"Wretches!" murmured Ulric. "Some of them hardly seem like men and women. It is well for such as they are to be slain quickly. The gods care not for these people, and so they are given to the Romans."
Not so thought Ben Ezra, for he beat his breast more than once and he whispered to himself in Hebrew:
"O God of Israel!" he gasped. "Here are of thine own chosen people, also, many scores, taken in the snares of the heathen. Where art thou, O Jehovah, that thou hearest not? Canst thou not see this city of pollution, wherein thy name hath not been written? Unclean! Unclean! Woe is me that I am here! It is as Sodom and Gomorrah, and thy fire lingereth!"
What he meant Ulric understood only in part, but he saw that many of these who were doomed were Jews.
"They are not warriors," he thought, "except that some of them are tall and strong. They must all die and get out of these prisons, but they go not to Valhalla, and I know not where they go. I care not to slay such persons."
Now the guard led him and his interpreter to the dens of the animals and Ulric was displeased that his men were not with him to see.
"The wolves," he said in Saxon, "are like those of the North. I think not much of the hyenas, nor of the small leopards. The great leopards are fierce beasts and so are the bears, but I could meet one of them."
There were four elephants in one den, and he walked around among them, wondering at their size and at their peacefulness, while Ben Ezra told him of their intelligence and of their manner of fighting.
The jarl did but study them thoughtfully, and now a keeper said to Ben Ezra: