But the King held the sword with a firm hand, even when in play. He drew it to him before Astrid had time to do herself any harm. And he sprang up. For the first time in his life he trembled from fear. The Queen would die at his hand, and she had not been far from attaining her wish. At the same moment he had an inspiration, and he understood what was the cause of her despair. 'She has committed a sin,' he thought. 'She has a sin upon her conscience.' He bent down over Astrid. 'Tell me in what manner thou hast sinned,' he said. Astrid had thrown herself down on the rough planks of the bridge, crying in utter despair. 'No one free from guilt would weep like this,' thought the King. 'But how can the honourable daughter of the King have brought such a heavy burden upon her?' he asked himself. 'How can the noble Ingegerd have a crime upon her conscience?' 'Ingegerd, tell me how thou hast sinned,' he asked again. But Astrid was sobbing so violently that she could not answer, but instead she drew off her golden arm and finger rings, and handed them to the King with averted face. The King thought how unlike this was to the gentle King's daughter of whom Hjalte had spoken. 'Is this Hjalte's Ingegerd that lies sobbing at my feet?' he thought. He bent down and seized Astrid by the shoulder. 'Who are thou? who art thou?' he said, shaking her arm. 'I see that thou canst not be Ingegerd. Who art thou?' Astrid was still sobbing so violently that she could not speak. But in order to give the King the answer he asked for, she let down her long hair, twisted a lock of it round her arms, and held them towards the King, and sat thus bowed and with drooping head. The King thought: 'She wishes me to understand that she belongs to those who wear chains. She confesses that she is a bondwoman.' A thought again struck the King; he now understood everything. 'Has not the Svea-King a daughter who is the child of a bondwoman?' he asked suddenly. He received no answer to this question either, but he heard Astrid shudder as if from cold. King Olaf asked still one more question. 'Thou whom I have made my wife,' he said, 'hast thou so low a mind that thou wouldest allow thyself to be used as a means of spoiling a man's honour? Is thy mind so mean that thou rejoicest when his enemies laugh at his discomfiture?' Astrid could hear from the King's voice how bitterly he suffered under the insult that had been offered him. She forgot her own sufferings, and wept no more. 'Take my life,' she said. A great temptation came upon King Olaf. 'Slay this wicked bondwoman,' the old Adam said within him. 'Show the Svea-King what it costs to make a fool of the King of Norway.'