"O Miriam, the beautiful!" he responded, gazing upon her joyously, "I am even as I said to thee in Esdraelon. I am Ulric, the jarl of the Saxons. I am of Odin's line. Of the sons of the gods. I offered sacrifices in the temple of Jehovah asking for thee, and thou seest that he granted my petition."
Even as he spoke she stepped back within the doorway, and he also entered with her, but as yet the door closed not behind them.
"I understand thee partly," she said, trembling greatly. "Thou art a prince among thine own people. O that thou wert a son of Abraham! O that thou wert not a slayer of men in the circus!"
"That I am not!" exclaimed Ulric. "Such business is not for me. I am a free warrior. I go not again into the circus. I am with Caius of Thessalonica for a season, for I am his friend and his guard. I came out from the Northland into the world that I might seek for the city of the gods, that there I may meet my kindred. But I will ask of thee, O beautiful one! O Miriam! how knowest thou Hilda of the hundred years?"
Her eyes burned earnestly upon him while he was speaking and her face was as the dawn of a new day, for in it there were many changes, the color coming and departing and the lips quivering.
"I know her not," she said; and now they had drifted on into a small anteroom near the door, her veil, also, having been put aside more perfectly. "Who is this Hilda, that thou askest of me such a question?"
"Surely thou knowest her?" he said. "She is a saga woman of the Northland. She is learned in all the old runes that are written on the rocks and on the tombs, and she talketh with the gods in their places. I know that it is now many months since she hath been laid in her own tomb in the cleft of the rocks, but I saw her with thee, speaking to me in a dream, when I was on the sea in my ship. She bade me sail on and find thee, and this I have done. Therefore I am glad that I offered sacrifices to thy God. Henceforth he shall be to me as Odin, the God who is over all the other gods."
She listened as if his voice were music and as if she willed that he might not cease speaking.
"Thou hast said!" she now exclaimed, and a voice behind her, deep and sonorous, added:
"Amen! A great King is he, above all gods. He is the God of gods, and beside him there is no other; for Jehovah, our God, is one God, and there is none like him. O heathen man, thou hast well spoken. This day hast thou become his servant, for he hath sent unto thee his commandment in a dream, and thou hast obeyed him. Also thou hast done well in offering thy burnt sacrifices."