ho answered him.

'You will not wish better cooking when _you_ are put on the spit;' but
he had better have left Skarphedinn alone, for the men around heard his
reply, and looked curiously on Grani.

'Your deeds become your mother's son,' said Skarphedinn. 'It was I who
avenged your father, therefore it is natural to one of your kind that
you should wish to slay me,' and he stepped back to pick up some fresh
arrows.

In spite of Grani's boastful words, the pile of wood was slow in
catching, for the women threw whey and water upon it from the little
windows in the roof, so that the flames were quenched as fast as they
sprang up. The men grew angry and impatient, and at last Kol,
Thorstein's son, said to Flosi:

'It avails nought to kindle the fire here; but there is a pile of dry
vetch at the back, just above the house, and we can light it, and put
the burning wood on the beams under the roof.'

So he crept round unseen, and did as he had said, and the other men
heaped up wood before the doors of the house, so that none could escape,
and those within the hall knew nothing that was doing, till a great
light filled the place, and they saw that the roof was burning.

Then horrible dread overwhelmed the souls of the women, and they broke
forth into weeping and wailing, till Njal spoke words of comfort to
them, and bade them keep up their hearts, for God would not suffer them
to burn both in this world and in the next. And when he had stilled
their fears he went near the door, and asked:

'Is Flosi nigh at hand?'

'Yes,' answered Flosi.

'Will you suffer my sons to atone?' asked Njal once more, 'or let them
leave the house?' but Flosi said:

'The women and children and thralls may go out, but, as for your sons,
the time for atonement is past, and I will not leave this spot as long
as one of them remains alive.'

When Njal heard that, he went back into the house and called the women
and children and thralls round him, and bade Thorhalla, the wife of
Helgi, go out first, for she was a brave woman. And Thorhalla went,
after bidding farewell to Helgi her husband.

But Astrid whispered softly to Helgi:

'I will tie a woman's kerchief about your head, and wrap you in a cloak,
and the women folk will stand about you, and none shall know that you
are not a woman also.'

Helgi did not like this plan, for he thought it shame to steal away in
his sister's garments; but they prayed him not to be stiff-necked, and
at le