The summer passed, neither party gaining any decided advantage. Then Bishop Nicholas, despairing of destroying the Birchlegs as long as they had the town to fall back upon, determined to deprive them of this shelter. He accordingly set fire to the town and burned the greater part of it. The Birchlegs had enough to do in saving the block-house, and could give but little aid to the citizens in their efforts to limit the conflagration. It is doubtful, however, if the Baglers gained any thing by this unwarrantable destruction, for the citizens of Bergen, a large number of whom had been favorably inclined toward them, became from this day their enemies. Sverre was, indeed, compelled to abandon his position, leaving, however, a garrison in the block-house. But the Baglers scarcely profited by his departure, as the country round about had been denuded of provisions, and want compelled them to move. Bishop Nicholas then sailed northward to Nordmöre and Haalogaland, where he met with no opposition; and desertion from the ranks of the Birchlegs increased his army until its very magnitude caused him embarrassment. Oddly enough, at this very time, when the king's fortune was at its lowest ebb, the traitor, Thorstein Kugad, who had surrendered the block-house in Nidaros, returned to him. He flung himself at Sverre's feet, embraced his knees, and cried: "Happy I am now, my lord, that I am so near you--that I can touch you. * * * Dear my lord, receive me, and let me never more part from you."