d suffered. He saw but one way; and that
was to get off and escape if he could. He resolved upon this in the
night-time, killed the peasant, and cut his foot off after killing him,
and set off to the forest with the chain upon his leg. Now when the
people knew this, soon after daylight in the morning, they pursued him
with two dogs accustomed to trace any one who escaped, and to find him
in the forest however carefully he might be concealed. They got him
into their hands and beat him, and did him all kinds of mischief; and
dragging him home, left barely alive, and showed him no mercy. They
tortured him severely; put him in a dark room, in which there lay
already sixteen Christian men; and bound him both with iron and other
tyings, as fast as they could. Then he began to think that the
misery and pain he had endured before were but shadows to his present
sufferings. He saw no man before his eyes in this prison who would beg
for mercy for him; no one had compassion on his wretchedness, except
the Christian men who lay bound with him, who sorrowed with him, and
bemoaned his fate together with their own misfortunes and helplessness.
One day they advised him to make a vow to the holy King Olaf, to devote
himself to some office in his sacred house, if he, by God's compassion
and Saint Olaf's prayers could get away from this prison. He gladly
agreed to this, and made a vow and prepared himself for the situation
they mentioned to him. The night after he thought in his sleep that he
saw a man, not tall, standing at his side, who spoke to him thus, "Here,
thou wretched man, why dost thou not get up?"

He replied, "Sir, who are you?"

"I am King Olaf, on whom thou hast called."

"Oh, my good lord! gladly would I raise myself; but I lie bound with
iron and with chains on my legs, and also the other men who lie here."

Thereupon the king accosts him with the words, "Stand up at once and be
not afraid; for thou art loose."

He awoke immediately, and told his comrades what, had appeared to him in
his dream. They told him to stand up, and try if it was true. He stood
up, and observed that he was loose. Now said his fellow-prisoners, this
would help him but little, for the door was locked both on the inside
and on the outside. Then an old man who sat there in a deplorable
condition put in his word, and told him not to doubt the mercy of the
man who had loosened his chains; "For he has wrought this miracle on
thee that thou shouldst