The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-05-30

dead.
 T have done itY shouted Hereward.
 If met odin would fight odinr"
 Mighty he boasted, and this did not endear him to the knights any mora
 than did the kisses which the ladies' lavished on him.
 Gilbert would have knighted him,
 but Hereward declined and said that he would win his spurs by greater deed than that. For this back handed compliment the knights decided to punish him. A few waylaid him, and they got such lesson that they were nick-named sadly ever after, and none at court cared to try 1t again. Hereward. however. had enough of
 jealousy and i'll blood. Though Gii- bert and lis lady entreatei him to
 stay, he a ned himself cap-a-pie and
 rode away and never saw the Scottish shore again.
 He went southwest and fought and drank and sang and boasted and fought again on the Cornish coast. where there was a kinglet who needed
 the help of just such young wolfs
 head as this.
 He killed Pict giant and rescued
 Princess of Cornwall, and thus won the gratitude of her betrothed. Syg-
 tryg, son of King Ranald of Water
 ford, in Ireland.
 They liked him there at that court of Danish vikings and fork boards.
 Look at mel" sang he. T am Here
 ward the outlaw. I am the champion
 I am the Berserker, I am the Viking,
 am the land thief. the sea thief, the bear slayer, the darling of the wolf. the curse of the widow! Be my men and follow me over the swans road, over the whales path, over the long
 snakes leap. and we will freight our
 ships with Moorish maidens and the gold of Cadiz and Agiers.!" "Hark to the Viking! Hark to the
 right EarPs son!" shouted the Danes.
 to King Ranald grateful to the Ber-
 serker who had harried his enemies so dutifully that there was not sucking pig left on the lands of his Irish foes gave him two long ships, and Here ward swept forth to sea.
 | After while he steered for his
 home coast, partly through homesick- ness and partly to show them what l manner of man he was, now that his name was in the mouths of all fight CTS and sea rovers, who said that he | would equal the great Harold Hard raade himself He would go home and l be kind to his mother, if she were l properly regretful for what she had | done, if not he would swagger through 1 the land bit, defying men to treat | him as outlaw.
 But there was misadventure. They | got little plunder on the way and many blows. Then a witch whale be- | gan following them and rolled and | spouted and preached around their ! course day after. day till the western
 wind backed against the sun. Here ! ward was for running the witch down | with his ship and breaking her back
 nobly. but the men would not. The wind grew worse. One ship. | the Garpike. went ashore and left the Otter alone tasfight the storm. Here
 ward held the huge helm and sang louder than the gale. taunting the witch whale and challenging the | spirits of land and sea.
 So they drove through mist and cloud till no man knew where they were. The Otter rolled the lee-shields | under and men were swept off now | and then. All of sudden they saw | an, ugly sight-a long. line of yell l low sand behind gray smoke of surf that ran high, green hills. It was the French coast, and since | they could not keep the ship off they
 knew that the sand meant drowning | or imprisonment and torture from the I natives, for the petty counts of French
 and Flemish coasts made thrifty | trade of torturing shipwrecked men | l slaves.
 "Axmen and ,bowmen," said Here ward Ion with your harness. We will die fighting"
 The men yelled. The oarsmen stood on the thwarts to tug their oars and drive into the wild surf. Suddenly she struck. the oars snapped right | and left, a huge wave drove the Vik- | ing ship high on the beach and the men tumbled in heap. but instantly they were up and out with shields | and swords ready.
 The armed men. who awaited them l on shore fired an arrow or two, but | before fighting could begin, a mount | ed party came down. A pretty sweet | faced boy called to Hereward and | told him that he was Arnulf, grandson
 and heir of the Marquis of Flanders. | T have longed to see real Vikings?
 cried he, with his long locks blowing | shining. q long to be Viking my self You shall be my brothers!" 1 So Herewari and his men took ser | vice. with Baldwin of Flanders, who l welcomed him proudly when he learn l ed that the Viking was the son of | the Earl Geofric of Mercia and Ches- ter, and sent him off to exterminaAe | the wicked Holianders who refused | most extensively to be enslaved. l Herewards prowess, Hereward's l songs, Afterwards strange adventures
 became topics for all ladies at the | court of Flanders in St. Omer. The
 stories interested even Torfrida, the
 niece of the great Abbot of St. Der tin and the greatest heiress in all the
 country around. She peeped at him
 and sthaightway loved him with all | her heart and soul.
 Now many lances had been splinter
 ed, many helmets had been splitter and
 more than one life had spilled away on the sands in her honor, but she l had remained quite proof against love.
 Baldwin of Flanders and her uncle
 had tried to compel her to marry, but
 she pulled and coaxed them success l fully. AS the best safeguard she
 could devise, she had bestowed scrap | of ribbon on the most renowned bull ly of the land, Ascelin, tall knight of | St. Valeri, and though she gave the
 poor fool no other encouragement, he | kept the rest of the admirers well | away from her after that.
 | Hereward looked at her and at her l dark blue eyes and her glorious black l hair. Straightway he thought her the
 fairest thing he had ever seen. And
 so he fell in love head over heels-a | proper punishment for having treated l pretty ladies very rudely and tniif- | ferently until then.
 If Torfrida could have foreseen what was to happen to her through
 her love-well. like a true woman. | she would have done exactly what she did, and taken the bitter with the sweet, as we must all do in life un- less we wish to live and die alone. It was not long before Hereward | annaara,7 hafora her with her rfhhan