where one of the earl's mistresses, Thora, lived, and asked her to hide him for a few days until the army of the peasants had dispersed. They went to a swine-sty, where Kark dug a deep hole and covered it with boards. The earl and Kark went into the hole, and Thora covered it, and threw earth and manure over it, and drove the swine upon the top of it. Olaf Trygvason had just then arrived in the country, and when the peasants heard he was of the family of Harald the Fairhaired, they flocked around him and hailed him as their king. Then they all set about hunting for Earl Haakon. At Rimul they looked everywhere for him without finding him. Then Olaf held a House-Thing or council out in the yard, and stood upon a great stone which lay beside the swine-sty, and made a speech to the people, in which he promised rewards and honors to the man who should kill the earl. This speech was heard by the earl and the thrall Kark. "Why art thou so pale," asked the earl, "and now again black as earth? Thou hast not the intention to betray me?" "By no means," replied Kark. "We were both born on the same night," said the earl, "and the time will be short between our deaths." King Olaf went away in the evening. When night came the earl kept himself awake; but Kark slept, and was disturbed in his sleep. The earl woke him, and asked him what he had been dreaming. Kark answered: "I was at Lade, and Olaf Trygvason was laying a golden ring about my neck." The earl then said: "It will be a bloody ring Olaf will lay about thy neck if he catches thee. Take care of that! From me thou shalt enjoy all that is good, therefore betray me not." Then they both kept awake, evidently mistrusting each other. But toward morning the earl dropped asleep. Then Kark killed him, and cut off his head, and hastened to Olaf Trygvason with it, but Olaf had the faithless thrall decapitated. Earl Haakon was fifty-eight years old at his death, in February, 995. CHAPTER X _The Youth of Olaf Trygvason_