“You are proud,” answered the sea-monarch; “but I should speak falsely if I said that I could blame you for this. Let me then make to you one proposal, Sir Knight of Trautwangen. The people of the Finland frontiers, and also many inhabitants of North Sweden, are still blind and obstinate Pagans and idolaters. I have promised my assistance to conquer and convert them; and in this undertaking you would meet with adventures as full of danger and renown as you can desire. Sir Heerdegen also, had he not been bound by his vows to search after you, was to have joined me there in summer. In that land we shall doubtless perform many glorious achievements for the honour of our holy faith, and many a trophy will be won. Thither then let us go together.” Sir Otto sat for a space in silence; but, as he perceived that the sea-monarch looked at him doubtfully and with surprise, he blushed deeply, and said,--“You perhaps believe, Sir Knight of the Sea, that when I speak of campaigns here or there, or gaining victories, that I am not in earnest, and that I am to be numbered among those poltrons who speak readily enough of the most terrific exploits, and would yet faint with terror, if one informed them, that the dangers which they pretend to wish for were likely to draw near. Is this now your judgement of me?” “Sir Otto von Trautwangen,” said the sea-monarch, “I have travelled in quest of you through the whole past winter. Such duty, it is certain, that I would not have performed for the sake of a caitiff such as you have even now described; for, in truth, the task would have been to me as painful as it would be for a sea-lion to remain five long months without the sight of the salt water. Yet that I am surprised at your hesitation to engage in a campaign so honourable, is a truth which I cannot deny, and I would gladly learn the reasons thereof.” “I shall answer you without hesitation,” said Sir Otto, “though at the risk, perhaps, of appearing very childish in your opinion. In truth, then, the golden vulture’s wings on your helmet are alone the cause of my doubts whether I should go with you to Finland. Even now, when their gigantic shadow fell betwixt me and the fire-light, I could not help shuddering at the recollection, how many frightful stories my father has related of a man tall as you are in stature, and who wore the same strange head-piece. Mark you, Sir Arinbiorn, my father is a courageous old hero, of a buoyant spirit; and there are indeed few thoughts by which his countenance can be changed; yet when he speaks of the man with the vulture’s wings his large dark eyes are full of horror, and he stares at some dark corner of his ancestral hall, as if he expected that his spectral opponent were ready to start out against him.” “What then has your father related of this man?” inquired the sea-monarch, with a melancholy smile.