back, to his own house, and there refreshed
him with a certain pleasant draught, telling him that he would find
himself quite brisk and sound in body. This prophetic advice he
confirmed by a song as follows:

"As thou farest hence, a foe, thinking thee a deserter, will assail
thee, that he may keep thee bound and cast thee to be devoured by the
mangling jaws of beasts. But fill thou the ears of the warders with
divers tales, and when they have done the feast and deep sleep holds
them, snap off the fetters upon thee and the loathly chains. Turn thy
feet thence, and when a little space has fled, with all thy might
rise up against a swift lion who is wont to toss the carcases of the
prisoners, and strive with thy stout arms against his savage shoulders,
and with naked sword search his heart-strings. Straightway put thy
throat to him and drink the steaming blood, and devour with ravenous
jaws the banquet of his body. Then renewed strength will come to
thy limbs, then shall undreamed-of might enter thy sinews, and
an accumulation of stout force shall bespread and nerve thy frame
through-out. I myself will pave the path to thy prayers, and will subdue
the henchmen in sleep, and keep them snoring throughout the lingering
night."

And as he spoke, he took back the young man on his horse, and set him
where he had found him. Hadding cowered trembling under his mantle; but
so extreme was his wonder at the event, that with keen vision he peered
through its holes. And he saw that before the steps of the horse lay
the sea; but was told not to steal a glimpse of the forbidden thing, and
therefore turned aside his amazed eyes from the dread spectacle of the
roads that he journeyed. Then he was taken by Loker, and found by very
sure experience that every point of the prophecy was fulfilled upon
him. So he assailed Handwan, king of the Hellespont, who was entrenched
behind an impregnable defence of wall in his city Duna, and withstood
him not in the field, but with battlements. Its summit defying all
approach by a besieger, he ordered that the divers kinds of birds who
were wont to nest in that spot should be caught by skilled fowlers, and
he caused wicks which had been set on fire to be fastened beneath their
wings. The birds sought the shelter of their own nests, and filled the
city with a blaze; all the townsmen flocked to quench it, and left the
gates defenceless. He attacked and captured Handwan, but suffered him to
redeem his lif