Orm repeated all that she had said to Toke, who listened with a contented expression. When Orm had finished, Toke said: ‘You see how lucky I am with women! But she is the best I ever saw, and you may tell her that I said so. Do you suppose that she intends to make me an important man in this country of hers?’
Orm replied that she had said nothing about that; then, after repeating Toke’s compliment to her, he begged her to tell them what had happened to her since they had parted on the seashore.
‘The ship’s captain brought me hither to Cordova,’ she said. ‘Nor did he lay his hand on me, although he had forced me to stand naked before him, for he knew that I would make a fine gift for him to present to his master, the Grand Vizier. Now, therefore, I belong to the Grand Vizier of the Caliph, who is called Almansur and is the most powerful man in the whole of the Caliph’s dominions. He, after first instructing me in the teaching of the Prophet, raised me from a slave-girl to be his chief wife, since he found that my beauty exceeded that of all his other women. Praised be Allah for it! So, you have brought me luck, for, if you had not come to destroy my father’s fortress, I would still be living in daily dread of my father, and would have had some bad man forced on me as a husband, for all my beauty. When, therefore, Solomon, who makes my finest jewellery, informed me that you were still alive, I resolved to give you such assistance as lay within my power.’
‘We have three persons to thank for freeing us from the galley-benches,’ said Orm. ‘Yourself, Solomon, and a man from Malaga called Khalid. Now, though, we know that it was your word that counted for most; therefore, we give our chief thanks to you. It was lucky for us that we met such people as you and these two poets, for otherwise we should still be straining upon our benches, with naught but death to hope for. We shall be proud to enter your lord’s service, and to aid him against his enemies. But we are surprised that you succeeded in persuading him to release us, for all the power you wield; for we seamen from the north are regarded here as great enemies, and have been so ever since the days of the sons of Ragnar Hairy-Breeks.’
Subaida replied: ‘You did my lord Almansur a great service when you took my father’s fortress, for he would not else have known that I existed. Besides this, it is well known among the people of this country that the men of the north keep their word and are brave warriors. Both the Caliph Abderrachman the Great, and his father, the Emir Abdullah, had many Northmen in their bodyguards, for in those days your countrymen harried our Spanish coasts sorely; but of late, few Northmen have been seen in these parts, so there are now none of them in the royal bodyguard. If you serve my lord Almansur faithfully and well, you will be richly rewarded, and the captain of the guard will give you and your men full armour and fine weapons. But first, I have a gift for each of you.’
She beckoned to one of the slaves who stood beside the litter, and he brought forward two swords, with splendidly ornamented scabbards and belts embossed with heavy silver buckles. One of these she gave to Toke, and the other to Orm. They accepted them joyfully, for they had felt naked with no swords at their waists during the years that had passed. They drew them forth from their scabbards, examining the blades closely, and weighing them in their hands. Solomon looked at the swords, and said: ‘These were forged in Toledo, where the best smiths in the world, both in silver and in steel, work. They still make swords straight there, as was the fashion in the time of the Gothic kings, before the servants of the Prophet came to this land. No smith alive forges a finer sword than these.’
Toke laughed aloud for joy, and began to mutter to himself. At length, he said:
‘Long have the warrior’s hands
Known the oar’s timber.
See how they laugh to hold
Once more the war-man’s blade.’
Orm was anxious not to be outdone as a poet, so he reflected for a few minutes and then, holding his sword before his face, said:
‘The sword the fair one gave me
I raise with my left hand,
Like Tyr among the immortals.
The serpent has won back his sting.’
Subaida laughed, and said: ‘Giving a man a sword is like giving a woman a looking-glass; they have eyes left for nothing else. But it is good to see gifts so gratefully received. May they bring you luck.’
Then, their meeting ended, for Subaida said that the time had come for her to bid them farewell, though it might chance that sometime they would meet again. So she stepped into her litter, and was borne away.
As they returned with Solomon to his house, the three of them were loud in their praise of Subaida and of the costly presents she had given them. Solomon explained that he had known her for more than a year, and had often sold her jewellery. He had realized from the first that she was the same girl that Toke had won in the cruel margrave’s fortress, although her beauty had greatly increased since then. Toke said: ‘She is fair and kind, and does not forget those who take her fancy. It is a hard thing for me to see her again, knowing that she is the wife of a great lord. Still, I am glad she does not belong to that pot-bellied old goat with the silver hammer who captured us. I should not have liked that. But all in all, I cannot complain, for the girl Solomon has found for me suits me very well.’
Orm questioned the Jew concerning Subaida’s lord, Almansur, asking how he could be the mightiest man in the land. Surely the Caliph must be more powerful than he? Solomon, however, explained how the matter lay. The previous Caliph, Hacham the Learned, the son of Abderracham the Great, had been a great ruler, despite the fact that he had spent most of his time reading books and conversing with learned men. On his death, he had left no heir save an infant son, named Hischam, who was the present Caliph. Now Hacham had ordained that his most trusted counsellor, together with his favourite wife, who was the child’s mother, should rule until Hischam came of age. Unfortunately, these two had so enjoyed the exercise of their power that they had imprisoned the young Caliph in a castle, on the pretext that he was of too holy a nature to be bothered with earthly matters. This counsellor had, in his capacity as regent of the realm, won many victories against the Christians in the north, as a result of which he had received the title of Almansur, meaning ‘the conqueror.’ The Queen, the young Caliph’s mother, had for a long time past loved Almansur above all other earthly things, but he had become weary of her, for she was older than he and inclined, besides, to be captious about the division of power; so now she had been imprisoned, like her son, and Almansur ruled alone in the land as the Caliph’s regent. Many of his subjects hated him for what he had done to the Caliph and the Queen Mother, but many loved him for the victories he had gained against the Christians; and he was a good master to his bodyguard, for he relied on them as a shield against all who treasured envy and hatred towards him. Orm and his men might, therefore, expect to prosper in Almansur’s palace while there was peace, in addition to all the fighting that they could wish for, since, each spring, Almansur set forth with a mighty army, either against the King of Asturia and the Count of Castile, or against the King of Navarre and the Counts of Aragon, far away in the north near the border country of the Franks. All these monarchs lived in perpetual dread of him, and were glad to pay him tribute in order to make him postpone his visits.
‘But they do not find it easy to buy him off,’ continued Solomon, ‘the reason for this being that he is a very unhappy man. He is powerful and victorious, and has succeeded in every enterprise to which he has laid his hand; but, in spite of all this, everyone knows that he is plagued by an incessant fear. For he has turned his hand against the Caliph, who is the shadow of the Prophet, and has stolen his power from him; on account