h a roar of:

"Olaf Red-Sword! Follow Olaf Red-Sword!" for so the soldiers named me.

"Steady, Northmen! Shoulder to shoulder, Northmen!" I cried back. "Now
at them! Charge! _Valhalla! Victory or Valhalla!_"

Down the slope they went before our rush. In thirty paces they were but
a huddled mob, on which our swords played like lightnings. We rolled
them back on to their supports, and those supports, outflanked, began
to flee. We swept through and through them. We slew them by hundreds, we
trod them beneath our victorious feet, and--oh! in that battle a strange
thing happened to me. I thought I saw my dead brother Ragnar fighting
at my side; aye, and I thought I heard him cry to me, in that lost,
remembered voice:

"The old blood runs in you yet, you Christian man! Oh! you fight well,
you Christian man. We of Valhalla give you greetings, Olaf Red-Sword.
_Valhalla! Valhalla! Victory or Valhalla!_"

It was done. Some were fled, but more were dead, for, once at grips, the
Northman showed no mercy to the Greek. Back we came, those who were left
of us, for many, perhaps a hundred, were not, and formed a ring round
the women and the wounded.

"Well done, Olaf," said Heliodore; but Irene only looked at me with a
kind of wonder in her eyes.

Now the leaders of the Northmen began to talk among themselves, but
although from time to time they glanced at me, they did not ask me to
join in their talk. Presently Jodd came forward and said in his slow
voice:

"Olaf Red-Sword, we love you, who have always loved us, your comrades,
as we have shown you to-night. You have led us well, Olaf, and,
considering our small numbers, we have just won a victory of which we
are proud. But our necks are in the noose, as yours is, and we think
that in this case our best course is to be bold. Therefore, we name you
Caesar. Having defeated the Greeks, we propose now to take the palace and
to talk with the regiments without, many of whom are disloyal and shout
for Constantine, whom after all they hate only a little less than they
do Irene yonder. We know not what will be the end of the matter and do
not greatly care, who set our fortunes upon a throw of the dice, but
we think there is a good chance of victory. Do you accept, and will you
throw in your sword with ours?"

"How can I," I answered, "when there stands the Empress, whose bread I
have eaten and to whom I have sworn fealty?"

"An Empress, it seems, who desires to slay you over some ma