All those listening cried aloud with amazement at this news. Father Willibald closed his eyes and nodded.
“It is the truth,” he said. “One who was God’s servant has burned my church.”
Asa and Ylva began to weep loudly, for it seemed to them a terrible thing that this priest should have given himself so utterly to the Devil’s service.
Olof Summerbird ground his teeth and drew his sword slowly from its sheath. Reversing it, he rested it hilt-downwards on the floor and crossed his hands upon its point.
“This I swear,” he said. “I shall not sit at table, nor sleep in a bed, nor take pleasure in anything, until my sword stands in the body of this man called Rainald, who was a priest of God, and who has stolen Ludmilla Ormsdotter. And if Christ helps me, so that I find her again, I shall follow Him for the rest of my days.”
1. The dragon who guarded the Nibelungs’ gold.
CHAPTER TEN
HOW THEY SETTLED ACCOUNTS WITH THE CRAZY MAGISTER
AS soon as the news spread of the attack on Gröning and of Orm’s return, neighbors came flocking to the house with men and horses, anxious to help him secure a good vengeance. Such opportunities, they complained, occurred all too seldom nowadays, and they greatly looked forward to what might come of it. Those who were Christians said that they were entitled to a share in the vengeance because of what had been done to their priest and church. Orm bade them all welcome and said that he was only waiting for the return of Toke and the others before setting forth.
On the third day, toward evening, Toke returned. They had followed the tracks of the bandits far to the north and east; and their best news was that they had with them Torgunn, Rapp’s widow, whom they had found starving and half-dead in the wild country. She had escaped from the bandits and had run and walked as far as her legs would take her. Toke’s men had taken turns carrying her back, and three of them had already proposed marriage to her, which had revived her spirits; but none of them, they said sadly, had seemed to her to be as good a man as Rapp.
She had important information to give them. Father Willibald was right; the man whom they called the magister was the chieftain of the band. He had recognized her and had spoken with her while they were returning to the bandits’ village. He told her that he had renounced God and could now do whatsoever he wished. He had burned the church in order to drive God out of the district; for, now that that was destroyed, there was no church standing within many miles.
His band, Torgunn continued, consisted of outlaws, criminals, and all kinds of ne’er-do-wells, some from as far distant as West Guteland and Njudung, who had sought shelter with him and now lived by plundering. They were strong in numbers and feared no man, and the magister wielded great power over them.
Of Ludmilla she could tell them little, save that she had been in good heart and had threatened the magister and the rest of them with speedy retribution. While the bandits were taking them back to their village, the great hounds had overtaken them. Several of the bandits had been bitten, one to death, and the hounds had driven off a number of the cattle, which had greatly angered their captors. She and Ludmilla had tried to run away during the confusion, but had been recaptured.
At length they had arrived at the bandits’ village, which lay near the northern tip of a great lake, which they had had on their right hand during the final stages of the journey. The bandits called their village Priestby. There Torgunn had been allotted to a man called Saxulf, a large, coarse churl of evil disposition. He had tied her up and thrown her on to a pile of skins in his cottage. In the evening he had come to her drunk. He had untied her arms and legs, but had brought neither meat nor drink for her. She had realized that she was now a widow; nevertheless, it had irked her to be forced to lie with a man who conducted himself so coarsely. Accordingly, a short while after he fell asleep, she had slipped out from under the skins and, looking round for a weapon, had happened upon a rolling-pin. Strengthened by God, and also by her hatred of the man and her desire to avenge Rapp, she had hit Saxulf over the head with this pin. He had not uttered a sound, but had merely twitched his limbs. Then she had crept out into the night and escaped from the village without being observed. She had made what speed she could for a day and more, following the tracks along which they had come, terrified lest they might be after her, with nothing to eat save a few cranberries she picked from hedges; then, overcome by exhaustion, she had lain down, unable to move farther, expecting death from starvation and fatigue, or possibly from the jaws of wild beasts, until Blackhair and his men found her and gave her food. She had had to ride home on the men’s shoulders; now, however, she was already beginning to recover from this dreadful experience.
Such was Torgunn’s story, and it told them what they most wished to know: where the bandits’ hide-out lay. Men who had been along their track, and who knew the country, said that the great lake she spoke of was that called Asnen; and two of Olof Summerbird’s men claimed to know those deserted parts and a way by which the place might be reached. They undertook to lead Orm and his companions there. The best plan, they said, would be to turn off after the first day’s march and proceed westwards, coming upon the bandits from that direction. Orm and the others thought this a wise suggestion, for by this means they would trap them with the lake at their backs.
Orm counted his men and found they numbered one hundred and twelve. The next day, he declared, they would set forth. Fearing for the safety of his Bulgar gold, he took Toke, Olof, and Blackhair with him late that evening, when all the rest of the men were asleep, and hid the chests in a safe hiding-place in the forest, far from all paths and tracks, a spot to which no man ever came. His great hoard of silver he did not think worth hiding; for he had lost his fear of silver, he said, and was content to let it lie in Ylva’s coffers, though the house would only be guarded by the few men who were to be left behind.
The next morning, before dawn, all the men were up and ready. There was some delay, however, before they could start out, for Orm was intending to take the great hounds with him, and they had first to acquaint themselves with all the strangers in the party, so that there might be no misunderstandings and the wrong men bitten. The hounds took but a few moments to accustom themselves to most of the men, merely sniffing them two or three times; but others they were more suspicious of and snarled fearfully at, appearing unwilling to accept them as people who ought not to be killed immediately. This caused much hilarity, for the men whom the hounds distrusted grew surly, claiming that they smelled as good as the next man, and words were exchanged on this subject.
At length, however, everything was ready, and the band set out, the hounds being led by men whom they knew well.
They followed the track by which the bandits had gone, continuing thus the whole day, until they came near the place where Torgunn had been found. There they encamped for the night. Next morning they turned off to the left, with Olof’s two knowledgeable men leading them. They proceeded for three days across hard country through marshland and dense forest, broken by steep hills, without seeing a house or meeting a man. The hounds knew what they were hunting and ignored all scent of game; it was a great virtue with them that when they were hunting men, they uttered no sound until the moment when they were slipped from their leashes.