Felicitas Part 15

"With us the son always stands behind the father," growled Helmdag.

"Peace! both of you," commanded Vestralp, "fill your mouths with Roman wine. Bring the skin, Crispus, thou Roman hero! Do not untie it! A stroke with the sword. So! It spouts like red blood out of wounds! Now the helmets and hollow s.h.i.+elds, until the n.o.ble Roman in the buck's skin is exhausted. And as concerns the strife about the two stone steps, I think that a good man honours everything that is sacred to another. Therefore, brothers, we will all draw back from those steps."

"But the gold and silver on the walls, on the pillars and stone coffers?" said Helmdag, the Arian.

"Perhaps that is to stay for the plundering slaves?" said Rando the Catholic.

"No!" cried the enlightened pagan, who had spoken for peace--it was Vestralp, the vanquisher of the helmeted Crispus--"that would be a pity. We will divide it amongst us all: for the G.o.d Ziu, for the Romish Bishops, and for the followers of Arius."

And they immediately set to work with the bronze helmet, or deer-skin cap, full of red wine in the left hand, the battle-axe in the right.

Drinking heartily during their work, they broke away from the sarcophagi, holy shrines, and even from the columns, all that was valuable of the metal ornaments and jewels, and also the stones that pleased the eye by their variegated colours.

Garizo, a young, slim, tall Bajuvaren, lifted from the neck of a Saint Anne her necklace of heavy gold and sapphires, giving at the same time a deep bow, and saying:

"With thy permission, holy G.o.ddess, or whatever else thou mayest be; but thou art horribly ugly, and of dead stone. What one sees of thy bosom is yellow; but my bride Albrun is alive and young, and wonderfully beautiful; and very pretty will these stones look on her white neck."

"Yes, but where are they then, your women and children, and unarmed folk?" asked Vestralp of the busy bridegroom.

"They will come to-morrow down the eastern mountains," answered Garizo.

"For this we have at last found out, 'slow-moving' as we are, as thy hasty-tongued comrade just now said--this we have now learnt: to send the men forwards into the battle, and let the unarmed come afterwards when the victory and land is won."

"There must be something in it," laughed Vestralp, "in this name 'slow-moving,' because it vexes you so. If one called you a coward, you would only laugh and strike him down. You are a strange people! No other race so calm, and at the same time so terrible in anger."

"I will tell thee," spoke thoughtfully Helmbert, the white-bearded. "We are like the mountains; they stand quiet, whatever goes on round about them. But if the tumult within gets too vexatious, they overturn in rocks and fire."

"You have shown this time that you also can be cunning and crafty,"

cried Suomar. "With what artful care did you prevent the enemy getting scent of your approach! So sharply did you watch all the roads, and even the mule-tracks and the paths of the chamois-hunters, that no intelligence from the east could reach Juvavum."

"And not to make the Romans suspicious at the absence of all news,"

added Helmbert, "we sent our own Roman settlers disguised like peasants and workmen, as if they were the people from Ovilava and Laureac.u.m, into the town, there to buy and sell."

"And if these had revealed all?" asked Suomar.

"Their relatives left behind would have been put to death. That was said plainly enough to them. But besides this, the poor people would rather support us than their Roman tormentors."

"The burghers of the town soon gave up the contest; they find themselves under a new rule; as they see, we do not eat them," said Helmdag, laughing.

"Yes; _only_ the cavalry and foot-soldiers of the Tribune fought bravely, and with exasperation," said Rando.

"Tell us about it," urged Vestralp. "We, who fought on the other side of the river, do not know yet exactly what happened within the walls, or how the citadel fell so quickly."

"By the sword of Ziu, it was wonderful!" began Rando. "There, on the great square, where the Christian saint stands with lion's skin and club"----

"_That_ a saint! That is a heathen G.o.d!"

"No; a demi-G.o.d."

"All the same to me," continued Rando; "he did not help the Romans, whether saint, or G.o.d, or demi-G.o.d. But we were surprised on that market-place. After we, some twenty Alemanni, with the Bajuvaren--they can climb like cats, these mountain huntsmen of Bajuhemum--had clambered over the walls, we thought all was over. But when we came to the open market, there came galloping towards us, in close order, with the cras.h.i.+ng sounds of the tuba, the cavalry of the Tribune. He himself was not to be seen; it was said, he lay ill in the citadel; but he was not taken prisoner there. We were at first very few, and it was only with difficulty that we could stand against them. But we gradually pressed them back; step by step they were forced upwards towards the Capitol. But then came the Isaurian infantry to their help, and it was now a fearful struggle--man against man. Ah! I have again seen them fight with their Wotan's fury, these Bajuvaren."

"Say, rather, lion's courage," interposed proud Helmdag the Bajuvaren, "for we carry the lion on our standard, and lion's courage in our hearts."

"How come you with the southern beast? I think the bear stands nearer, and more resembles you."

