All eyes were fixed upon him, standing in his black robe, and holding
aloft the gleaming sword that had grown dull. Yes, even the patient eyes
of Steinar, bound upon the stone.

Then it was that some spirit stirred in my heart which drove me on to
step between the priest and his prey. Standing in the doorway of the
chapel, a tall, young shape against the gloom behind, I said in a steady
voice:

"I dare deny!"

A gasp of wonderment went up from all who heard, and Steinar, lifting
himself a little from the stone, stared at me, shook his head as if in
dissent, then let it fall again, and listened.

"Hearken, friends," I said. "This man, my foster-brother, has committed
a sin against me and my House. My House is dead--I alone remain; and on
behalf of the dead and of myself I forgive him his sin, which, indeed,
was less his than another's. Is there any man among you who at some time
has not been led aside by woman, or who has not again and again desired
to be so led aside? If such a one there be, let him say that he has no
forgiveness in his heart for Steinar, the son of Hakon. Let him come
forward and say it."

None stirred; even the women drooped their heads and were silent.

"Then, if this is so," I went on, "and you can forgive, as I do, how
much more should a god forgive? What is a god? Is he not one greater
than man, who must know all the weakness of man, which, for his own
ends, he has bred into the flesh of man? How, then, can he do otherwise
than be pitiful to what he has created? If this be so, how can the
god refuse that which men are willing to grant, and what sacrifice can
please him better than the foregoing of his own vengeance? Would a god
wish to be outdone by a man? If I, Olaf, the man can forgive, who have
been wronged, how much more can Odin the god forgive, who has suffered
no wrong save that of the breaking of those laws which will ever be
broken by men who are as it has pleased him to fashion them? On Odin's
behalf, therefore, and speaking as he would speak, could he have voice
among us, I demand that you set this victim free, leaving it to his own
heart to punish him."

Now, some whom my simple words had touched, I suppose because there was
truth in them, although in those days and in that land none understood
such truths, and others, because they had known and loved the
open-handed Steinar, who would have given the cloak from his back to the
meanest of them, cried:

"Aye, let him go fre