第45章

Accordingly, Rolf, tempted by the greatness of the gifts, chanced to enter the house of Athisl.He was not recognised by his mother owing to his long absence and the cessation of their common life; so in jest he first asked for some victual to appease his hunger.She advised him to ask the king for a luncheon.Then he thrust out a torn piece of his coat, and begged of her the service of sewing it up.Finding his mother's ears shut to him, he observed, "That it was hard to discover a friendship that was firm and true, when a mother refused her son a meal, and a sister refused a brother the help of her needle."Thus he punished his mother's error, and made her blush deep for her refusal of kindness.Athisl, when he saw him reclining close to his mother at the banquet, taunted them both with wantonness, declaring that it was an impure intercourse of brother and sister.Rolf repelled the charge against his honour by an appeal to the closest of natural bonds, and answered, that it was honourable for a son to embrace a beloved mother.Also, when the feasters asked him what kind of courage he set above all others, he named Endurance.When they also asked Athisl, what was the virtue which above all he desired most devotedly, he declared, Generosity.Proofs were therefore demanded of bravery on the one hand and munificence on the other, and Rolf was asked to give an evidence of courage first.He was placed to the fire, and defending with his target the side that was most hotly assailed, had only the firmness of his endurance to fortify the other, which had no defence.How dexterous, to borrow from his shield protection to assuage the heat, and to guard his body, which was exposed to the flames, with that which sometime sheltered it amid the hurtling spears! But the glow was hotter than the fire of spears; as though it could not storm the side that was entrenched by the shield, yet it assaulted the flank that lacked its protection.But a waiting-maid who happened to be standing near the hearth, saw that he was being roasted by the unbearable heat upon his ribs; so taking the stopper out of a cask, she spilt the liquid and quenched the flame, and by the timely kindness of the shower checked in its career the torturing blaze.Rolf was lauded for supreme endurance, and then came the request for Athisl's gifts.And they say that he showered treasures on his stepson, and at last, in order to crown the gift, bestowed on him an enormously heavy necklace.

Now Urse, who had watched her chance for the deed of guile, on the third day of the banquet, without her husband ever dreaming of such a thing, put all the king's wealth into carriages, and going out stealthily, stole away from her own dwelling and fled in the glimmering twilight, departing with her son.Thrilled with fear of her husband's pursuit, and utterly despairing of escape beyond, she begged and bade her companions to cast away the money, declaring that they must lose either life or riches;the short and only path to safety lay in flinging away the treasure, nor could any aid to escape be found save in the loss of their possessions.Therefore, said she, they must follow the example of the manner in which Frode was said to have saved himself among the Britons.She added, that it was not paying a great price to lay down the Swedes' own goods for them to regain;if only they could themselves gain a start in flight, by the very device which would check the others in their pursuit, and if they seemed not so much to abandon their own possessions as to restore those of other men.Not a moment was lost; in order to make the flight swifter, they did the bidding of the queen.The gold is cleared from their purses; the riches are left for the enemy to seize.Some declare that Urse kept back the money, and strewed the tracks of her flight with copper that was gilt over.For it was thought credible that a woman who could scheme such great deeds could also have painted with lying lustre the metal that was meant to he lost, mimicking riches of true worth with the sheen of spurious gold.So Athisl, when he saw the necklace that he had given to Rolf left among the other golden ornaments, gazed fixedly upon the dearest treasure of his avarice, and, in order to pick up the plunder, glued his knees to the earth and deigned to stoop his royalty unto greed.Rolf, seeing him lie abjectly on his face in order to gather up the money, smiled at the sight of a man prostrated by his own gifts, just as if he were seeking covetously to regain what he had craftily yielded up.The Swedes were content with their booty, and Rolf quickly retired to his ships, and managed to escape by rowing violently.

Now they relate that Rolf used with ready generosity to grant at the first entreaty whatsoever he was begged to bestow, and never put off the request till the second time of asking.For he preferred to forestall repeated supplication by speedy liberality, rather than mar his kindness by delay.This habit brought him a great concourse of champions; valour having commonly either rewards for its food or glory for its spur.