ill was in store.

'Let no man sleep to-night,' said Njal, 'but take heed to his arms.'

The band of Njal's foes, headed by Flosi, had ridden to a valley behind
the house, and had fastened their horses there. After that they walked
slowly up the path, to the front of the house, where Njal and his sons,
and Kari, his-son-in-law, and his thralls, thirty in all, stood up to
meet them.

Then both sides halted and spoke together. Flosi's counsel was to fall
on them where they stood, though he knew that few would there be left to
tell the tale to their children.

Njal, for his part, desired that his men might return inside the hall,
for the house was strong; 'and if Gunnar alone could keep them at bay
they will never prevail against us,' he said.

'Ah, but these chiefs are not of the kind that slew Gunnar,' answered
Skarphedinn, 'for they turned a deaf ear to Mord's evil counsel to set
fire to Lithend, so that Gunnar and his wife and mother should be burnt
up in it. But this band care nothing for what is fair and honourable, so
long as we leave our bones behind us.'

Then Helgi spoke:

'Let us do as our father wills. He knows best,' and Skarphedinn said:

'If he wishes us to enter the hall, and all to be burnt together, I am
ready to do it. I care little what death I shall die, and if the time of
my doom is come, it matters nothing that we try to escape.' And so
saying he turned to Kari, and bade him stand by his side.

* * * * *

'They are all mad,' cried Flosi, as he saw Njal and his sons and Kari,
his son-in-law, take their place on the inside of the door. 'Surely none
of them can escape us now;' and the fight began with a spear which was
thrown at Skarphedinn.

But victory was not so near as Flosi thought. Man after man fell back
wounded or dead, yet Skarphedinn and his brethren remained without a
wound.

'We shall never put them to flight with our spears,' said Flosi, 'and
there are only two ways open. Either we give up our vengeance, and await
the death that will surely befall us at their hands; or else we must set
fire to the house, and burn them in it. And I know not what else we can
do; yet that is a mean and cowardly deed, which will lie heavily on our
souls.'

So they gathered wood and made a great stack before the door, and
Skarphedinn laughed, and asked if they were turning cooks.

It was Grani, the son of Gunnar, whose soul was black like his mother
Hallgerda's, w