bearable heat upon his ribs; so taking the
stopper out of a cask, she spilt the liquid and quenched the flame, and
by the timely kindness of the shower checked in its career the torturing
blaze. Rolf was lauded for supreme endurance, and then came the request
for Athisl's gifts. And they say that he showered treasures on his
stepson, and at last, in order to crown the gift, bestowed on him an
enormously heavy necklace.

Now Urse, who had watched her chance for the deed of guile, on the third
day of the banquet, without her husband ever dreaming of such a thing,
put all the king's wealth into carriages, and going out stealthily,
stole away from her own dwelling and fled in the glimmering twilight,
departing with her son. Thrilled with fear of her husband's pursuit, and
utterly despairing of escape beyond, she begged and bade her companions
to cast away the money, declaring that they must lose either life or
riches; the short and only path to safety lay in flinging away the
treasure, nor could any aid to escape be found save in the loss of their
possessions. Therefore, said she, they must follow the example of the
manner in which Frode was said to have saved himself among the Britons.
She added, that it was not paying a great price to lay down the Swedes'
own goods for them to regain; if only they could themselves gain a start
in flight, by the very device which would check the others in their
pursuit, and if they seemed not so much to abandon their own possessions
as to restore those of other men. Not a moment was lost; in order to
make the flight swifter, they did the bidding of the queen. The gold is
cleared from their purses; the riches are left for the enemy to seize.
Some declare that Urse kept back the money, and strewed the tracks of
her flight with copper that was gilt over. For it was thought credible
that a woman who could scheme such great deeds could also have painted
with lying lustre the metal that was meant to be lost, mimicking riches
of true worth with the sheen of spurious gold. So Athisl, when he saw
the necklace that he had given to Rolf left among the other golden
ornaments, gazed fixedly upon the dearest treasure of his avarice,
and, in order to pick up the plunder, glued his knees to the earth and
deigned to stoop his royalty unto greed. Rolf, seeing him lie abjectly
on his face in order to gather up the money, smiled at the sight of a
man prostrated by his own gifts, just as if he were seeking cove