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The hostess offered many dishes; she carried them about incessantly, and urged every one to take of them. At last the host took the King and Berthar to his room; there the three sat down by a small table, and he gave them mugs of strong mead, black with age, and thick as honey just dropped from the comb. "This drink was brewed by my mother when she came to this house," he said, in commendation of it. He raised his mug, drank the health of his guests, and began solemnly:

"Our ancients tell us that once upon a time a god created the nobles, the free peasants, and the serfs, when he was wandering over the garden of the earth. To each he gave special gifts: to you nobles to lead the people in battle, where we follow you; to us, on the other hand, to manage the fields in summer and winter; to the serfs to work carefully with bent backs. Neither the noble nor the free peasant can do without the other. You heroes could not gain fame if we did not follow you on the battle-ground, and we could not cultivate the soil in safety if you did not preserve us, by counsel and arms, from hostile neighbors. You have the most honor in battle --- for seldom does the minstrel celebrate the warlike dees of the peasant; but your life is without repose, and restlessly do the families of the nobles move about, while we dwell lastingly on our acres; and if the host is slain, and his house burned, yet his sons walk in the shoes of their fathers, and build and establish themselves again upon the land."

The guests were pleased with this excellent speech, and nodded their approbation.

Bero continued cautiously:

"Now, ye heroes, I have watched you for many weeks, and have perceived and learned that you think rightly, and live with good discipline; therefore I think we might well be useful to one another. Hope nothing from our nobles; many among them know not how to help themselves; and expect nothing from the King, for he suspects and envies every one who does not serve him. Seek therefore your safety with the peasants. When I led thee, Hero Berthar, from the South, I spoke to thee a little of my secret, as one speaks to a stranger; but today I will fully confide in thee. I have been guest friend, as were my ancestors, with the freemen at Idisbach. They belong to an honest people called the Marvingians. They are blood-relations to us Thuringians, but for a long time they have dwelt by themselves in the valleys by the stream of Idis --- one of the mighty Weird Sisters. They have for years lost their race of Princes and their best warriors, because these became hostile to them, and went westward, among the Franks, for game and booty.

"Since then, those that remained behind have been oppressed by our settlers on the other side of the mountains, and southward, toward the Main, by the Burgundians. The double oppression has become insupportable to them, and a portion are preparing secretly, when the trees become green again, also to travel away, and follow the Prince. Therefore in the autumn I rode over the mountains, in order to exchange horses and draft-oxen for their swine, which they could not slaughter themselves. There I saw delightful meadow-land to be bought cheap, and I thought of the boys on my manor. But my guest-friends complained to me -- such of them as wished to remain in the land of their fathers --- that their small swarm of bees were in want of a queen bee; for they are without a race of Princes who could maintain friendship for them with the neighbors, or lead them in glorious struggles against the rapacious nobles on the boundary. But the peasants of Idisthal will not become Thuringians nor Burgundians, but keep their own customs; and would rather ally themselves to a foreign race than to our nobles; but least of all with our King. Therefore I think of thee, Hero Ingo; for there are few of you, and more of them; and you could not oppress them. There I advise you to go in the spring. Whether it will be for your welfare you must judge yourself; but to those who would cultivate the land it would be an advantage, and therefore I counsel it to you."

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