pon
that traitor with drawn sword, for I had left my hunting spear with
the slain deer. He dropped his burden, and drew his sword also,
turning on me. And I saw that the blade was red.

Then I made no more delay, but leapt from my horse and fell upon
him to avenge myself for the death of him whom I loved. Would that
I had had the axe whose use he who lay there had taught me so well,
for then the matter would have been ended at one blow. But now we
were evenly matched, and without a word we knew that this fight
must be to the death, and our swords crossed, and blow and parry
came quickly.

Then I heard shouts, and the noise of men running behind me, and
Beorn cried:

"Stay us not, I avenge me of my friend," whereon I ground my teeth
and pressed on him yet more fiercely, wounding him a little in the
shoulder; and he cried out for help--for the men who came were
close on us--and the well-cast noose of a rope fell over my
shoulders, and I was jerked away from him well-nigh choked.

Two men ran past me and took Beorn, throwing up his sword with
their quarterstaves, and it seemed to me that it was done over
gently. Then they bound us both and set us on the ground face to
face.

"Now here be fine doings!" said a man, who seemed to be the leader
of the six or seven who had ended the fight.

"Aye, 'tis murder," said another, looking from Beorn to me and then
to Beorn again; "but which is murderer and which true man?"

Now all these men were strangers to me, but I knew one thing about
them from their dress. They were the men of mighty Earl Ulfkytel
himself, and seemed to be foresters, and honest men enough by their
faces.

"I am Wulfric, son of Elfric of Reedham," I said. "The slain man is
Lodbrok, the Danish jarl, and this man slew him."

"He lies!" cried Beorn. "It was he who slew him, and I would
revenge myself on him, for this Lodbrok was my friend."

Now I held my peace, keeping back my wrath as well as I might, for
I began to see that Beorn had some deep plot on hand, thus to
behave as if innocent.

"Why, so he cried out as we came," said one of the men when he
heard Beorn's words.

"Maybe both had a hand in it," the leader said, and so they talked
for a little.

Then came two of my own serfs, who had followed me to see the
sport, I suppose, at a distance, as idle men will sometimes, when
hunting is on hand, and with them came Lodbrok's dog, the same that
had brought me. And when the dog saw Beorn he fle