e! That witchcraft which thou lovest shall mesh
thee. Shadows shall bewilder thee; from the bowl of empty longings thou
shalt drink and drink, and not be satisfied. Yea! lusts shall mock and
madden thee. Thou shalt ride the winds, thou shalt sail the seas, but
thou shalt find no harbour, and never shalt thou set foot upon a shore
of peace.

"Go on, Swanhild--dye those hands in blood--wade through the river of
shame! Seek thy desire, and finding, lose! Work thy evil, and winning,
fail! I yet shall triumph--I yet shall trample thee; and, in a place
to come, with Eric at my side, I shall make a mock of Swanhild the
murderess! Swanhild the liar, and the wanton, and the witch! Now get
thee gone!"

Swanhild heard. She looked up at Gudruda's face and it was alight
as with a fire. She strove to answer, but no words came. Then Groa's
daughter turned and went, and with her went Gizur.

Now women and thralls came in and drew out the wounded and those who
still breathed from among the dead, taking them to the temple. They bore
away the body of Ospakar also, but they left the rest.

All night long Gudruda sat in the bride's seat. There she sat in the
silver summer midnight, looking on the slain who were strewn about the
great hall. All night she sat alone in the bride's seat thinking--ever
thinking.

How, then, would it end? There her brother Bjoern lay a-cold--Bjoern the
justly slain of Brighteyes; yet how could she wed the man who slew
her brother? From Ospakar she was divorced by death; from Eric she was
divorced by the blood of Bjoern her brother! How might she unravel this
tangled skein and float to weal upon this sea of death? All things went
amiss! The doom was on her! She had lived to an ill purpose--her love
had wrought evil! What availed it to have been born to be fair among
women and to have desired that which might not be? And she herself had
brought these things to pass--she had loosed the rock which crushed her!
Why had she hearkened to that false tale?

Gudruda sat on high in the bride's seat, asking wisdom of the piled-up
dead, while the cold blue shadows of the nightless night gathered over
her and them--gathered, and waned, and grew at last to the glare of day.

XXVI

HOW ERIC VENTURED DOWN TO MIDDALHOF AND WHAT HE FOUND

Gizur went north to Swinefell, and Swanhild went with him. For now that
Ospakar was dead at Eric's hand, Gizur ruled in his place at Swinefell,
and was the greatest lord i