Though this supposition may have been unfounded, it is very sure that Einar shunned no opportunity for manifesting his hostility to the king. Once he broke up a meeting when Harold was present, and with his armed retinue freed a convicted thief who had once been in his service. Another time he forced the king, by threatening an attack, to surrender a great treasure which once had been found in the ground, although the law adjudged all property thus acquired to the king. Einar, however, claimed that some runes on the lid of the chest, containing the treasure, showed it to have belonged to his father-in-law, Earl Haakon, whose only surviving heir was his wife Bergljot. The king could scarcely be blamed for resenting such insolence, but the means he chose to get even with his enemy was unworthy of him. He had, by chance, captured some Danish men who had in their possession King Sweyn's seal. It is not improbable that they were secret emissaries from the Danish king, who was perhaps trying the tactics of his uncle Knut, whose bribes had once alienated the Norse chieftains from Olaf the Saint. It now occurred to Harold that he might use these men to test the disposition of the chieftains toward him and, what was especially important, gain a just reason for destroying those who should prove to be traitors. It was particularly against Einar Thambarskelver that this plot was directed. The men, purporting to come from King Sweyn, brought forged letters full of flattering assurances, and a large sum of money which they offered Einar as a pledge of the king's friendship. But he was equal to the test. "Every one knows," he said, "that King Harold is not my friend, while King Sweyn often speaks kindly of me, and I would fain be his friend. But if he comes to Norway with an army to fight King Harold and harry his kingdom, I will make him all resistance in my power, and I will help King Harold, with all the force at my command, to defend his kingdom." When the Danes returned with this message to King Harold, he said: "It was to be expected that he would answer like a man of honor, though not out of love for me." There were other surprises in store for the king on this occasion. His friend and kinsman, Thore of Steig, who had first recognized his claim to the kingdom, accepted the bribe, and when informed that Harold was coming to punish him, he went cheerfully to meet him, and handed him the money, saying: "A short while ago, there were some Danish men at my house who brought me friendly letters and money from King Sweyn. I accepted the money, because I found it proper that you should receive what foreign kings were using to steal your country from you." This was so shrewd an act that it extorted from Harold, even if he did see through it, a reluctant admiration. A third man,--a peasant, named Högne Langbjörnsson--to whom the emissaries came, made them this answer: