The wind blew off the land and the ship sailed away gallantly, steering southward, and Ulric said to those who asked him:
"We will not again set foot upon the shore of Britain. Our work here is done. We will avoid all keels, friend or foe, that may come near us. We go to the Middle Sea, and our voyage, thus far, is prosperous."
The sun shone brightly in the Northland all that day, but Hilda sat by the fire in the hall of the house of Brander, and she was shivering. Near her sat Oswald, the harper.
"It is cold," she said. "This fire is but red coals and ashes. Let them bring wood."
So sat she while they went for wood, and she gazed mournfully into the great heap of gray and red, dotted with dying embers.
"I saw not the ship," she muttered. "But I saw Roman helmets. There is Ulric, and the Romans go down before him. Where is the ship? I see her now, and she is burning. How, then, can Ulric sail away? I read it not, save that he is not slain. O that I could look upon his face again before I go! How is it that I cannot see the ship? But I knew that she would never come again. It is well that he hath smitten the Romans so soon. I will go to my room, for I am old and the ice is out of the fiords and the buds are open and I have seen the grass again. I need but the one token more and then they may lay me away as I have bidden them. Ulric, my beloved! Thou art as my son!"