第89章

At last it flashed across his mind that the wall might have been tampered with.He gave orders that it should be carefully surveyed and examined, but found no traces of a breakage: in fact, the entire room seemed to be whole and unimpaired.For Erik, early in the night, had patched up the damage of the broken wall, that his trick might not be detected.Then the king sent two men privily into the bedroom of Erik to learn the truth, and bade them stand behind the hangings and note all things carefully.They further received orders to kill Erik if they found him with Gunwar.They went secretly into the room, and, concealing themselves in the curtained corners, beheld Erik and Gunwar in bed together with arms entwined.Thinking them only drowsy, they waited for their deeper sleep, wishing to stay until a heavier slumber gave them a chance to commit their crime.Erik snored lustily, and they knew it was a sure sign that he slept soundly; so they straightway came forth with drawn blades in order to butcher him.Erik was awakened by their treacherous onset, and seeing their swords hanging over his head, called out the name of his stepmother, (Kraka), to which long ago he had been bidden to appeal when in peril, and he found a speedy help in his need.For his shield, which hung aloft from the rafter, instantly fell and covered his unarmed body, and, as if on purpose, covered it from impalement by the cutthroats.He did not fail to make use of his luck, but, snatching his sword, lopped off both feet of the nearest of them.Gunwar, with equal energy, ran a spear through the other: she had the body of a woman, but the spirit of a man.

Thus Erik escaped the trap; whereupon he went back to the sea and made ready to sail off by night.But Roller sounded on his horn the signal for those who had been bidden to watch close by, to break into the palace.When the king heard this, he thought it meant that the enemy was upon them, and made off hastily in a ship.Meanwhile Brak, and those who had broken in with him, snatched up the goods of the king, and got them on board Erik's ships.Almost half the night was spent in pillaging.In the morning, when the king found that they had fled, he prepared to pursue them, but was advised by one of his friends not to plan anything on a sudden or do it in haste.His friend, indeed, tried to convince him that he needed a larger equipment, and that it was ill-advised to pursue the fugitives to Denmark with a handful.But neither could this curb the king's impetuous spirit; it could not bear the loss; for nothing had stung him more than this, that his preparations to slay another should have recoiled on his own men.So he sailed to the harbour which is now called Omi.Here the weather began to be bad, provision failed, and they thought it better, since die they must, to die by the sword than by famine.And so the sailors turned their hand against one another, and hastened their end by mutual blows.

The king with a few men took to the cliffs and escaped.Lofty barrows still mark the scene of the slaughter.Meanwhile Erik ended his voyage fairly, and the wedding of Alfhild and Frode was kept.

Then came tidings of an inroad of the Sclavs, and Erik was commissioned to suppress it with eight ships, since Frode as yet seemed inexperienced in war.Erik, loth ever to flinch from any manly undertaking, gladly undertook the business and did it bravely.Learning that the pirates had seven ships, he sailed up to them with only one of his own, ordering the rest to be girt with timber parapets, and covered over with pruned boughs of trees.Then he advanced to observe the number of the enemy more fully, but when the Sclavs pursued closely, he beat a quick retreat to his men.But the enemy, blind to the trap, and as eager to take the fugitives, rowed smiting the waters fast and incessantly.For the ships of Erik could not be clearly distinguished, looking like a leafy wood.The enemy, after venturing into a winding strait, suddenly saw themselves surrounded by the fleet of Erik.First, confounded by the strange sight, they thought that a wood was sailing; and then they saw that guile lurked under the leaves.Therefore, tardily repenting their rashness, they tried to retrace their incautious voyage: but while they were trying to steer about, they saw the enemy boarding them; Erik, however, put his ship ashore, and slung stones against the enemy from afar.Thus most of the Sclavs were killed, and forty taken, who afterwards under stress of bonds and famine, and in strait of divers torments, gave up the ghost.