ary to law! They therefore knitted
their brows and waited to hear more.

The King then began to explain his ideas with regard to the royal
authority over the chief men of the districts, some of which are already
known to the reader. At this point the assembly listened with deep,
earnest attention. Some of the men sat with hands clasped on their
knees, and with stern downcast brows. Some gazed up at the clouds with
the peculiar expression of men who listen and weigh arguments. Others
leaned on their swords or shields, and, with compressed lips and
suspicious gaze, looked the King full in the face, while a few regarded
him with a sneer; but the expression on the faces of the greater part
denoted manliness of feeling and honesty of purpose.

After Harald had stated his views, and assured them that his great aim
was to consolidate the kingdom and to prevent the evils that flowed from
the almost unlimited independence of the petty kings, he asked the
assembly to aid him in carrying out his wishes, and to set an example of
fidelity and obedience, which would restrain others from showing that
unseemly opposition to him which had only resulted in severe and merited
punishment.

He then sat down amid a murmur of mingled applause and disapprobation.

After a few minutes of animated converse among themselves, there arose
an old man with a bald head, a flowing beard, and sightless eyes. He
was the "lagman" or district judge, and law-expounder of Horlingdal.
Deep silence ensued, and he said, in a decided though somewhat tremulous
tone--

"King Harald, I am a very old man now, and can remember the time when
your noble sire, Halfdan the Black, ruled in Norway. I have fought by
his side, and lost my eyes in his service--in a fight in which our
opponents gave us the tooth-ache. [Norse expression signifying `the
worst of it.'] I have also heard him speak those words of wisdom to
which you have referred, and have seen him bow to the laws which were
made _not_ by himself, but by him in conjunction with the Thing legally
assembled for the purpose."

There was a loud murmur of applause at this point.

"And now that we have heard the King's opinions," continued the old man,
turning to the people, "and know that his intentions are good, although
the manner in which he has set about carrying them into effect is
undoubtedly wrong, my counsel is that we nevertheless submit to him in
this matter, for we know that a great number of