Vandals--they have had enough of Adolf by now, curse him!--I'll
warrant them; get together an army, and take Constantinople. I'll
be Augustus, and Pelagia, Augusta; you and Smid here, the two
Caesars; and we'll make the monk the chief of the eunuchs, eh?--
anything you like for a quiet life; but up this accursed kennel of
hot water I go no farther. Ask your girls, my heroes, and I'll ask
mine. Women are all prophetesses, every one of them.'

'When they are not harlots,' growled Wulf to himself.

'I will go to the world's end with you, my king!' sighed Pelagia;
'but Alexandria is certainly pleasanter than this.'

Old Wulf sprang up fiercely enough.

'Hear me, Amalric the Amal, son of Odin, and heroes all! When my
fathers swore to be Odin's men, and gave up the kingdom to the holy
Annals, the sons of the Aesir, what was the bond between your fathers
and mine? Was it not that we should move and move, southward and
southward ever, till we came back to Asgard, the city where Odin
dwells for ever, and gave into his hands the kingdom of all the
earth? And did we not keep our oath? Have we not held to the
Amals? Did we not leave Adolf, because we would not follow a Balth,
while there was an Amal to lead us? Have we not been true men to
you, son of the Aesir?'

'No man ever saw Wulf, the son of Ovida, fail friend or foe.'

'Then why does his friend fail him? Why does his friend fail
himself? If the bison-bull lie down and wallow, what will the herd