Though I should perish under those accursed walls; though you in your soulless patience should refuse me protection and aid; I, widowed, weakened, forsaken as I am, will hold to the fulfilment of my oath!' As she ceased she folded the crest in her mantle, and turned abruptly from Hermanric in bitter and undissembled scorn.

All the attributes of her sex, in thought, expression, and manner, seemed to have deserted her.

The very tones she spoke in were harsh and unwomanly.
Every word she had uttered, every action she had displayed, had sunk into the inmost heart, had stirred the fiercest passions of the young warrior whom she addressed.

The first national sentiment discoverable in the day-spring of the ages of Gothic history, is the love of war; but the second is the reverence of woman.

This latter feeling--especially remarkable among so fierce and unsusceptible a people as the ancient Scandinavians--was entirely unconnected with those strong attaching ties, which are the natural consequence of the warm temperaments of more southern nations; for love was numbered with the base inferior passions, in the frigid and hardy composition of the warrior of the north.