din's will, I think, is different for
our people. Ebarbold has no descendants: after his death I will propose
that they shall not elect another king.

"That will be well; for the time is close at hand, though, it is true,
not yet fully here, when one king, a single one, will gather all the
districts of the Alemanni under his rule. The path will be more open,
easier for this universal king to traverse, the fewer kings and the
more counts rule the districts. We two will smooth, not block, the path
for the future king of the people. No, no! And, besides, the men of the
Ebergau must not say: 'Ebarbold was forced to fall because Hariowald
wished to be called King.'

"That king of the people is coming! Then, it is true, the nation will
scarcely remember me or you. Only perhaps some harper, in the hall of
the One King, will sing how Hariowald, the old chief and Adalo, the
young one, defeated the Romans three times in a single night. But we,
Adalo, shall then look down upon the free land of the Alemanni,
stretching from the Alps to the Vosges. We shall look down from Odin's
table. And I may probably expect that, when I cross the threshold of
Valhalla, the Lofty One will rise from his throne and come to meet me,
with the drinking-horn in his hand. For many men--far more through my
counsel, which always advised war, than by my spear--have I sent up to
him by the red death in the last fifty years, to fill his hall and
increase his army. Yes, my Adalo, we shall then look down upon the
glory of our people and say, laughing joyously: 'We two also helped to
build it that night on the Idisenhang.'

"So, Adalo, so I praise you: your cheek is glowing, your eye is
flashing! That is the right spirit, Odin's spirit, which is now taking
possession of you. And that alone, that ardor for battle, will also
give you the most ardent desire of your heart; not the dull despair of
the last few days, in which, unhappy youth, you sent that secret
message to the two Roman Generals!

"Hush! Of course I knew it. It was not difficult to guess the contents
of the letter you forwarded after they had disdained everything else
you had to give. But I also knew positively that they would refuse you
too. That is the sole reason I allowed your messenger to pass through
the barricades, as you thought, undetected. I too would gladly see her
at liberty, the wild red rosebud of the hillside by the lake, the red
flower in our people's garland of oak-leaves. But yo