He did but speak for all. While they had been inactive on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and even more after setting out as if to find new adventures, the vikings had returned in their hearts to their old manner of living. They had thought continually of the sea and of ships. They had talked together of the cruise of The Sword and of all the strange things which had befallen them by the way in which they came to this country. They had also told many tales of the great deeds of sea kings, but there had been no minstrel or saga woman with them to sing them a saga or to play for them upon a harp. Often, also, did their conversings deal with the Northland itself in its summer beauty. They longed for the high mountains and the shadowy coolness of the fiords, and for the faces of men and of women and of children on the shores and about the houses. There is ever a kind of sickness which cometh upon brave men in the thinking of such thoughts and in the talking of such remembrances afar. So these vikings, who were all that remained of the mighty crew of The Sword, were not only weary at heart, but almost sick in body.
"A keel?" said Wulf the Skater to Knud. "Thou wilt find thee a keel? Wert thou in thine own seas now thou wouldst find them closed against thee. Beautiful would be the ice to look upon. But I think I could make me good skates and reach the fiords over the floes."
So said other Saxons, and they did but look listlessly at the walls of Samaria.
"O jarl," said Caius from his chariot, "come thou hither to me. I have a word for thee."
Ulric rode to the side of the chariot.
"What aileth thy men," asked the centurion, "that their faces are so cloudy? Are they discontented?"
"Not with thee, O noble Caius," laughed Ulric, "but they are ill at ease on horseback and in peace. They would rather fight for thee than travel like pleasure-seekers. One man is ever afraid that, if this continueth, he may die in his bed and go to Hel instead of to Valhalla."
Stern yet pleasant was the countenance of the centurion.
"I understand thy men," he said. "Let them be posted in the doorway of the house where I abide this night. I have no others here whom I may trust, and this is a city of the enemies of the procurator."
"Thou mayest sleep safely," said Ulric. "I will myself keep that house."