ING RAID--ALRIC'S ADVENTURE WITH THE DANE--ERLING'S CUTTER, AND
THE BATTLE IN THE PASS.

"Whom have we here?" exclaimed Erling, looking close into the face of
the wounded man. "What! Swart of the Springs!"

Erling said this sternly, for he had no liking for Swart, who was a
notorious character, belonging to one of the neighbouring fiords--a wild
reckless fellow, and, if report said truly, a thief.

"That recent mischief has cost thee a cracked crown?" asked Erling, a
little more gently, as he observed the exhausted condition of the man.

"Mischief enough," said Swart, rising from the stone on which he had
seated himself, and wiping the blood, dust, and sweat from his haggard
face, while his eyes gleamed like coals of fire; "Skarpedin the Dane has
landed in the fiord, my house is a smoking pile, my children and most of
the people in the stede are burned, and the Springs run blood!"

There was something terrible in the hoarse whisper in which this was
hissed out between the man's teeth. Erling's tone changed instantly as
he laid his hand on Swart's shoulder.

"Can this be true?" he answered anxiously; "are we too late? are _all_
gone?"

"_All_," answered Swart, "save the few fighting men that gained the
fells." The man then proceeded to give a confused and disjointed
account of the raid, of which the following is the substance.

Skarpedin, a Danish viking, noted for his daring, cruelty, and success,
had taken it into his head to visit the neighbourhood of Horlingdal, and
repay in kind a visit which he had received in Denmark the previous
summer from a party of Norsemen, on which occasion his crops had been
burned, his cattle slaughtered, and his lands "herried", while he
chanced to be absent from home.

It must be observed that this deed of the Northmen was not deemed
unusually wicked. It was their custom, and the custom also of their
enemies, to go out every summer on viking cruise to plunder and ravage
the coasts of Denmark, Sweden, Britain, and France, carrying off all the
booty they could lay hold of, and as many prisoners as they wanted or
could obtain. Then, returning home, they made slaves or "thralls" of
their prisoners, often married the women, and spent the winter in the
enjoyment of their plunder.

Among many other simple little habits peculiar to the times was that
called "Strandhug". It consisted in a viking, when in want of
provisions, landing with his men on any coast--whether that of an e