do for a leader? If the king-wolf lose the scent, how will the pack
hold it? If the Yngling forgets the song of Asgard, who will sing
it to the heroes?'

'Sing it yourself, if you choose. Pelagia sings quite well enough
for me.'

In an instant the cunning beauty caught at the hint, and poured
forth a soft, low, sleepy song:--

'Loose the sail, rest the oar, float away down,
Fleeting and gliding by tower and town;
Life is so short at best! snatch, while thou canst, thy rest,
Sleeping by me!'

'Can you answer that, Wulf?' shouted a dozen voices.

'Hear the song of Asgard, warriors of the Goths! Did not Alaric the
king love it well? Did I not sing it before him in the palace of
the Caesars, till he swore, for all the Christian that he was, to go
southward in search of the holy city? And when he went to Valhalla,
and the ships were wrecked off Sicily, and Adolf the Balth turned
back like a lazy hound, and married the daughter of the Romans, whom
Odin hates, and went northward again to Gaul, did not I sing you all
the song of Asgard in Messina there, till you swore to follow the
Amal through fire and water until we found the hall of Odin, and
received the mead-cup from his own hand? Hear it again, warriors of
the Goths!'

'Not that song!' roared the Amal, stopping his ears with both his