第87章

For thou wert not free when we took thee, but in distress, and we came in time to help thee.And, behold, I restore thy treasure, thy wealth, thy goods.If thou thinkest thy sister was betrothed to me over-hastily, let her marry the man whom thou commandest;for her chastity remains inviolate.Moreover, if thou wilt accept me, I wish to fight for thee.Beware lest thou wrongfully steel thy mind in anger.No loss of power has shattered thee, none of thy freedom has been forfeited.Thou shalt see that I am obeying, not commanding thee.I agree to any sentence thou mayst pronounce against my life.Be assured that thou art as strong here as-in thy palace; thou hast the same power to rule here as in thy court.Enact concerning us here whatsoever would have been thy will in the palace: we are ready to obey." Thus much said Erik.

Now this speech softened the king towards himself as much as towards his foe.Then, everything being arranged and made friendly, they returned to the shore.The king ordered that Erik and his sailors should be taken in carriages.But when they reached the palace he had an assembly summoned, to which he called Erik, and under the pledge of betrothal gave him his sister and command over a hundred men.Then he added that the queen would be a weariness to him, and that the daughter of Gotar had taken his liking.He must, therefore, have a fresh embassy, and the business could best be done by Erik, for whose efforts nothing seemed too hard.He also said that he would stone Gotwar to death for her complicity in concealing the crime; but Hanund he would restore to her father, that he might not have a traitress against his life dwelling amongst the Danes.Erik approved his plans, and promised his help to carry out his bidding; except that he declared that it would be better to marry the queen, when she had been put away, to Roller, of whom his sovereignty need have no fears.This opinion Frode received reverentially, as though it were some lesson vouchsafed from above.The queen also, that she might not seem to be driven by compulsion, complied, as women will, and declared that there was no natural necessity to grieve, and that all distress of spirit was a creature of fancy: and, moreover, that one ought not to bewail the punishment that befell one's deserts.And so the brethren celebrated their marriages together, one wedding the sister of the king, and the other his divorced queen.

Then they sailed back to Norway, taking their wives with them.

For the women could not be torn from the side of their husbands, either by distance of journey or by dread of peril, but declared that they would stick to their lords like a feather to something shaggy.They found that Ragnar was dead, and that Kraka had already married one Brak.Then they remembered the father's treasure, dug up the money, and bore it off.But Erik's fame had gone before him, and Gotar had learnt all his good fortune.Now when Gotar learnt that he had come himself, he feared that his immense self-confidence would lead him to plan the worst against the Norwegians, and was anxious to take his wife from him and marry him to his own daughter in her place: for his queen had just died, and he was anxious to marry the sister of Frode more than anyone.Erik, when he learnt of his purpose, called his men together, and told them that his fortune had not yet got off from the reefs.Also he said that he saw, that as a bundle that was not tied by a band fell to pieces, so likewise the heaviest punishment that was not constrained on a man by his own fault suddenly collapsed.They had experienced this of late with Frode; for they saw how at the hardest pass their innocence had been protected by the help of the gods; and if they continued to preserve it they should hope for like aid in their adversity.

Next, they must pretend flight for a little while, if they were attacked by Gotar, for so they would have a juster plea for fighting.For they had every right to thrust out the hand in order to shield the head from peril.Seldom could a man carry to a successful end a battle he had begun against the innocent; so, to give them a better plea for assaulting the enemy, he must be provoked to attack them first.

Erik then turned to Gunwar, and asked her, in order to test her fidelity, whether she had any love for Gotar, telling her it was unworthy that a maid of royal lineage should be bound to the bed of a man of the people.Then she began to conjure him earnestly by the power of heaven to tell her whether his purpose was true or reigned? He said that he had spoken seriously, and she cried:

"And so thou art prepared to bring on me the worst of shame by leaving me a widow, whom thou lovedst dearly as a maid! Common rumour often speaks false, but I have been wrong in my opinion of thee.I thought I had married a steadfast man; I hoped his loyalty was past question; but now I find him to be more fickle than the winds." Saying this, she wept abundantly.

Dear to Erik was his wife's fears; presently he embraced her and said: "I wished to know how loyal thou wert to me.Nought but death has the right to sever us, but Gotar means to steal thee away, seeking thy love by robbery.When he has committed the theft, pretend it is done with thy goodwill; yet put off the wedding till he has given me his daughter in thy place.When she has been granted, Gotar and I will hold our marriage on the same day.And take care that thou prepare rooms for our banqueting which have a common party-wall, yet are separate: lest perchance, if I were before thine eyes, thou shouldst ruffle the king with thy lukewarm looks at him.For this will be a most effective trick to baffle the wish of the ravisher." Then he bade Brak (one of his men), to lie in ambush not far from the palace with a chosen band of his quickest men, that he might help him at need.

Then he summoned Roller, and fled in his ship with his wife and all his goods, in order to tempt the king out, pretending panic: