon, Goth, or Lombard, were no less zealous to prove their superiority over the outlanders. Yet, keen as was the rivalry, good-humor prevailed in all contests.
Each day great crowds gathered to watch the games, and to skate on the Moselle. Not a viking was to be found in the high-peaked huts, and such inmates of the villa as failed to troop out after the king to the field of games did not stay behind from choice. Aside from the house-slaves, few were left in the villa. The chapel was deserted by its priests and choristers, and the hall of state saw little of the sleek courtiers. In the bower only a maiden or two and the queen's tiring-women lingered in attendance on their mistress.