se.
Away with woman's fears! The world was a grand brave place, and men a
race of heroes. To ride by their sides, and share their mighty deeds,
and see their glory,--what keener joy had life to offer? Away with fear,
with foreboding! The present was all-glorious, and there would be no
to-morrow.

Shrill and clear from the opposite hill came the notes of the English
horns, as down the green slope moved the ranks of English bowmen. The
hum of Danish voices sank in a breathless hush; through the stillness,
Tovi, the royal bannerman, galloped to his post. A rustle, a boom, and
the great standard was unfurled, giving to the breeze the dread Raven
of Denmark. Anxious eyes scanned its mien; should it hang motionless,
drooping--but no, it soared like a living bird! Exultation burst from a
thousand throats.

Down the line came the young King upon his white war-horse, clad for the
battle as for a feast. The sun at noonday is not more fiercely bright
than was his face. His long locks flowed behind him on the wind like
tongues of yellow flame; and like northern lights in a blue northern
sky, the leader's fire flashed in his eyes. So Balder the Beautiful
might have come among the Jotuns. So the brawny sweating hard-breathing
giants might have jostled and crowded toward him, expectant, adoring.

As he came, he was calling out terrible reminders: words that were to
the ears of his champing host what the smell of blood is to the nostrils
of wolves.

"Free men, true men, remember that ye face oath-breakers! Remember how
they have spoken fine words to us of plighted faith...and when we have
believed them and laid down our arms...they have stolen upon us in our
sleep..and murdered our comrades! And our kinswomen whom they had taken
to be their wives! Remember Saint Brice's day! Remember our murdered
kin!"

On he went down the line; and like a trail in his wake, rose an
answering chorus of growls and clashing steel. Down some of the battered
old faces tears of excitement began to flow, like the water out of the
riven rock; while the delirium of others took the form of mirth, so that
they sent forth wild terrible laughter to swell the uproar.

Above the tumult his voice rang like a bell: "Heroes and sons of
heroes, remember you fight cowards! Remember that, since the days of our
fathers, they have made gold do the work of steel. To get gold to buy
peace, they will sell their children into slavery. Sooner than look
our swords in the