"You 're slow, lad," he said impatiently; and flinging on the gown, he at once called to Zora. But Liutrad had more knowledge of the king's humor.
"Curb your eagerness, earl," he said. "Wait until after the baptizing, and our lord king has eaten and eased himself with the noon rest. When he wakens, his mood will be fairest."
"Yours is the better judgment, lad," assented Olvir. "My hour of grace is already past, and it will matter little--Loki! We 've forgotten that I cannot ride Zora into the burg. Worad will soon be searching me out, and the mare is as well known as I."
"We must leave her hid in the wood nearest the burg. My horse shall stand in waiting for you by the palace gate. He is heavy, but can race that far at good speed."
"Well schemed, lad! I shall swoop among the limed twigs of the werwolf, and they shall not hold me! Do you call to mind, lad, that day among the sand dunes, when we outrode the angry Danes?"
"Remember! Thor's hammer, but those were merry days!" cried Liutrad; and with that he and Olvir fell to recalling the stirring scenes of their hunts and their fights on land and sea since the day when Olvir Thorbiornson came to Lade, with his grim foster-father, and won the heirship of the high-seat.
Noon came and passed, and the two still talked on with the care-free tones of men at a feast. None might have dreamt from their manner that they were desperate men, prepared, if need were, to defy the might of the great king.
At last, noting by the fall of the sun-rays through the foliage how the time passed, Liutrad gave the word, and they made ready to enter Attigny.
Worms during the wedding of Fastrada was not more gay than was now the little burg on the Aisne. All the court and all the townfolk rejoiced with their king in the fond belief that the bloody Saxon struggle had at last come to an end. The streets were thronged with revellers, through whose midst Olvir, muffled in his cowl, walked unnoted behind Liutrad's horse, straight to the great palace built by the second Clovis.
No official would have thought to bar the entrance of the king's favorite scribe into the most private apartments of the king, without Karl's express command, and where Liutrad went, he had no difficulty in gaining admittance for his priestly fellow. But when they came near the door of the king's chamber, Liutrad thought it best that he should wait outside in the passage. While they stood talking, they heard within the sibilant, purring voice of the queen, and at the same time the Grand Doorward approached, to inquire their purpose. Olvir's gaze grew stern, and he drew Liutrad away, with quick decision.