Category: Historical Novels
“_Speak! speak! thou fearful guest! Who, with thy hollow breast Still in rude armor drest, Comest to daunt me! Wrapt not in Eastern balms, But with thy fleshless palms Stretched, as if asking alms, Why dost thou haunt me?_”
“_Speak! speak! thou fearful guest! Who, with thy hollow breast Still in rude armor drest, Comest to daunt me! Wrapt not in Eastern balms, But with thy fleshless palms Stretched...
2. Part 2Had it blazed its path with axes, the cavalcade would scarcely have left a plainer track. Wherever foot and hoof had failed to print themselves on the path of leathery leaves, t...
3. Part 3A wrinkle of displeasure marred the satin smoothness of her forehead. “That speech would make your fortune with my brother. Pray keep such word-flourishes for him. I would show...
4. Part 4“A wolf?” He rose to his feet, bent to pick up a brand. Then as his gaze followed her finger, he dropped the wood impatiently. “It is the fire dazzling you. There is no wolf the...
5. Part 5“I thought I felt a place—stand still!—over your heart. It would be a death wound, indeed. _There!_ Cold! A spot as cold as Hel’s mouth!” She opened eyes dilated with excitement...
6. Part 6“Since Helvin, Starkad’s son, has been likened to a captive eagle, it would not be amiss to call this fellow an eagle of the forest that has come to perch beside him because of...
7. Part 7“Make me a song in tune with the forest, Songsmith,” she requested. “Olaf’s French ballads that chime so well with my bower sound in this place like the tinkling of bells, thoug...
8. Part 8She took her hands from her bosom to wring them. “How can you be certain of that? Your mind is shapen altogether like a dream-spinner’s, that believes good of every one—of savag...
9. Part 9His ruddy face thrice ruddy with cold, Bolverk, the guardsman, came stamping into the great trading-booth, kicked the door shut upon the ice-bound out-of-doors and let go a shiv...
10. Part 10“Oh my comrade, what shall I do to ease you?” he said. “Will you that I should grapple with you and pluck out the barb, though your heart-roots come with it? Or are there any ki...
11. Part 11The end of the sentence was that his gay tunic lay on the ground and he stood forth in his shirt of fine linen, his arms locked upon his sturdy chest. From that attitude he did...
12. Part 12“Lord!” he said in amazement. “Lord, what should I explain?” then, incredulously, “This cannot be because I am a half-day late! No stress was laid upon the time—no need of haste...
13. Part 13The craving for combat—like fire it was fanned in him by the dry gusts. He drew breath sharply when following a narrow wood-trail brought him suddenly into the highway and face...
14. Part 14“What I should do is to be grateful that I was hindered from killing the boy. To have had that news come to Erna’s ears—” She felt the muscles harden in his arm with the clinchi...
15. Part 15“Now I see by your dismay at finding how near you had come to betraying me that it was neither madness nor treachery that prompted you, but the awful knowledge working in you as...
16. Part 16“It would not be difficult for me to hide among these trees. For another reason I am pleased with myself for thinking of this disguise. Without it, I should never have been able...
17. Part 17“I take friendship and help where I find them freest and truest, and I expect evil from the quarter whence evil has risen against me before. Though you come in the name of the J...