them
right in the middle of the cloth. The housewife snatched the towel from
him, and said, "Thou hast been taught little good; it is wasteful to wet
the whole cloth at one time."

Vandrad replies, "I may yet come so far forward in the world as to be
able to dry myself with the middle of the towel."

Thereupon Karl set a table before them and Vandrad sat down between
them. They ate for a while and then went out. The horse was saddled and
Karl's son ready to follow him with another horse. They rode away to
the forest; and the earl's men returned to the boat, rowed to the earl's
ship and told the success of their expedition.

67. OF KING HARALD.

King Harald and his men followed the fugitives only a short way,
and rowed back to the place where the deserted ships lay. Then the
battle-place was ransacked, and in King Svein's ship was found a heap
of dead men; but the king's body was not found, although people believed
for certain that he had fallen. Then King Harald had the greatest
attention paid to the dead of his men, and had the wounds of the living
bound up. The dead bodies of Svein's men were brought to the land, and
he sent a message to the peasants to come and bury them. Then he let
the booty be divided, and this took up some time. The news came now that
King Svein had come to Seeland, and that all who had escaped from the
battle had joined him, along with many more, and that he had a great
force.

68. FIN ARNASON GETS QUARTER.

Earl Fin Arnason was taken prisoner in the battle, as before related;
and when he was led before King Harald the king was very merry, and
said, "Fin, we meet here now, and we met last in Norway. The Danish
court has not stood very firmly by thee; and it will be a troublesome
business for Northmen to drag thee, a blind old man, with them, and
preserve thy life."

The earl replies, "The Northmen find it very difficult now to conquer,
and it is all the worse that thou hast the command of them."

Then said King Harald, "Wilt thou accept of life and safety, although
thou hast not deserved it?"

The earl replies, "Not from thee, thou dog."

The king: "Wilt thou, then, if thy relation Magnus gives thee quarter?"

Magnus, King Harald's son, was then steering the ship.

The earl replies, "Can the whelp rule over life and quarter?"

The king laughed, as if he found amusement in vexing him.--"Wilt thou
accept thy life, then, from thy she-relation Thorer?"

The earl: "Is sh