The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-05-30

i The white bear spied her at the same i moment and rolled toward her Well would it have been for Hereward if the fairy bear had been little more swift and had smitten Alftruda down in her in- noeence but the wake shouted. and the bear turned.
 All the ladies, looking from the loop holes. screamed aloud. The knights did not scream, but waited with great resig- nation. The next instant the fairy bear stood up, lifted his iron talons good i two feet higher than the wakes head and l came down.
 Hereward struck ioyously. The dull crash of the steel was followed by a jar that shook him. Then the blade jammed tight The handle of the sword was torn i. out of his hand as the fairy bear toppled to one side dead.
 T have done it!' shouted Hereward. If I met Odin I would fight with odin" Nightly he boasted, and this did not | endear him to the knights any more 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 a greater deed than that. For this back-handed compliment the knights decided to punish him. A few waylaid him, and they got such les son that they were nicknamed sadly ever after, and none at court cared to try 1t again.
 Hereward, however, had enough of jeal- a,,-,r an,5 f11 blood U,ba4el, C.iIhor-t nd his lady entreated him to stay, he armed 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 kinglet who needed the help of just such a young volfs head as this
 He killed Pict giant and rescued a Princess of Cornwall. and thus won the gratitude of her betrothed. sygtryg, son of King Ranald of Waterford, in Ire land.
 They liked him there at that court of Danish vikings and fork boards. Look at mel" sang he. q am Hereward the outlaw; I am the champion; I am the Berserker, 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 Cadfz and Algiersl" "Hark to the Viking Hark to the right Earrs sonr' shouted the Danes. So King
  had married his enemies so dutifully that 1 there was not sucking pig left on the 1 lands of his Irish foes. gave him two long | ships, and Hereward swept forth to sea.
 After a while he steered for his home coast, partly through homesickness and partly to show them what manner of man he was, now that his name was in the mouths of all fighters and sea rovers, who said that he would equal the great Harold Hardraade himself. He would go home and be kind to his mother, if she were properly regretful for what she had done if not. he would swagger through l the land "a bit, defying men to treat him as outlaw.
 But there was misadventure They got l little plunder on the way and many blows 1 Then witch whale began to follow l them and rolled and spouted and preached around their course day after | day till the western wind backed against 1 the sun. Hereward 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 | alone to fight the storm. Hereward held the huge helm and sang louder than the 1 gale, taunting the witch whale and chal- lenging 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 a sudden they saw an ugly sight-a long line of yellow sand behind gray l 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 i'm prisonment and torture from the natives for the petty counts of French and Flemish coasts made thrifty trade of torturing shipwrecked men for ransom or else selling them for slaves.
 "Axmen and bowmen," said Hereward 'on with your harness. We will die fighting"
 The men yelled. The oarsmen stood or 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 Viking ship high on the beach and the men tumbled< in a heap but instantly they were up and out witt shields and swords deadly.
 The armed men who awaited them or shore fired an arrow or two, but, befor, fighting could begin, a mounted party came down. A pretty, sweet-faced boy called to Hereward and told him that h, was Arnulf grandson and heir of tn, Marquis of Flanders.
 T have longed to see real Vikings, cried he, with his lonk locks blowing il the breeze and his young eyes a-shining T long to be Viking myself! You shal
 be my brothers.'
 So Hereward and his men took servict with Baldwin of Flanders. who welcomed him royalty when he learned that the Vilz , ing was the son of the Earl Geofric o i Mereia and Chester, and sent him off tC | exterminate the wicked Hollanders wh, refused most extensively to be enslaved.
 Herewards prowess. Herewards songs
 Hereward's strange adventures, becam topics for all ladies at the court of Elan ders in St. Omer. The stories interested