‘Now, comrades, years moved slowly on, and the Norse galley was so deep in the water with gold and precious stones, that, had it not been for enchantment, she would have sunk outright. Then the blue-eyed and long-haired mariners entreated Tronda that she would allow them to look again upon the mountains and the Fiords of Norway, and that she would raise a westerly breeze to carry them home across the ocean. But the witch scoffed at their requests, giving them foul words, and saying that she must have more gold. The chief of the crew was a young man called Torquil, and he it was who sighed most for home, because he had left a maiden there whom he loved, and from whom he had been long parted. Therefore, after Tronda had retired to the great cabin, where she lived alone, Torquil entered it unbidden. It was quite dark, for the cabin was beneath the water, and no light came down to it from the deck, but an ancient lamp of bronze swung slowly from the beams overhead, and in this lamp burnt a flame, although there was neither wick nor oil to feed it. The witch was sitting in a great chair like a throne, and before her were open boxes crammed with lumps of gold, which gleamed in the flicker of the bronze lamp. On the table lay the magic crystal in which the sorceress could see the future; and upon the high back of the antique chair, in which she sat, perched two ravens, grey with age, both of which uttered a low, hoarse croak as Torquil entered. ‘“Mother,” he said, for all who spoke to the witch so addressed her—“mother, I would go home to my own country; I long again to see the face of my father and of my betrothed. Therefore, I bid you raise a favouring westerly gale; for, if you do not, neither I nor one of my comrades will put hand to rope on board this galley again.” ‘With that the witch rose slowly to her feet. ‘Look you, Torquil Randa,’ quoth she, ‘whoso in this galley disobeys my orders, the elements, which are at my beck and bidding, shall overwhelm him.’ ‘But Torquil stood erect, nothing daunted. “I know your powers, mother,” he answered; “but as well be sunk in the sea as wander for ever upon its surface, homeless and friendless. You heard what I have spoken; I will not live longer away from kindred and home.”