CHAPTER XXXIII.
But, eagerly as Saturninus watched for the galleys expected fromArbor, another was to learn their anticipated departure long before heknew of it. This was Duke Hariowald.
On a wooded hill, the hill of Zio, named the Geerebuehl, east of theHoly Mountain, almost directly opposite to Arbor, a little band ofAlemanni spies watched night and day, one, relieved every hour, gazingsteadily across the lake at the Hill of Mercury, the nearest heightsouth of Arbor on the southern shore of the lake.
The region around this harbor fortress, which was wholly under Romanrule, was inhabited by colonists of various tribes: among them manyAlemanni whom capture, or voluntary surrender and removal, had led tothe better-tilled, more richly cultivated southern shore.
Hariowald came out of his tent in full armor (during the past week hehad scarcely removed it night or day), with his battle helmet on hisnoble head. This helmet was a very strange one: whoever unexpectedlysaw it gleam before him might well be startled.
In those days, as well as now, the great white owl was a rare visitorto Lake Constance. Scarcely once in a decade did this stranger from thefar north go so far southwest in its migratory flight as theneighborhood of the Alps. Early in the winter of the previous yearAdalo had brought down with his arrow a magnificent specimen of thesuperb bird of prey from a tall fir-tree in the forest by the lake, andgiven the huge bird with its gleaming snow-white plumage, marked onlywith a few rusty brown feathers in undulating lines on the breast, tohis white-haired cousin as a splendid ornament for his helmet.
The owl now spread above the bronze head-piece its huge pinions which,though not stretched to their full width, extended more than threefeet. It was not mounted as eagle and swan wings usually were, with thetips of the feathers toward the back of the helmet, but in the oppositeway, turned forward, startling and confusing the spectator by thethreatening attitude--a true helmet of terror, such as Odin wears whenhe rushes into battle at the head of his troops.
The warriors flocked from all sides, fully armed, swiftly climbing themountain; only the guards needed to protect the fords across theswamps, the barricades, and the narrow entrances to the ring wallsremained behind. All pressed up the mountain and, as soon as theyreached the summit, surged toward a giant ash-tree which, from the topof the loftiest mountain peak, thrust its branches into the clouds.
Close to its trunk a sort of judge's tribunal had been built of largestones; an oblong one rested like a back against the tree; another ofthe same height, laid across two blocks sunk in the earth, formed theseat.
Several stone steps led up to the high seat, and on them lay variousweapons, among them one very plain shield and spear, with the rune_fe_, corresponding to the Latin _F_. Then came a costly boar helmet, arichly ornamented bronze shield, covered with a boar's hide and, likethe helmet, decorated with two boar's tusks outstretched defiantly; asword in a costly sheath of polished linden wood, richly mounted withbronze; a sharp battle axe and a spear, the handles of both adorned andstrengthened by gilded nails: these weapons bore as a house-markdrawings of two boar tusks. Last of all were a small, very light roundshield, a short spear, and a dainty sword with a white leather beltpainted with red lead: each of the three weapons bore as house-mark astag's antlers.
The whole top of the peak around the tree was inclosed and girdled by"cords and staves"; that is, by hazel wands and spears, which--thelatter with the iron points uppermost--stood thrust into the earth atdistances of seven feet apart, and were bound together by linen bandsalmost a hand's breadth wide, knotted around the middle of the staffs,the red hue of the bands proclaiming that the popular assembly was tojudge matters of life and death.