t, did not row in company. They were beached as far from each
other as the little bay into which they ran would admit of, and the
crews stood aloof in two distinct groups.

In the centre of each group stood a man who, from his aspect and
bearing, appeared to be superior to his fellows. One was in the prime
of life, dark and grave; the other in the first flush of manhood, full
grown, though beardless, fair, and ruddy. Both were taller and stouter
than their comrades.

The two men had met there to fight, and the cause of their feud was--
Love!

Both loved a fair Norse maiden in Horlingdal. The father of the maid
favoured the elder warrior; the maid herself preferred the younger.

In those days, barbarous though they undoubtedly were, law and justice
were more respected and more frequently appealed to in Norway than in
almost any other country. Liberty, crushed elsewhere under the
deadweight of feudalism, found a home in the bleak North, and a rough
but loving welcome from the piratical, sea-roving! She did not, indeed,
dwell altogether scathless among her demi-savage guardians, who, if
their perceptions of right and wrong were somewhat confused, might have
urged in excuse that their light was small. She received many shocks
and frequent insults from individuals, but liberty was sincerely loved
and fondly cherished by the body of the Norwegian people, through all
the period of those dark ages during which other nations scarce dared to
mention her name.

Nevertheless, it was sometimes deemed more convenient to settle disputes
by the summary method of an appeal to arms than to await the issue of a
tedious and uncertain lawsuit such an appeal being perfectly competent
to those who preferred it, and the belief being strong among the fiery
spirits of the age that Odin, the god of war, would assuredly give
victory to the right.

In the present instance it was not considered any infringement of the
law of liberty that the issue of the combat would be the disposal of a
fair woman's hand, with or without her heart. Then, as now, women were
often forced to marry against their will.

Having gone to that island to fight--an island being a naturally
circumscribed battlefield whose limits could not conveniently be
transgressed--the two champions set to work at once with the cool
businesslike promptitude of men sprung from a warlike race, and nurtured
from their birth in the midst of war's alarms.

Together, and without