camest to Tiunderland, and remained, as thou
didst lament, unwounded at sight of me."

"Speak the truth--lie not again--a thousand listeners hear thee--thou
lordly son of Oski--Is it so?"

Then Halfred raged in his inmost heart, but he constrained himself, and
replied firmly and distinctly--

"It is as thou hast said."

Then Harthild drew herself up yet higher, and like two serpents
flashed, glances of fearful hatred from her eyes, as she spoke--

"So be thou accursed, from the crown of thy head to the sole of thy
foot, thou who hast deceived and disgraced a hapless woman;
Cursed be thy proud thoughts--Madness shall strike them;
Cursed be thy false eyes--Blindness shall smite them;
Cursed be thy lying Ups--They shall wither and smile no more;
Cursed be thy flattering voice--It shall be dumb;
Thy house and thy hall shall perish in flames--The Singing Swan
shall burn;
Thy hand shall be crippled--thy hammer not strike--thy harp shall
shatter;
Victory shall be denied thee in battle and in song;
Nothing shall any more delight thee, in which of yore thou hast
rejoiced;
The sun of spring--the flowers of the forest--the fire of wine--the
blackbird's song--the greeting of the evening star--Sleepless shall
roll thy groaning head, and if slumber draws near to thee it shall be
with stifling dreams.
Yet a twofold curse shall rend ye both, if thou winnest again a
woman's love.
In madness and disease shall she perish whom thou lovest more than
thy soul.
But the son whom I, wretched one, must bear, shall be his mother's
avenger upon his father.
Liar's son, Scoundrel's son, Harthild's Vengeance shall his name be.
And one day, villain, shall he smite thee, as here, to shame thee
before all men, my hand now strikes thee in the face."

And she lifted high her outspread right hand, and aimed a blow over the
table at Halfred's head.

Halfred sprang up, and to avert such a disgrace threw up his left arm.
Then he struck the heavy seven flaming candalabrum; with a crash the
metal fell with all its flaming arms upon Dame Harthild's breast and
body, and then upon the ground.

As though struck by lightning stood the woman all in flames--mantle and
hair blazed up. At once the fire caught the straw thickly strewn upon
the floor.

"King Hartstein, avenge thy unhappy child," shrieked Harthild, in
agony. She believed that in rage Halfred had hurled the candalabrum
upon