"O noble Caius!" he shouted. "Thou art a good swordsman. They are all down. But these fellows are Jews. How is this?"
"None the less are they from Antipas," said Caius. "I can read his cunning. He will say they are but robbers from the rebel bands beyond the Jordan. Therefore I may bring no accusation against him. But I think thou art enough for five such as these. Well is it for me that thou art healed. Now will I send word to Julius, and his servants may have the care of this carrion."
Ulric was silent, looking down upon the slain. "Jews?" he said. "I think now that they are not so, but they are like them. What is thy thought, O Caius?"
"Samaritans!" suddenly exclaimed the centurion after a closer examination. "Not from Antipas. Here is a deeper treachery. These are from the elder Herod, the fox of Galilee. O jarl, haste! To the palace! We will make ready for our journey. But know thou that our road to Jerusalem passeth through Samaria, whence these came. Verily I have a new tale to tell the procurator."
"And I have a new thought concerning the keeping of thy life," said Ulric. "But there will be more than one round shield with thee in Samaria. A man needeth to have many eyes in this land."
At that moment, while they still gazed down at the dark yet pallid faces of the dead, they heard near them shouts of angry chiding, but the tongue was not the tongue of that country.
"O jarl!" shouted Lars, the son of Beolf, "we saw thee afar! We came in haste! What doest thou here with thy sword in thy hand—thou that wert torn by the Roman tiger?"
"Woe to thee, O jarl!" shouted another. "Thy men should have been with thee!"
"O Caius," exclaimed Tostig the Red, "thou didst fight for our jarl? Then will we fight for thee. Thou hast made good friends this day."
Sufficiently well did Caius understand Tostig and the others who now came running to see how it might be with the son of Brander, and it pleased him greatly.