"Never look backward is the law of fighting men; all that is behind thee may take care of itself; thou must see only those who are before thee."

As Wolf was drawing the bundle of wet hides by a rope up the roof, Frida placed herself before him, and began, mockingly:

"Thou art chosen for glorious service; the carpets smell badly which thou spreadest over us. If thou art the chamberlain to protect us women, the enemy will remain ten steps from us, and raise their noses upward with horror."

"If I were the Chieftain," replied Wolf, angrily, "I would place thee over the door, before all the armies, in order that thou mightest wound the heart of the enemy. Help me to raise the ladder inside the hall to aperture in the roof, and hold the rope that I may loosen the skins above."

Frida willingly followed his orders, and when he had spread all and come down from the top, he found himself with her in the empty room, and gave her quickly a kiss. Frida did not resist, but suddenly took off a ribbon, and said, "Hold thine arm, Wolf, that I may bind thee. If we see another evening, tomorrow I will belong to thee as thy wife; often have I been cross with thee; today I tell thee that thou art dear to me, and no other."

She bound his arm; but he exclaimed, "I will extol the anger of the Queen, which has taken the thorn from the thistle!" She kissed him heartily, then tore herself away, and rushed to the maidens.

The clouds were driving again under the crescent moon; wild figures, men's bodies, and horses' limbs were now encircled with yellow light, and now coal-black in the gray twilight. The mist rolled out from the Idisbach, and rose upward against the circular rampart and the fortress. The cries of animals and the voices of men sounded about the fortress gate; the village people led the horses and cattle, and the brown woolly sheep along the paths from below; the men walked with linden shields, and drove the herds in haste with their spears; the women and children hastened, with their household furniture heaped up. Sorrowful was the journey up the height to them; for he who looked backward was fearful whether he should ever return alive to the house which he had just built, or whether the house itself would not burst into flames. The fugitives thronged up to the closed gate of the lower rampart, and the Vandals, who guarded the entrance there, had to cry out and direct them, that they might not in the darkness miss the path that led to the gate. On the summit the fortess was filled with men and herds; the cattle bellowed, the horses galloped wildly about, and the women squeezed themselves with their bundles against the wooden rampart. But Berthar desired the men to place the domestic animals in rows --- to enclose the sheep in a pen. In the middle of the space a fire was flaming; there the pots steamed for the hungary, and the cellarer tapped the beer for the thirsty, which they abundantly desired.

Berthar went from one man to another, greeted them with dignity, as in peaceful times, asked their opinions, and thus sensibly scrutinized their number and their dispositions. "Why do the neighbors delay from the other bank of the stream? where are the strong-armed peasants from Ahornwald and Finkenquell?" he cried out to the Thuringian Baldhard. "Has the white fog blinded the senses of the Marvingians, that they have not heard the cry of the watchman, nor seen the light of the fire?"

"Slowly do they bestir themselves," replied Baldhard, troubled. "I saw herds and carts drive to their holy places in the forest; they will not be in hast to leave their horses and children. Yet haste would be advisable for them, for in the last twilight a host was advancing; alongside the stream shields and iron helmets shone. And I suspect they are the wild boys of the Queen, who are seeking a night's quarters in the houses on the other side."

On the path from below a horseman galloped wildly, his horse covered with foam, and in going through the gate he nodded to the old man. "Radgais!" called out the latter, hastening after him to the hall where Ingo, with the elders of the villages, was receiving intelligence from the warriors. The messenger sprang down greeting. "The King's boys press on in glittering troops, across our boundary; it is their whole swarm, and besides them Theodulf's men. With difficulty did I escape over the mountain. But they keep behind the trees in the valley, for there are hardly more than a hundred shields."

"Didst thou see the Queen?"

"Besides Theodulf, only the old robber Hadubald."

"If Gisela can put no larger troop in the saddle," said Berthar, contemptuously, "few of her trusty men will see again the home drinking-cup."

"There comes one from the Main, who announces other guests," replied Ingo. Walbrand, the Vandal, rushed in.

"As I came, my King, through the pine wood toward the south, in order to spy over the boundary, I heard the clattering of shields on the path. I concealed my horse, and turned on foot through the thicket; they came in a long train --- an army of Burgundians separated into three troops, infantry and horsemen. A foreign fellow rode beside the leader; it was a Roman of the bodyguard of Caesar, whom they called Protector. I recognized the helmet and the armor, and heard his laugh, and Roman words. Carelessly they waded on through the sand, without vanguard or scouts, quite secure of victory. With a few followers I could have excited terror among them. Out of the thicket I screeched at them as the night raven screeches; they they stopped alarmed, and looked through the trees up toward the clouds. But from behind the trees I threw my weapon at the Roman; the hero fell on the sand groaning, but they screamed out aloud, and I fled in the darkness. I hope it will be an evil omen to them."

"We see that the anxious Queen," said Ingo, "has called out a foreign host in armor against my men. Did she trust the good-will of the Thuringians so little that she invited her own native people to the sword-dance? Where didst thou scare her heroes by the song of a bird?"

"Half-way between here and the Main," answered Walbrand. "I saw, also, how they stopped in astonishment, and encamped for the night. The Burgundians awake late; but even if they hasten themselves, they will not be in the valley before the morning is advanced. I observed horses' steps in the mist below, on the other side of the stream."

