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[Illustration: "The token of Hilda!"]




                            ULRIC THE JARL:

                    A Story of the Penitent Thief.


                        BY WILLIAM O. STODDARD.

                            [Illustration]


                                LONDON:

         CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, E.C.;

                     AND 26, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

                                 1899.




                    [ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.]


                   HAYMAN, CHRISTY AND LILLY, LTD.,
         HATTON WORKS, 113-115, FARRINGDON ROAD, LONDON, E.C.




                               CONTENTS


  CHAPTER                                                           PAGE

  I.       Around the Viking House-fire                                7

  II.      The Going Out of the Ice                                   17

  III.     The Launching of "The Sword"                               22

  IV.      The Ship "The Sword" and the Ice King                      37

  V.       The Unknown Thing                                          45

  VI.      The Fall of the Ice King                                   53

  VII.     The Living Sand                                            60

  VIII.    The Saxon Shore                                            75

  IX.      The Taking of the Trireme                                  86

  X.       The Great Sacrifice of the Druids                          96

  XI.      The Passing of Lars the Old                               108

  XII.     Svein the Cunning Jarl                                    119

  XIII.    Hilda of the Hundred Years                                127

  XIV.     The Jew and the Greek                                     136

  XV.      The Storm in the Middle Sea                               149

  XVI.     The Dead God in Africa                                    165

  XVII.    The Murmuring of the Men                                  181

  XVIII.   The Evil Spirit on "The Sword"                            193

  XIX.     In the Night and in the Fire                              202

  XX.      Carmel and Esdraelon                                      214

  XXI.     The Rabbi from Nazareth                                   225

  XXII.    The Tomb Song of Sigurd                                   240

  XXIII.   In a Place Apart at Night                                 255

  XXIV.    The Passing of Oswald                                     266

  XXV.     The Messenger of the Procurator                           276

  XXVI.    The Cunning of Julius                                     284

  XXVII.   The Lion and the Tiger                                    296

  XXVIII.  The Jarl and the Rabbi                                    307

  XXIX.    Beautiful as Aphrodite                                    318

  XXX.     The Javelin of Herod                                      330

  XXXI.    The Places of Sacrifice                                   340

  XXXII.   The Mob of Samaria                                        348

  XXXIII.  The House of Pontius the Spearman                         359

  XXXIV.   The School of Gamaliel                                    371

  XXXV.    In the Court of the Women                                 382

  XXXVI.   The Secret Messenger                                      399

  XXXVII.  The House of Ben Ezra                                     411

  XXXVIII. The Son of Abbas                                          422

  XXXIX.   The Passover Feast                                        438

  XL.     "A Little While"                                           448




                             ILLUSTRATIONS


                                                                  FACING
                                                                   PAGE

  "The token of Hilda!"                                     Frontispiece

  "Go forth into the sea, O sword!"                                   31

  "Let him win it or perish!"                                        176

  "O companion of Hilda!"                                            263

  "O thou Jesus, of the sons of the gods!"                           313




                            ULRIC THE JARL.




                              CHAPTER I.

                     AROUND THE VIKING HOUSE-FIRE.


In the Northland were the roots from which grew the great nations
which now rule the earth. The tribes were many, but the principal
representative and the absorbent of their thoughts and their traditions
may receive from us the general name of Saxons. These were the
swordsmen of the sea whom the Roman legionaries declared to be the
hardest fighters they had met, whether on land or water.

In the Northland were also the germs of political and religious
liberty, and here were to be found the first forms of our highest faith.

But the men of the old race sailed southward and then eastward, at the
first, taking their gods with them. Not until centuries later did they
march and conquer this far western world, but we, their children, still
devoutly believe that the great God came with them.

                   *       *       *       *       *

The landward <DW72> of a vast gray granite headland was thickly
covered with towering pine