the other, the hand which he was
hiding. Nor was Wigg heedless to repay the kindness; for he promised,
uttering a strict vow, that, if it befell Rolf to perish by the sword,
he would himself take vengeance on his slayers. Nor should it be omitted
that in old time nobles who were entering. The court used to devote to
their rulers the first-fruits of their service by vowing some mighty
exploit; thus bravely inaugurating their first campaign.

Meantime, Skulde was stung with humiliation at the payment of the
tribute, and bent her mind to devise deeds of horror. Taunting her
husband with his ignominious estate, she urged and egged him to break
off his servitude, induced him to weave plots against Rolf, and filled
his mind with the most abominable plans of disloyalty, declaring that
everyone owed more to their freedom than to kinship. Accordingly, she
ordered huge piles of arms to be muffled up under divers coverings,
to be carried by Hiartuar into Denmark, as if they were tribute: these
would furnish a store wherewith to slay the king by night. So the
vessels were loaded with the mass of pretended tribute, and they
proceeded to Leire, a town which Rolf had built and adorned with the
richest treasure of his realm, and which, being a royal foundation and
a royal seat, surpassed in importance all the cities of the neighbouring
districts. The king welcomed the coming of Hiartuar with a splendid
banquet, and drank very deep, while his guests, contrary to their
custom, shunned immoderate tippling. So, while all the others were
sleeping soundly, the Swedes, who had been kept from their ordinary rest
by their eagerness on their guilty purpose, began furtively to slip down
from their sleeping-rooms. Straightway uncovering the hidden heap of
weapons, each girded on his arms silently and then went to the palace.
Bursting into its recesses, they drew their swords upon the sleeping
figures. Many awoke; but, invaded as much by the sudden and dreadful
carnage as by the drowsiness of sleep, they faltered in their
resistance; for the night misled them and made it doubtful whether those
they met were friends or foes. Hjalte, who was foremost in tried bravery
among the nobles of the king, chanced to have gone out in the dead of
that same night into the country and given himself to the embraces of a
harlot. But when his torpid hearing caught from afar the rising din of
battle, preferring valour to wantonness, he chose rather to seek the
deadl