arald
went immediately to the Varings, who all rose from their seats when he
came in and received him with joy. The men armed themselves forthwith
and went to where the emperor slept. They took the emperor prisoner and
put out both the eyes of him. So says Thorarin Skeggjason in his poem:--

"Of glowing gold that decks the hand
The king got plenty in this land;
But it's great emperor in the strife
Was made stone-blind for all his life."

So says Thiodolf, the skald, also:--

"He who the hungry wolf's wild yell
Quiets with prey, the stern, the fell,
Midst the uproar of shriek and shout
Stung tho Greek emperor's eyes both out:
The Norse king's mark will not adorn,
The Norse king's mark gives cause to mourn;
His mark the Eastern king must bear,
Groping his sightless way in fear."

In these two songs, and many others, it is told that Harald himself
blinded the Greek emperor; and they would surely have named some duke,
count, or other great man, if they had not known this to be the true
account; and King Harald himself and other men who were with him spread
the account.

15. HARALD'S JOURNEY FROM CONSTANTINOPLE.

The same night King Harald and his men went to the house where Maria
slept and carried her away by force. Then they went down to where the
galleys of the Varings lay, took two of them and rowed out into Sjavid
sound. When they came to the place where the iron chain is drawn across
the sound, Harald told his men to stretch out at their oars in both
galleys; but the men who were not rowing to run all to the stern of the
galley, each with his luggage in his hand. The galleys thus ran up
and lay on the iron chain. As soon as they stood fast on it, and would
advance no farther, Harald ordered all the men to run forward into the
bow. Then the galley, in which Harald was, balanced forwards and swung
down over the chain; but the other, which remained fast athwart the
chain, split in two, by which many men were lost; but some were taken up
out of the sound. Thus Harald escaped out of Constantinople and sailed
thence into the Black Sea; but before he left the land he put the lady
ashore and sent her back with a good escort to Constantinople and bade
her tell her relation, the Empress Zoe, how little power she had over
Harald, and how little the empress could have hindered him from taking
the lady. Harald then sailed northwards in the Ellipalta and the