mes Herfrida
and Astrid, and the widow Gunhild, Ingeborg, and all Haldor's younger
children. With Glumm there were also several women besides Ada. Ivor
the Old and Finn the One-eyed also went with him; but most of the old
and crippled hangers-on of both families, as well as Glumm's mother,
were taken by Erling into the Swan, as the accommodation there was
better than on board the Crane.

"Now, Glumm," said Erling, when all were on board, "we must say farewell
to Norway. Keep close in my wake. If they give chase we will do our
best to escape, but if that may not be, we will fight and fall
together." The friends shook hands; then, each getting into his ship,
the stern ropes were cast off, the oars were dipped, and they shot out
upon the blue fiord, which the sinking sun had left in a solemn subdued
light, although his beams still glowed brightly on the snow-clad
mountain peaks.

They had proceeded some distance down the fiord before their pursuers
observed them. Then a mighty shout told that they were discovered; and
the grinding of the heavy ships' keels was distinctly heard upon the
shore, as they were pushed off into deep water. Immediately after, the
splash of hundreds of oars warned them to make haste.

"Pull, my lads,--pull with heart," cried Erling; "and let these slaves
see how freemen can make their ocean steeds leap across the sea! Pull!
I see a breeze just off the mouth of the fiord. If we reach that, we
may laugh at the tyrant King."

"What may yonder line on the water be?" said Haldor, with an anxious
look, as he pointed towards the mouth of the fiord.

Erling caught his breath, and the blood rushed to his temples as he
gazed for a moment in silence.

"'Tis a boom," cried Kettle, who had recovered by this time, and who now
leaped towards the fore deck with terrible energy.

"All is lost!" exclaimed Ulf, in a tone of bitterness which words cannot
express.

"Are ye sure it is a boom?" cried Erling quickly. Everyone looked with
intense earnestness at the black line that stretched completely across
the mouth of the fiord, and each gave it as his opinion that it was a
boom. There could not indeed be any doubt on the point. King Harald's
berserk, although somewhat tardy, had fulfilled his orders but too well;
and now a succession of huge logs, or tree trunks, joined together by
thick iron chains, completely barred their progress seaward.

"Surely we can burst through," suggested Kettle, retur