"By the will of the gods, and not by his own, he may not now come," said Lysias. "Were he here, he would say that ye go forth at once and that ye ride well. Mark this saying, however, that there will be one at the shore who must by all means enter the galley, but who must not travel far in her."
"It is but a spear thrust," said Knud the Bear. "We will attend to his case."
Silently all, but openly and boldly as by men who obeyed a high command, were the horses led out and mounted. There were also led horses for the packages and for changes, and there was no Roman officer of rank at hand to call this doing in question.
"Ride!" said Tostig. "Odin! It will not be well for any who shall cross our path!"
None was likely to do so. The Romans held Judea by garrisons in forts and camps, and not greatly by moving forces. The highway to Joppa would be deserted after nightfall. Who should rashly interfere with mounted spearmen, whose very helmets were as a sharp warning to the imprudent?
"Swiftly! Swiftly!" exclaimed Lysias, before long. "We now pass the hill of Golgotha. On that mount have many been crucified. Make thee sure that ye get well away with this galley of Herod and that no man may find you upon it in after time. I tell you truly that if ye are now taken prisoners ye would but climb yonder Hill of Skulls."
Silent were the Saxons at that hard saying, but the horses under them appeared to spring forward as if with one accord.
It was at the foot of a steep declivity that the galloping ceased for a brief resting of the horses, and Tostig exclaimed:
"O Knud the Bear, this is well. We have gone far. But I like not this manner of departing from our jarl. I think I should have seen his face and heard his commandment. Were he to need my sword on the morrow, I would be at his side."
"I also," responded Knud. "We are his own men and he is ours. It is in his heart that we may return to the Middle Sea with a hundred keels. What, then, would we care for Roman triremes? We could slay all the legionaries in Judea."