"I know not," said Ulric, "but yonder is a brighter streak of dawn. We shall soon know if the Romans are near us. We may slay them if the water becometh smooth enough for a good fight."
"It would be a grief to all men," said Tostig the Red, "if we lost an opportunity. But if this be land, I want some beef."
"Good!" exclaimed an old viking. "We had many cattle on the Gaulish coast, but in Spain we got little but sheep. Hereaway may be found cattle. We may throw a net, and we may find fishes."
The jarl said nothing, for he watched the sea and the sky and he steered the ship.
"Nearer!" shouted Ben Ezra from the mast. "And the daylight cometh. I watch for the Romans. May the curse of Jehovah be upon them and theirs forever!"
Lysias was on the fore deck, and as he heard Ben Ezra he muttered angry words in his own tongue. Then he whispered softly to himself, or to a shadow, and his fair face grew white and his teeth ground together as if he were in agony. So do they suffer who have lost a love and know that it is forever gone, for Lysias had said:
"Worse far than if they had slain her! I would that she were dead and I with her. But I may live to slay Romans. Why did this Saxon jarl spare any of them? But he is captain, and they say he is a wise one."
In the small wooden fort for slingers and archers, high up the stout mast, sat Ben Ezra, and a viking sat with him.
"O Saxon," said the Jew, "would thy jarl spare them if they came with the day?"