"The Viking sails alone to the grave of his fathers!" he with a serene
and proud smile. "Alone--alone! Neither wife, nor child, nor vassal may
have place with him in his ship--even so have the gods willed it.
Farewell, Valdemar! Loosen the ropes and let me go!--thou servest me
ill--hasten--hasten--I am weary of waiting--"
His head fell back,--that mysterious shadow which darkens the face of
the dying a moment before dissolution, was on him now.
Just then a strange, suffocating odor began to permeate the air--little
wreaths of pale smoke made their slow way through the boards of the
deck--and a fierce gust of wind, blowing seawards from the mountains,
swayed the _Valkyrie_ uneasily to and fro. Slowly, and with evident
reluctance, Svensen commenced the work of detaching her from the
pier--feeling instinctively all the while that his master's dying eyes
were fixed upon him. When but one slender rope remained to be cast off,
he knelt by the old man's side said whispered tremblingly that all was
done.
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