Charles Kingsley

“ If, therefore, I might send a slave to find some of my apparitors-'
'No, by all the gods!' roared the Amal, 'you're my guest now—my lady's at least. And no one ever went out of my house sober yet if I could help it. Set the cooks to work, my men! The Prefect shall feast with us like an emperor, and we'll send him home to-night as drunk as he can wish. Come along, your Excellency; we're rough fellows, we Goths; but by the Valkyrs, no one can say that we neglect our guests!'
'It is a sweet compulsion,' said Orestes, as he went in. ”

“ The old warrior will not hurt you!'
There was a kindly tone in the voice, a kindly light in the eye, which made Philammon promise to obey. He glanced one look back through the gateway as he fled, and just saw a wild whirl of Goths and girls, spinning madly round the court in the world-old Teutonic waltz; while, high above their heads, in the uplifted arms of the mighty Amal, was tossing the beautiful figure of Pelagia, tearing the garland from her floating hair to pelt the dancers with its roses. ”

“ And he commenced devouring like his namesake, 'the gray beast of the wood,' and forcing, in his rough hospitable way, Philammon to devour also much against his will and stomach.
'There. I feel happier now!' quoth Wulf, at last. 'There is nothing to be done in this accursed place but to eat. I get no fighting, no hunting. I hate women as they hate me. I don't know anything indeed, that I don't hate, except eating and singing. ”

“ That makes the old blood spin along again! But this debauching furnace of a climate! no man can keep his muscle, or his courage, or his money, or anything else in it. May the gods curse the day when first I saw it!'
Philammon said nothing, but sat utterly aghast at an outbreak so unlike Wulf's usual caustic reserve and stately self-restraint, and shuddering at the thought that it might be an instance of that daemoniac possession to which these barbarians were supposed by Christians and by Neo-Platonists to be peculiarly subject. ”

“ Heroes, you have a cellar for monks as well as for wine? I will trouble you with this hero's psalm-singing tonight, and send my apparitors for him in the morning.'
'If he begins howling when we are in bed, your men won't find much of him left in the morning,' said the Amal. 'But here come the slaves, announcing dinner.'
'Stay,' said Orestes; 'there is one more with whom I have an account to settle—that young philosopher there.'
'Oh, he is coming in, too. ”

“ Give me the wine-jug—curse the girl! she has run upstairs!'
The shouting and trampling came nearer; and in another minute Wulf came rapidly downstairs, through the hall into the harem-court, and into the presence of the Amal.
'Prince—here is a chance for us. These rascally Greeks are murdering their Prefect under our very windows.'
'The lying cur! Serve him right for cheating us. He has plenty of guards. Why can't the fool take care of himself?'
'They have all run away, and I saw some of them hiding among the mob. ”

“ We'd send to Spain for the Wendels, to move on Carthage; we'd send up the Adriatic for the Longbeards to land in Pentapolis; we'd sweep the whole coast without losing a man, now it is drained of troops by that fool Heraclian's Roman expedition; make the Wendels and Longbeards shake hands here in Alexandria; draw lots for their shares of the coast, and then—'
'And then what?'
'Why, when we had settled Africa, I would call out a crew of picked heroes, and sail away south for Asgard—I'd try that Red Sea this time—and see Odin face to face, or die searching for him.'
'Oh!' groaned Smid. ”

“ Smid knows my quantity.'
'Why in heaven's name are you not coming in?'
'That mob will be trying to burst the gates again before two hours are out; and as some one must stand sentry, it may as well be a man who will not have his ears stopped up by wine and women's kisses. The boy will stay with me.'
So the party went in, leaving Wulf and Philammon alone in the outer hall. ”

“ The Amal and I will act as the two Caesars, with divided empire. I presume we shall have little difference of opinion as to the hanging of this worthy.'
'Hanging's too quick for him.'
'Just what I was about to remark—there are certain judicial formalities, considered generally to be conducive to the stability, if not necessary to the existence, of the Roman empire—'
'I say, don't talk so much,' shouted a Goth, 'If you want to have the hanging of him yourself, do. ”

“ As I live, the man will be killed in five minutes more.'
'Why not?'
'Why should he, when we can save him and win his favour for ever? The men's fingers are itching for a fight; it's a bad plan not to give hounds blood now and then, or they lose the knack of hunting.'
'Well, it wouldn't take five minutes.'
'And heroes should show that they can forgive when an enemy is in distress.'
'Very true! ”