All were splendidly attired, and glittered in scarlet and gold. Olaf, with a few companions, came sauntering up to the market-place, and stationed themselves somewhat apart from the rest as if merely to look on. He had pulled a fur hood and cape over his head and shoulders, and was otherwise plainly clad. Gyda, after having somewhat listlessly regarded the ranks of her wooers, caught sight of the tall stranger with the fur hood. She approached him, lifted up his hood, and looked long and earnestly into his eyes. [Footnote A: The present Baltic provinces of Prussia. The Wends were a Slavonic people, and not identical with the Vandals, with whom they have often been confounded. The latter, according to the best authority, were of Germanic origin.] "If thou wilt have me," she said, "then I choose thee for my husband." Olaf replied that he was not unwilling to take her at her word; and their betrothal was forthwith published. Alfvine in great wrath now challenged the Norseman, fought, and was conquered. The wedding was then celebrated, and Olaf spent several years in England and Ireland. He became here more intimately acquainted with Christianity, was baptized, and became a zealous defender of the faith. In Greece, he had, according to the legend, only been _primsigned_--_i.e._, marked with the sign of the cross. This was regarded as a sort of compromise between the old faith and the new, and was supposed to secure a certain favor from Christ the White, without entirely forfeiting the good-will of the old gods. The Anglo-Saxon annals contain repeated references to Olaf Tryggvesson, and name him as the chieftain of a great viking fleet, which, in the year 994, ravaged the coasts of Essex, Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire. He even landed with a considerable army, and put up his winter quarters in Southampton, levying supplies from the neighboring country. The unhappy proposition was then made to King Ethelred II. to buy immunity from further depredations, and the sum of £10,000 was paid to Olaf and by him apportioned among his men. Sweyn Forkbeard, the son of Harold Bluetooth, then exiled from his native land, is also named as one of the chieftains concerned in this expedition, though in the treaty of peace between King Ethelred and the vikings, which is yet preserved, his name does not occur. At the confirmation of Olaf, which took place with great pomp in the same year, King Ethelred was present, and it is said that Olaf solemnly vowed, on that occasion, that he would henceforth never more molest the inhabitants of England. This promise he appears to have kept. Sweyn, however, tempted by the great sums of money which he had extorted, returned again and again, expelled Ethelred for a time from his kingdom, and for many years was the virtual ruler of England.