第61章

And though his jest did not take aught of the truth out of the story, the answer was greeted with shouts of merriment from the bystanders.The maiden, too, when questioned on the matter, declared that he had done no such thing; and her denial was the more readily credited when it was found that the escort had not witnessed the deed.Then he who had marked the gadfly in order to give a hint, wishing to show Amleth that to his trick he owed his salvation, observed that latterly he had been singly devoted to Amleth.The young man's reply was apt.Not to seem forgetful of his informant's service, he said that he had seen a certain thing bearing a straw flit by suddenly, wearing a stalk of chaff fixed in its hinder parts.The cleverness of this speech, which made the rest split with laughter, rejoiced the heart of Amleth's friend.

Thus all were worsted, and none could open the secret lock of the young man's wisdom.But a friend of Feng, gifted more with assurance than judgment, declared that the unfathomable cunning of such a mind could not be detected by any vulgar plot, for the man's obstinacy was so great that it ought not to be assailed with any mild measures; there were many sides to his wiliness, and it ought not to be entrapped by any one method.Accordingly, said he, his own profounder acuteness had hit on a more delicate way, which was well fitted to be put in practice, and would effectually discover what they desired to know.Feng was purposely to absent himself, pretending affairs of great import.

Amleth should be closeted alone with his mother in her chamber;but a man should first be commissioned to place himself in a concealed part of the room and listen heedfully to what they talked about.For if the son had any wits at all he would not hesitate to speak out in the hearing of his mother, or fear to trust himself to the fidelity of her who bore him.The speaker, loth to seem readier to devise than to carry out the plot, zealously proffered himself as the agent of the eavesdropping.

Feng rejoiced at the scheme, and departed on pretence of a long journey.Now he who had given this counsel repaired privily to the room where Amleth was shut up with his mother, and lay flown skulking in the straw.But Amleth had his antidote for the treachery.Afraid of being overheard by some eavesdropper, he at first resorted to his usual imbecile ways, and crowed like a noisy cock, beating his arms together to mimic the flapping of wings.Then he mounted the straw and began to swing his body and jump again and again, wishing to try if aught lurked there in hiding.Feeling a lump beneath his feet, he drove his sword into the spot, and impaled him who lay hid.Then he dragged him from his concealment and slew him.Then, cutting his body into morsels, he seethed it in boiling water, and flung it through the mouth of an open sewer for the swine to eat, bestrewing the stinking mire with his hapless limbs.Having in this wise eluded the snare, he went back to the room.Then his mother set up a great wailing, and began to lament her son's folly to his face;but he said: "Most infamous of women; dost thou seek with such lying lamentations to hide thy most heavy guilt? Wantoning like a harlot, thou hast entered a wicked and abominable state of wedlock, embracing with incestuous bosom thy husband's slayer, and wheedling with filthy lures of blandishment him who had slain the father of thy son.This, forsooth, is the way that the mares couple with the vanquishers of their mates; for brute beasts are naturally incited to pair indiscriminately; and it would seem that thou, like them, hast clean forgot thy first husband.As for me, not idly do I wear the mask of folly; for I doubt not that he who destroyed his brother will riot as ruthlessly in the blood of his kindred.Therefore it is better to choose the garb of dulness than that of sense, and to borrow some protection from a show of utter frenzy.Yet the passion to avenge my father still burns in my heart; but I am watching the chances, I await the fitting hour.There is a place for all things; against so merciless and dark spirit must be used the deeper devices of the mind.And thou, who hadst been better employed in lamenting thine own disgrace, know it is superfluity to bewail my witlessness; thou shouldst weep for the blemish in thine own mind, not for that in another's.On the rest see thou keep silence." With such reproaches he rent the heart of his mother and redeemed her to walk in the ways of virtue; teaching her to set the fires of the past above the seductions of the present.

When Feng returned, nowhere could he find the man who had suggested the treacherous espial; he searched for him long and carefully, but none said they had seen him anywhere.Amleth, among others, was asked in jest if he had come on any trace of him, and replied that the man had gone to the sewer, but had fallen through its bottom and been stifled by the floods of filth, and that he had then been devoured by the swine that came up all about that place.This speech was flouted by those who heard; for it seemed senseless, though really it expressly avowed the truth.

Feng now suspected that his stepson was certainly full of guile, and desired to make away with him, but durst not do the deed for fear of the displeasure, not only of Amleth's grandsire Rorik, but also of his own wife.So he thought that the King of Britain should be employed to slay him, so that another could do the deed, and he be able to feign innocence.Thus, desirous to hide his cruelty, he chose rather to besmirch his friend than to bring disgrace on his own head.Amleth, on departing, gave secret orders to his mother to hang the hall with woven knots, and to perform pretended obsequies for him a year thence; promising that he would then return.Two retainers of Feng then accompanied him, bearing a letter graven on wood -- a kind of writing material frequent in old times; this letter enjoined the king of the Britons to put to death the youth who was sent over to him.