Ulric the Jarl: A Story of the Penitent Thief

by William O. Stoddard

"Thou art young, but thou art cunning," said Caius. "But I have a great fear concerning this wound in my arm. It is not like any other, and I have been wounded often. A strange thing is poison. I have considered why the gods make such a thing and why they put it into the teeth of serpents. They are evil!"

"A god may need a serpent as thou needest a spear," said Ulric. "It is plain to me. If I were a god, I would make what I required for my errands. So do they work with winds and seas and rocks, and with thunders and with plagues of many kinds. No man getteth away from them if they have aught against him. Anger not the gods, for they are powerful and they are cunning."

"As thou hast said," replied Caius, gloomily, "I have spoken against them at times, and now they have reached me with this Syrian arrow from the quiver of Herod the jackal."

"Odin!" suddenly exclaimed the jarl; for the overwearied horse under him stood still without a pull of the rein, and before the eyes of the Saxons was the City of the Great King, the Holy City, Jerusalem the Beautiful.

Deep is the valley of Jehoshaphat, through which runneth the brook Kidron under its many bridges and between its gardens and palaces. Beyond this valley, as the whole company stood still to admire, they saw the mighty walls of the city, high and white, and the castles and the towers, but beyond and above all these, in the bright light of the declining sun, they saw the glories of the temple which was accounted one of the seven wonders of the world.

"It is Asgard!" said Ulric, thoughtfully, "and I see the temple of a god that hath power on earth to heal wounds and to give sight, and to whom demons give obedience. I think he is not as are the gods of the North, and I will ask this son of his more about him."

But the Saxons who were halted with him said one to another:

"We have come out into the world far enough. We will see this one city and we will do somewhat of fighting perhaps. But then we will find a keel, or take one, and we will return to the Northland, whether the jarl goeth with us or not. The winter of this land is warm, not cold, and we may not abide it. We will go into our own fiords as the ice cometh out, seeing we may not get there sooner."

So strong is homesickness, and so it will change the hearts and the wills of brave men.