Never since then Hath Northman fled the foemen.' Egfrid rose: 'Who saith our kinsfolk of the frozen North One stock with us, one faith, one ancient tongue, Pass us in valour? Three days since I saw Crossing the East Saxon's border and our own Two boys that strove. The Kentish wounded fell; The East Saxon on him knelt; then made demand: "My victim art thou by the laws of war! Yonder my dagger lies;--till I return Wilt thou abide?" The vanquished answered, "Yea!" A minute more, and o'er that dagger's edge His life-blood rushed.' The pirate chief demurred; 'A gallant boy! Not less I wager this, The glitter of that dagger ere it smote Made his eye blink. Attend! Three years gone by, Sailing with Hakon on Norwegian fiords We fought the Jomsburg Rovers, at their head Sidroc, oath-pledged to marry Hakon's child Despite her father's best. In mist we met: Instant each navy at the other dashed Like wild beast, instinct-taught, that knows its foe; Chained ship to ship, and clashed their clubs all day, Till sank the sun: then laughed the white peaks forth, And reeled, methought, above the reeling waves! The victory was with us. Hakon, next morn, Bade slay his prisoners. Thirty on one bench Waited their doom: their leader died the first; He winked not as the sword upon him closed! No, nor the second! Hakon asked the third, "What think'st thou, friend, of Death?" He tossed his head: "My Father perished; I fulfil my turn." The fourth, "Strike quickly, Chief! An hour this morn We held contention if, when heads are off, The hand can hold its dagger: I would learn." The dagger and the head together fell. The fifth, "One fear is mine--lest yonder slave Finger a Prince's hair! Command some chief, Thy best beloved, to lift it in his hands; Then strike and spare not!" Hakon struck. That youth, Sigurd by name, his forehead forward twitched, Laughing, so deftly that the downward sword Shore off those luckless hands that raised his hair. All laughed; and Hakon's son besought his sire To loosen Sigurd's bonds: but Sigurd cried, "Unless the rest be loosed I will not live!" Thus all escaped save four.' In graver mood That chief resumed: 'A Norland King dies well! His bier is raised upon his stateliest ship; Piled with his arms; his lovers and his friends Rush to their monarch's pyre, resolved with him To share in death, and with becoming pomp Attend his footsteps to Valhalla's Hall. The torch is lit: forth sails the ship, black-winged, Facing the midnight seas. From beach and cliff Men watch all night that slowly lessening flame: Yet no man sheds a tear.' Earconwald, An aged chief, made answer, 'Tears there be