Talbot Mundy

“ Orwic said at last, "but I dare not. There are too many now who believe you bring Cæsar's message, and they want to hear it. There are too many who accuse Caswallon of having sent you to make overtures to Cæsar; too many, again, who believe the contrary and blame Caswallon for having sent you to stir Cæsar against us. We are all divided.
"Some say Caswallon looks to Cæsar to make him king over all Britain; others say Cæsar will conquer Britain first and crucify Caswallon afterwards! There are some who want to kill you, Tros, and some who want to honor you as Cæsar's messenger." ”

“ Angry—for emotions such as Tros had come through turn to anger as the sour milk turns to whey—Tros swung his hands behind him and stood breast out, grim chin high, staring at the shore, ignoring Helma. She was the real irritant. He told himself it was not born in him to love a woman. If he had thought he loved her—had he?—that was only the emotion of a drunken sailor. Worse! it was sordid backsliding. A descent from his own Olympian heights of manhood to the common level of unmoral fools like Conops! ”

“ When he had watched shore-bearings for a while to make sure the anchor held, he turned to Helma, hoping to take his mind off one worry by considering another.
"How did you learn Gaulish?" he asked
"Some of us always do," she answered. "Don't we need it when we raid the coasts? I learned it from my nurse, who was a Briton taken in a raid and carried off to Malmoe. Britons are good servants, once they yield. She worked hard, I loved her."
"Love? Or was it belly-yearning?" Tros asked. "I have heard tell that Northmen think of nothing else but fighting, feasting and taking wives." ”

“ Wo that I ever set foot in Britain!"
"Peace!" said Orwic, but Tros turned away from him, shaking with fury.
His violence had reopened the wound on his cheek and Helma stanched the blood, using the bandage he had tossed aside. Conops whispered to him; he struck Conops, hurling him headlong again between the benches. Then, black with anger, he strode up close to Orwic, hands behind him.
"Tell Caswallon, I attend my father's funeral. Say this: By Zeus I'll solve his difficulties! Can he fight? Is he a man? Hah! Let him believe either me, or else Skell and these other liars! ”

“ Caswallon is your friend, too. But don't forget, Tros, Caswallon is king here, and you are a foreigner. Your life and your goods are in our safe-keeping, but if you make difficulties for us we must think of ourselves first."
"If I am not welcome, I will go!" Tros answered.
Orwic hesitated, stroking his mustache. Tros' thought leaped to the chest of Cæsar's gold that Fflur, Caswallon's wife, was supposed to be keeping for him. Thoughtfully he eyed his Northmen prisoners, and wondered whether he could manage the longship with that scant crew. There was the Belgian coast; he might make that. ”

“ Wife, or ransom?" he asked not pausing for an answer. "Caswallon took some prisoners, but they say there's no hope of ransom; some other gang of pirates drove them forth, so they came to seize holding in Britain. No homes—no friends! Still—is she a virgin?
"She's a well-bred filly. Those Northmen who raided her home might like to pay a long price for her. Lud love me! Is that Sigurdsen? What have you done to him, Tros? He fought his way out of the woods without a scratch on him. What's he doing with his ax? He's a prisoner, isn't he? Lud look at them! They're all armed! ”

“ Therefore, he being my brother and a king's son although without fief or following, and you his conqueror in battle and his sworn friend, he swears by Thor and Odin and his ax-blade I am born in noble wedlock and a fit bride; and he gives me to you, to be wife and to share your destiny on land and sea. ”

“ They will be overwhelmed by foreigners. They will cease. A hundred years hence none will know the name of Britain."
But he was nearly as tired out as his oarsmen and as Conops, in no true mood for prophecy. Unlike them, he might not curl himself to sleep under the benches. He had no more fear on account of his British hirelings, who would stick like leeches now until he paid them. But he did not propose to be caught asleep by any of Caswallon's men, who might remove his prisoners, might even execute them, especially if Caswallon should be away from home ”