p; ran like
a very roe, and was clearly ahead at the goal. "Unfair," said Magnus;
"thou must have had hold of my stirrup-leather, and helped thyself
along; we must try it again." Gylle ran behind the horse this second
time; then at the end, sprang forward; and again was fairly in ahead.
"Thou must have held by the tail," said Magnus; "not by fair running was
this possible; we must try a third time!" Gylle started ahead of Magnus
and his horse, this third time; kept ahead with increasing distance,
Magnus galloping his very best; and reached the goal more palpably
foremost than ever. So that Magnus had to pay his bet, and other
damage and humiliation. And got from his father, who heard of it soon
afterwards, scoffing rebuke as a silly fellow, who did not know the
worth of men, but only the clothes and rank of them, and well deserved
what he had got from Gylle. All the time King Sigurd lived, Gylle seems
to have had good recognition and protection from that famous man; and,
indeed, to have gained favor all round, by his quiet social demeanor and
the qualities he showed.

CHAPTER XIII. MAGNUS THE BLIND, HARALD GYLLE, AND MUTUAL EXTINCTION OF
THE HAARFAGRS.

On Sigurd the Crusader's death, Magnus naturally came to the throne;
Gylle keeping silence and a cheerful face for the time. But it was not
long till claim arose on Gylle's part, till war and fight arose between
Magnus and him, till the skilful, popular, ever-active and shifty Gylle
had entirely beaten Magnus; put out his eyes, mutilated the poor body
of him in a horrid and unnamable manner, and shut him up in a convent as
out of the game henceforth. There in his dark misery Magnus lived now
as a monk; called "Magnus the Blind" by those Norse populations; King
Harald Gylle reigning victoriously in his stead. But this also was only
for a time. There arose avenging kinsfolk of Magnus, who had no Irish
accent in their Norse, and were themselves eager enough to bear rule
in their native country. By one of these,--a terribly stronghanded,
fighting, violent, and regardless fellow, who also was a Bastard of
Magnus Barefoot's, and had been made a Priest, but liked it unbearably
ill, and had broken loose from it into the wildest courses at home and
abroad; so that his current name got to be "Slembi-diakn," Slim or Ill
Deacon, under which he is much noised of in Snorro and the Sagas: by
this Slim-Deacon, Gylle was put an end to (murdered by night, drunk in
his sleep); and po