Ulric the Jarl: A Story of the Penitent Thief

by William O. Stoddard

But the demon had been very busy and from lip to lip had already passed the goblets and the drinking horns. They had been emptied only to be quickly filled again, and now the Saxons of Sigurd shouted:

"Haha! O jarl! Thou wouldst rob us of our feast? We will show thee a thing."

Sigurd himself went among them, but to him, also, they paid no heed, and he came back again.

"I am sleepy," said Ulric. "Wulf the Skater, these three nights I have wakened. I will lie down for a while. Take the helm."

Then came Tostig the Red and Knud the Bear and four other Saxons of the house of Brander, and they sat down by Ulric, spear in hand, with their axes lying by them. Lysias brought his bow and Ben Ezra closed the visor of his brazen helmet.

"Trouble cometh," he said. "The heathen are full of wine and of the thirst of blood."

There was no quarrel between twain of the vikings that were stepping forth upon the fore deck, but they were berserkers, and their seaxes were in their hands, for they were to fight without mail or shields.

Skin after skin of that dark, strong wine was opening, and the men loved it, but they would see blood, they said, and the two berserkers shouted as they fought.

"Both of them are down!" exclaimed Lysias. "Two more take their places. O that the jarl were awake! But I cannot rouse him. Were the Romans to come, we were all dead men."