"Thou thinkest that, forsooth, thou sharp-witted Suevian!" said old Helmbert, coming to his son's help, "because you know so much more than we; but you do not know everything. Three hundred years ago one had not heard the name of the Alemanni; but our ancestors, the Marcomanni, had already long fiercely fought with the Romans. And at that time victory cradled itself on the wings of the golden eagle. There was, in the golden house of Nero on the Tiber, a great, wise Emperor skilled in magic. He had found out, by his magical arts, that if he made two lions swim across the Danube, the bravest people on the earth would conquer in the impending battle. But our fathers, the Marcomanni, said: 'What yellow dogs are these?'--killed the lions with clubs, and afterwards slew the army of the Emperor and his general: twenty thousand Romans lay dead on their s.h.i.+elds. The clever Emperor in Rome knew then which was the bravest people on the earth. And since then we carry two lions on our colours. So sing and tell our bards. Now, continue, Suevian."

"That I will, to your glory! Like cats--or if thou, Helmdag, wouldst rather hear it, like lions--sprang the Bajuvaren on to the necks of the Moorish horses, and allowed themselves to be dragged along rather than let go. 'Give to Loge his due,' says a proverb that I have heard among the Anglo-Saxons: the Moors and Isaurians fought desperately, man by man covering the narrow, steep path which only offered s.p.a.ce for two horses. At last the Duke came to our help; he brought fresh troops, and now in a sudden attack with levelled spears, pus.h.i.+ng our way between the horses, we scattered the whole entangled ma.s.s. The Bajuvaren now used their short knives in a hand-to-hand conflict. They ran under the long lances of the Isaurians, sprang on to the saddle of the fully armed Moorish hors.e.m.e.n, and in face and throat--the only vulnerable part--thrust the blade of their daggers; on both sides, now right, now left, fell the enemy, horse and man, over the low breastwork of the Roman wall on to the jagged rocks in the depths below. Nevertheless the battle might have lasted long around the citadel; indeed, hunger alone would have subdued those rock walls if the rest of the enemy, who now at last fled, had gained the gate. But they did _not_ succeed in getting within it. A great deed was done by the hand of a Bajuvarian boy; I saw it plainly: having been overtaken by the Bajuvaren, I was, at last, no longer fighting, but was watching the gate of the fortress, which, high above me, was distinctly visible. I then saw that one of the two Isaurians who there stood on guard, ran towards his fleeing comrades; his movements plainly indicated that he was urging them to still hastier flight into the fortress, before the barbarians should press in with them. The other Isaurian stood on the threshold, holding the iron bolt in his hand, ready to close the half-door from the inside and draw the bolt as soon as the fugitives had poured in. Then, suddenly, as if struck by lightning, the man fell forward on his face: he stood up no more. Immediately afterwards appeared a boy with fair hair on the tower above the gateway; he cut down with a battle-axe the imperial purple standard, and in place of the fallen banner planted, on a tall spear, which shone afar, a blue s.h.i.+eld.

"'My Hortari,' then cried Garibrand, the Duke, 'my brother's son, stolen many weeks ago, and thought dead! _His_ s.h.i.+eld, the victorious blue s.h.i.+eld of our house, of our family. Forward, ye Bajuvaren! Now to cut our way to Hortari!'

"But there was nothing more through which to cut our way; the Tribune was not there; the slaves of the Tribune were also not to be found in the fortress: the brave child was the only human being inside the Capitol. The fight before the gate was over immediately; the enemy shut out, powerless, one man springing on the back of another trying to climb the high walls, pressed still harder by us, soon threw down their arms and yielded. A few certainly, despairing of grace, or despising it, spurred their horses from the steep path into the abyss below. The gate of the citadel of Juvavum flew open from the inside, and young Hortari sprang into his uncle's arms; this youth of the Bajuvaren had won for his people the Capitol of Juvavum."

"Hail to the youth Hortari! The minstrels will have him in remembrance!"

"Hail to the youth Hortari!" sounded loud through the wide halls of the Basilica.

When the joyous cry had died away, quarrelling words were heard at the farther end of the building.

In the apse behind the altar, two, flushed with wine, were in loud strife.

In a chest containing Roman memorials, which the zealous Johannes had taken away from his flock, in order to wean them from their pagan superst.i.tions, the two men had found a small, beautifully-carved marble relief, representing the three Graces tenderly clasping each other.

They had seized the piece of sculpture; and screaming and shouting, now dragged and pulled each other through the church till they stood before Vestralp and Helmbert.

Then one of the disputants let fall the marble and flashed his short knife against his opponent, who immediately dropped the plunder and seized the hand-axe in his girdle.

"Halt, Agilo!" cried Vestralp, seizing the arm of his fellow tribesman.

"Stab _Romans_, if thou wilt, not Alemanni," shouted Helmbert, and struck down the knife of his countryman.

"Well! You shall decide," cried both disputants with one breath.

"I saw it first," cried the Alemannian. "I wished to hang it on my favourite horse as a breast-plate."

"But I took it first," retorted the other. "They are the three fate-spinning sisters. I should hang it up over my child's cradle."

"The strife is easily settled," said Vestralp, picked up the three Graces from the floor, took the axe from the hand of the Alemannian, aimed well, and cut the relief exactly through the middle.

Helmbert seized the two pieces and said:

"Forasitzo, Wotan's son, who is the judge in Heligoland, could not have divided it more evenly; there, each of you has a G.o.ddess and a half.

Now go and drink reconciliation."

"We thank you very much," said the combatants, again unanimous and highly satisfied.

"But there is no more wine," complained the Alemannian.

"Or I should have drunk it long ago," sighed the Bajuvaren.

"Heigh, Crispe, son of Mars and Bellona," cried Vestralp, "where is there wine--more wine?"