t if
he can prove it, I will restore it to him tenfold. As to the gifts
that may come from the gods, no man should grudge them to his fellow.
Therefore release me, O King, and I will pay whatever ransom you may
fix."

But Nidud only bade his guards take him away, and Wayland, seeing that
resistance availed nothing, went with them quietly.

By the King's orders he was thrown into a dark hole fifteen fathoms
under ground, and the soldiers then came and robbed the house of all
its treasures, which they took to the Palace. The ring which Wayland
had made for Alvilda, Nidud gave to his daughter, Banvilda.

One day the Queen was in her own room, when the King came in to ask her
advice as to how best to deal with Wayland, as he did not think it wise
to put him to death, for he hoped to make some profit out of his skill.
"His heart will beat high," said the Queen, "when he sees his good
sword, and beholds his ring on Banvilda's finger. But cut asunder the
sinews of his strength, so that he can never more escape from us, and
keep him a prisoner."

The King was pleased with the Queen's words, and sent soldiers to carry
Wayland to a tower on an island. The sinews of his legs were cut so
that he could not swim away; but they gave him his boots, and the
chests of gold they had found in his house. Here he was left, with
nothing to do from morning till night, but to make helmets and drinking
cups and splendid armour for the King.

PART VIII.

On this island Wayland remained for a whole year, chained to a stone
and visited by no one but the King, who came from time to time to see
how his prisoner was getting on with a suit of golden armour he had
been ordered to make.

The shield was also of gold, and on it Wayland had beaten out a history
of the gods and their great deeds. He was very miserable, for the hope
of revenge which had kept him alive seemed as far off as ever in its
fulfilment, and finding a sword he had lately forged lying close to his
hand, he seized it, with the intent of putting an end to his wretched
life.

He had hardly stretched out his hand, when a bird began to sing at the
iron bars of his window, while the evening sun shone into his prison.
"I should like to see the world once more," thought he, and, raising
himself on the stone to which his chain was fastened, he was able to
look at what lay beneath him.

The sea washed the base of the rock on which the tower was built, and
on a neck of land a