“Hakon’s men asked what offer he made. ‘That is the first, that I will go south to Rome, or out as far as Jerusalem, and visit holy places, and have two ships with me out of the land with what we need to have, and so make atonement for both of our souls. This I will swear, never to come back to the Orkneys.’ To this they said ‘Nay’ at once. Then Earl Magnus spoke: ‘Now seeing that my life is in your power, and that I have in many things made myself an outlaw before Almighty God, then send thou me up into Scotland to some of both our friends, and let me be there kept in ward, and two men with me as a pastime. Take thou care then that I may never be able to get out of that wardship.’ To this they said ‘Nay’ at once. Magnus spoke: ‘One choice is still behind which I will offer thee, and God knows that I look more to your soul than to my life; but still it better beseems thee than to take my life away. Let me be maimed in my limbs as thou pleasest, or pluck out my eyes, and set me in a dark dungeon.’ Then Earl Hakon spoke: ‘This settlement I am ready to take, nor do I ask anything further.’ Then the chiefs sprang up and said to Earl Hakon, ‘We will slay now either of you twain, and ye two shall not both from this day forth rule the lands.’ Then answers Earl Hakon: ‘Slay ye him rather, for I will rather rule the realm and lands than die so suddenly.’ So says Holdbodi, a truthful freeman from the Southern Isles, of the parley they had. He was then with Magnus, and another man with him, when they took him captive. “So glad was the worthy Earl Magnus as though he were bidden to a feast; he neither spoke with hate nor words of wrath. And after this talk he fell to prayer, and hid his face in the palms of his hands, and shed out many tears before God’s eyesight. When Earl Magnus, the saint, was done to death, Hakon bade Ofeig his banner-bearer to slay the earl, but he said ‘Nay’ with the greatest wrath. Then he forced Lifolf his cook to kill Earl Magnus, but he began to weep aloud. ‘Thou shalt not weep for this,’ said the earl, ‘for that there is fame in doing such deeds. Be steadfast in thine heart, for thou shalt have my clothes, as is the wont and law of men of old, and thou shalt not be afraid, for thou doest this against thy will, and he who forces thee misdoes more than thou.’ But when the earl had said this he threw off his kirtle and gave it to Lifolf. After that he begged leave to say his prayers, and that was granted him. [Illustration: _Church of St. Magnus, Egilsay._ _(From a painting by T. Marjoribanks Hay, R.S.W.)_]