ndled a
fire, and they now, reposing on their skins, sat in the deepest solitude
far away from all the world.

Orm was the first who had discovered this cave, which is shown to this
very day, and as no one knew anything of it, they were safe from the
pursuit of Aslog's father. They passed the whole winter in this
retirement. Orm used to go a-hunting, and Aslog stayed at home in the
cave, minded the fire, and prepared the necessary food. Frequently did
she mount the points of the rocks, but her eyes wandered as far as they
could reach only over glittering snow-fields.

The spring now came on: the woods were green, the meadows pat on their
various colours, and Aslog could but rarely, and with circumspection,
venture to leave the cave. One evening Orm came in with the intelligence
that he had recognised her father's servants in the distance, and that
he could hardly have been unobserved by them whose eyes were as good as
his own.

"They will surround this place," continued he, "and never rest till they
have found us. We must quit our retreat then without a minute's delay."

They accordingly descended on the other side of the mountain, and
reached the strand, where they fortunately found a boat. Orm shoved off,
and the boat drove into the open sea. They had escaped their pursuers,
but they were now exposed to dangers of another kind. Whither should
they turn themselves? They could not venture to land, for Aslog's father
was lord of the whole coast, and they would infallibly fall into his
hands. Nothing then remained for them but to commit their bark to the
wind and waves. They drove along the entire night. At break of day the
coast had disappeared, and they saw nothing but the sky above, the sea
beneath, and the waves that rose and fell. They had not brought one
morsel of food with them, and thirst and hunger began now to torment
them. Three days did they toss about in this state of misery, and Aslog,
faint and exhausted, saw nothing but certain death before her.

At length, on the evening of the third day, they discovered an island of
tolerable magnitude, and surrounded by a number of smaller ones. Orm
immediately steered for it, but just as he came near to it there
suddenly arose a violent wind, and the sea rolled higher and higher
against him. He turned about with a view of approaching it on another
side, but with no better success. His vessel, as often as he approached
the island, was driven back as if by an invisi