re; land and fight,
not conquering, probably rather beaten; and very certainly "retiring to
his ships," as in either case he behooved to do! It is further certain
he was dreadfully maltreated by the weather on those wild coasts; and
altogether credible, as the Scotch records bear, that he was so at Largs
very specially. The Norse Records or Sagas say merely, he lost many
of his ships by the tempests, and many of his men by land fighting in
various parts,--tacitly including Largs, no doubt, which was the last
of these misfortunes to him. "In the battle here he lost 15,000 men, say
the Scots, we 5,000"! Divide these numbers by ten, and the excellently
brief and lucid Scottish summary by Buchanan may be taken as the
approximately true and exact. [19] Date of the battle is A.D. 1263.

To this day, on a little plain to the south of the village, now town,
of Largs, in Ayrshire, there are seen stone cairns and monumental heaps,
and, until within a century ago, one huge, solitary, upright stone;
still mutely testifying to a battle there,--altogether clearly, to this
battle of King Hakon's; who by the Norse records, too, was in these
neighborhoods at that same date, and evidently in an aggressive, high
kind of humor. For "while his ships and army were doubling the Mull
of Cantire, he had his own boat set on wheels, and therein, splendidly
enough, had himself drawn across the Promontory at a flatter part," no
doubt with horns sounding, banners waving. "All to the left of me is
mine and Norway's," exclaimed Hakon in his triumphant boat progress,
which such disasters soon followed.

Hakon gathered his wrecks together, and sorrowfully made for Orkney.
It is possible enough, as our Guide Books now say, he may have gone
by Iona, Mull, and the narrow seas inside of Skye; and that the
_Kyle-Akin_, favorably known to sea-bathers in that region, may actually
mean the Kyle (narrow strait) of Hakon, where Hakon may have dropped
anchor, and rested for a little while in smooth water and beautiful
environment, safe from equinoctial storms. But poor Hakon's heart was
now broken. He went to Orkney; died there in the winter; never beholding
Norway more.

He it was who got Iceland, which had been a Republic for four centuries,
united to his kingdom of Norway: a long and intricate operation,--much
presided over by our Snorro Sturleson, so often quoted here, who indeed
lost his life (by assassination from his sons-in-law) and out of great
wealth