ited for the darkness. My fever had
left me; I could walk slowly, but faithful Zercho sought our cow and
found her among the tall reeds in the swamp, lifted me upon her and, by
a wide circuit through the forest, brought me here."

"For I had seen Italian galleys between the forest hut and Suomar in
the eastern marshes," remarked the Sarmatian. "The enemy was
reconnoitring there, so I tried to reach the mountain, as my mistress
preferred."

"Yes; for since Suomar, my son, cannot be reached, it is you, Adalo,
of all the men of our people, our kind neighbor, the playfellow of
her childhood, to whom I must lament. The dear one is a captive:
help--rescue--liberate her."

The youth passed his hand sadly over his beautifully arched eyebrows.
"Yes," he thought, with bitter grief, "a captive through the fault of
her own defiance and obstinacy." But he said nothing, only thinking:
"It will be a difficult task. If it depended upon me--from the moment I
heard it I would have stormed the Idisenhang so constantly and fiercely
that the Italians would have had neither inclination nor leisure to
torment the child. Or to win her," he added bitterly. "But the army is
under the sole command of my cousin Hariowald, the Duke. I cannot--"

Here a low growl interrupted him: he turned and saw a singular
spectacle.

CHAPTER XVIII.

A handsome boy about fourteen, whose strong resemblance to Adalo marked
him as his brother--only his curling locks were light yellow, almost
white--was dragging by the ear a huge she-bear, which, growling,
struggling, but yielding, allowed herself to be drawn nearer and nearer
to the fire.

"Down, Bruna!" cried the lad, forcing the huge animal to lie prostrate.
"You dearly loved the merry, dancing girl too. Look, you growling brown
giantess, that's only the grandmother, and Zercho, who always brought
you so much wild-honey from the bee-wood. But _she_ is missing; our
Bissula is gone. Ah, if you had been there, you would have defended her
savagely; for you haven't forgotten that she and Adalo saved you,
dragged you out of the torrent. When you were scarcely bigger than a
kitten the cloud-burst swept you away from your mother, and you cried
piteously as you were drowning. And her busy hands fed you even more
eagerly than ours, with rich milk, rye bread, and dainty wild berries.
Since you first opened your blinking eyes, which now look as though you
knew as much as a human being,