ainst the life of the son, never seeing that it was rather his
own ruin being compassed! Doltish lord, blind to the obstinate
scheming of his wife, who, out of pretended hatred of her son, devised
opportunity for change of wedlock! Though the heart of woman should
never be trusted, he believed in a woman all the more insensately,
because he supposed her faithful to himself and treacherous to her son.

Accordingly, Rolf, tempted by the greatness of the gifts, chanced to
enter the house of Athisl. He was not recognised by his mother owing to
his long absence and the cessation of their common life; so in jest he
first asked for some victual to appease his hunger. She advised him
to ask the king for a luncheon. Then he thrust out a torn piece of
his coat, and begged of her the service of sewing it up. Finding his
mother's ears shut to him, he observed, "That it was hard to discover a
friendship that was firm and true, when a mother refused her son a meal,
and a sister refused a brother the help of her needle." Thus he punished
his mother's error, and made her blush deep for her refusal of kindness.
Athisl, when he saw him reclining close to his mother at the banquet,
taunted them both with wantonness, declaring that it was an impure
intercourse of brother and sister. Rolf repelled the charge against his
honour by an appeal to the closest of natural bonds, and answered, that
it was honourable for a son to embrace a beloved mother. Also, when
the feasters asked him what kind of courage he set above all others, he
named Endurance. When they also asked Athisl, what was the virtue which
above all he desired most devotedly, he declared, Generosity. Proofs
were therefore demanded of bravery on the one hand and munificence on
the other, and Rolf was asked to give an evidence of courage first. He
was placed to the fire, and defending with his target the side that was
most hotly assailed, had only the firmness of his endurance to fortify
the other, which had no defence. How dexterous, to borrow from his
shield protection to assuage the heat, and to guard his body, which was
exposed to the flames, with that which sometime sheltered it amid the
hurtling spears! But the glow was hotter than the fire of spears; as
though it could not storm the side that was entrenched by the
shield, yet it assaulted the flank that lacked its protection. But a
waiting-maid who happened to be standing near the hearth, saw that he
was being roasted by the un