Ingo gave him a sign of dismissal, and said to Berthar:

"Take care, my father, that all sleep except the watchmen; for tomorrow they will need eyes which will be firm in their heads, and rested limbs. Keep good watch at the gate, that an enemy may not slip in during a brief opening. At morning dawn we will collect the peasants, and count heads. The troop will be small for the surrounding space; but we fight for life, and the others for scanty booty. For the last time before we dedicate ourselves to the anger of fight, I greet thee in peace, my father. That they should esteem us fugitive men worthy of a large national arming causes us to laugh today; and for that I thank thee, thou trusty one."

The morning dawned; the clouds were edged with a blood-red tinge, and concealed the sun. In the enclosed fortress the sleepers rose from the ground. The men equipped themselves for the service of the war-god --- the merciless one; they anointed and brushed their hair, so that it bristled red; they wound round their arms and necks circlets of bronze and gold; they drew their belts close round their bodies, that their steps might be more agile, and the swing of their limbs more powerful. Many a one put on his shirt of deerskin, covered with iron scales; many also threw off their brown woolen jackets, and opened their shirts, that one might see the glorious scars on their breasts. Gloomy was the look of the warriors, wild their spirit, and silent their deed, for it was unbecoming to employ useless speech in the service of the god of battle.

Berthar said to Wolf, who was arming himself near him, offering him a thick gold armlet, "Long have I kept this ornament, which I once received as a king's gift. Take it today as a present from thy comrade; not undecorated shalt thou swing thy spear by our side --- that the enemy may not say: 'See what niggardly reward the Thuringian gains at the bench of the stranger.'"

Wolf put the armlet on his arm, looked at the old man gratefully, and answered, "Think also, father, when thou arrangest the combat, that I may not remain as the women's guard; and be not angry if I say one other thing: the master's enemy is also the man's enemy --- but I should prefer to raise my arm against the Burgundians, who are not of my race."

The old man laughed gloomily. "Uselessly dost thou bark, like a young hound. The smell of blood is not yet under thy nose; when the day advances, and the clouds there above roll backer, thou wilt think less of these anxieties."

The stone of sacrifice was erected before the hall of the King. The warriors collected around it: Ingo entered, with his men from the hall, in a gray steel shirt, with a helmet which was ornamented with the head of a boar; the teeth of the monster were of silver, and his eyes glowed red. The boys led a young horse up; Berthar pushed forward the sacrificial steel into his body, and cut the deadly wound. The King sang the blood-prayer, each man stepped up, and dipped his right hand into the horse's blood; and all swore to each other to be true till death, and obedient to their lord.

From the top of the tree, a clear woman's voice called out: "Defend thyself, oh King; the enemy's shields glisten, and the points of their spears!" The horn of the watchman gave warning by a wild cry, and a messenger sprang up to the King. "The troop of King's men ride along the stream --- the Queen among them!"

Then there was the sound of a war-cry in the court of the fortress; the warriors seized shield and spear, and formed themselves into a circle, to sing the battle-prayer in the hollow of the shield. The wild song resounded loud through the valleys, slowly and solemnly in the beginning, then swelling out like the storm-wind, till it sounded sharp and piercing, like the howl of the wind's bride. When it ceased, a yelling cry answered from below. Berthar gave out the commands, and the warriors in the order of their troops went down the hill, and occupied the surrounding ramparts.

"The battle-song sounded discordant," said Berthar, in a low tone, to Ingo, "unlike that of our men and the country people; thou wilt today only trust in home ways."

Once more Ingo mounted with the old man to the top of the tree. "Queen Gisela, in truth, brings no one with her but the merry men of her castle, and the followers of Sintram. Therefore she has invited the Burgundians, that they may accomplish her work quickly; and willingly are they come, for they are ten to one of us. See, Hero, they are already drawing the circle of shields round our trench. Down to the rampart! Good manners demand that I should greet the Queen. I will hold the side where she commands; do thou lead the men southward against the foreign bands."

With flying step the heroes hastened to the barricade. All around rose a cry; arrows and spears flew; in small bands the besiegers sprang on, carrying stones and gigantic trusses toward the outer wall, in order to fill the trench.

Northward, where the fight was hottest, Ingo's battle-cry sounded powerfully above all, and southward the voice of Berthar answered; and where the King was throwing his spears, there was Theodulf, foremost in the fight, demanding revenge. More than once his spear trembled near to Ingo's head, on the rafter of the rampart; and the shield of the Thuringian burst clattering by the weapon of the King. But the attack of the besiegers failed; with hot cheeks they turned backward, set in order their broken bands, brought together planks from the Thuringian village and from the forest, and worked hard upon them with ax and hammer.

"The fists of thy comrades were raised with a powerful swing," cried out Berthar to Bero's sons, approvingly; "have the Queen's boys turned into work-people? Despicable is the warrior who cowers behind a log shield." To Ingo he said, laughing: "The Burgundians showed little zeal in striking; the victims that have fallen to the god of war on my side are not numerous; and we must beg him to be graciously contented with a few, as the cuckoo said to the bear, when he offered him three dead flies as a guest's repast."