de with them, and yet but a few. For they remembered the holy Folk-
mote and the oath of the War-duke, and how they had chosen Otter to be
their leader. Howbeit, man looked askance at man, as if in shame to be
left behind.

But Otter bethought him in the flash of a moment, "If these men ride
alone, they shall die and do nothing; and if we ride with them it may be
that we shall overthrow the Romans, and if we be vanquished, it shall go
hard but we shall slay many of them, so that it shall be the easier for
Thiodolf to deal with them."

Then he spake hastily, and bade certain men abide at the ford for a
guard; then he drew his sword and rode to the front of his folk, and
cried out aloud to them:

"Now at last has come the time to die, and let them of the Markmen who
live hereafter lay us in howe. Set on, Sons of Tyr, and give not your
lives away, but let them be dearly earned of our foemen."

Then all shouted loudly and gladly; nor were they otherwise than
exceeding glad; for now had they forgotten all other joys of life save
the joy of fighting for the kindred and the days to be.

So Otter led them forth, and when he heard the whole company clattering
and thundering on the earth behind him and felt their might enter into
him, his brow cleared, and the anxious lines in the face of the old man
smoothed themselves out, and as he rode along the soul so stirred within
him that he sang out aloud:

"Time was when hot was the summer and I was young on the earth,
And I grudged me every moment that lacked its share of mirth.
I woke in the morn and was merry and all the world methought
For me and my heart's deliverance that hour was newly wrought.
I have passed through the halls of manhood, I have reached the doors
of eld,
And I have been glad and sorry, but ever have upheld
My heart against all trouble that none might call me sad,
But ne'er came such remembrance of how my heart was glad
In the afternoon of summer 'neath the still unwearied sun
Of the days when I was little and all deeds were hopes to be won,
As now at last it cometh when e'en in such-like tide,
For the freeing of my trouble o'er the fathers' field I ride."

Many men perceived that he sang, and saw that he was merry, howbeit few
heard his very words, and yet all were glad of him.

Fast they rode, being wishful to catch up with the Bearings and the
Wormings, and soon they came anigh them, and they, hearing the thun