"It is well," said the Roman, for there was pride in the manner of the jarl. "Such work is for slaves, not for thee. An officer will do whatever is needful. Prepare thee to march for Tiberias. Thou wilt have good quarters, near the amphitheater. No man may molest thee, O chief of the Saxons. I like thee well, and I would thy tall comrade were living. Subtle indeed is Julius, the gambler, but he hath obtained only the slaying of robbers, and the quæstor will but laugh as at a jest."
Well pleased were all the Saxons at the respect shown to them and to their jarl, but they went and looked curiously at the chariots in the highway. They studied well the wheels and the harness, but most of all did they gaze at the charioteers.
"Now," said Knud the Bear, "I believe that which was told me, for I have seen black men. I must slay one some day that I may know the color of his blood and of his flesh. They have strange hair, also, and they wear arm rings of silver and rings in their noses and in their ears."
"Those women are like other women," thought Ulric. "Not yet have I seen her who stood by Hilda in my dreams. She is tenfold more beautiful than any of these."
Nevertheless, haste was made, and when the trumpet sounded the march the Saxons were ready for the highway; but it was after the middle of the day, and Ben Ezra had all directions for the way. On went the chariots and the horsemen, and then Ulric and his men followed, saluting first the tomb of Sigurd.
[CHAPTER XXIII.]
In a Place Apart at Night.
"Halt thou! This is the place provided for thy band."
So said to Ulric the Jarl the Roman soldier who stood in the highway before the inn.