第86章

I have lost sister, realm, treasure, household gear, and, what is greater than them all, renown: I am luckless in all chances, and in all thy good fortune is confessed.Why am I to be kept to live on for all this ignominy? What freedom can be so happy for me that it can wipe out all the shame of captivity? What will all the following time bring for me? It can beget nothing but long remorse in my mind, and will savour only of past woes.What will prolonging of life avail, if it only brings back the memory of sorrow? To the stricken nought is pleasanter than death, and that decease is happy which comes at a man's wish, for it cuts not short any sweetness of his days, but annihilates his disgust at all things.Life in prosperity, but death in adversity, is best to seek.No hope of better things tempts me to long for life.What hap can quite repair my shattered fortunes? And by now, had ye not rescued me in my peril, I should have forgotten even these.What though thou shouldst give me back my realm, restore my sister, and renew my treasure? Thou canst never repair my renown.Nothing that is patched up can have the lustre of the unimpaired, and rumour will recount for ages that Frode was taken captive.Moreover, if ye reckon the calamities I have inflicted on you, I have deserved to die at your hands; if ye recall the harms I have done, ye will repent your kindness.Ye will be ashamed of having aided a foe, if ye consider how savagely he treated you.Why do ye spare the guilty? Why do ye stay your hand from the throat of your persecutor? It is fitting that the lot which I had prepared for you should come home to myself.I own that if I had happened to have you in my power as ye now have me, I should have paid no heed to compassion.But if I am innocent before you in act, I am guilty at least in will.Ipray you, let my wrongful intention, which sometimes is counted to stand for the deed, recoil upon me.If ye refuse me death by the sword I will take care to kill myself with my own hand."Erik rejoined thus: "I pray that the gods may turn thee from the folly of thy purpose; turn thee, I say, that thou mayst not try to end a most glorious life abominably.Why, surely the gods themselves have forbidden that a man who is kind to others should commit unnatural self-murder.Fortune has tried thee to find out with what spirit thou wouldst meet adversity.Destiny has proved thee, not brought thee low.No sorrow has been inflicted on thee which a happier lot cannot efface.Thy prosperity has not been changed; only a warning has been given thee.No man behaves with self-control in prosperity who has not learnt to endure adversity.Besides, the whole use of blessings is reaped after misfortunes have been graciously acknowledged.Sweeter is the joy which follows on the bitterness of fate.Wilt thou shun thy life because thou hast once had a drenching, and the waters closed over thee? But if the waters can crush thy spirit, when wilt thou with calm courage bear the sword? Who would not reckon swimming away in his armour more to his glory than to his shame?

How many men would think themselves happy were they unhappy with thy fortune? The sovereignty is still thine; thy courage is in its prime; thy years are ripening; thou canst hope to compass more than thou hast yet achieved.I would not find thee fickle enough to wish, not only to shun hardships, but also to fling away thy life, because thou couldst not bear them.None is so unmanly as he who from fear of adversity loses heart to live.No wise man makes up for his calamities by dying.Wrath against another is foolish, but against a man's self it is foolhardy; and it is a coward frenzy which dooms its owner.But if thou go without need to thy death for some wrong suffered, or for some petty perturbation of spirit, whom dost thou leave behind to avenge thee? Who is so mad that he would wish to punish the fickleness of fortune by destroying himself? What man has lived so prosperously but that ill fate has sometimes stricken him?

Hast thou enjoyed felicity unbroken and passed thy days without a shock, and now, upon a slight cloud of sadness, dost thou prepare to quit thy life, only to save thy anguish? If thou bear trifles so ill, how shalt thou endure the heavier frowns of fortune?

Callow is the man who has never tasted of the cup of sorrow; and no man who has not suffered hardships is temperate in enjoying ease.Wilt thou, who shouldst have been a pillar of courage, show a sign of a palsied spirit? Born of a brave sire, wilt thou display utter impotence? Wilt thou fall so far from thy ancestors as to turn softer than women? Hast thou not yet begun thy prime, and art thou already taken with weariness of life?

Whoever set such an example before? Shall the grandson of a famous man, and the child of the unvanquished, be too weak to endure a slight gust of adversity? Thy nature portrays the courage of thy sires; none has conquered thee, only thine own heedlessness has hurt thee.We snatched thee from peril, we did not subdue thee; wilt thou give us hatred for love, and set our friendship down as wrongdoing? Our service should have appeased thee, and not troubled thee.May the gods never desire thee to go so far in frenzy, as to persist in branding thy preserver as a traitor! Shall we be guilty before thee in a matter wherein we do thee good? Shall we draw anger on us for our service? Wilt thou account him thy foe whom thou hast to thank for thy life?