ed of utter lethargy. In a word, you would not have thought
him a man at all, but some absurd abortion due to a mad fit of destiny.
He used at times to sit over the fire, and, raking up the embers with
his hands, to fashion wooden crooks, and harden them in the fire,
shaping at their lips certain barbs, to make them hold more tightly
to their fastenings. When asked what he was about, he said that he was
preparing sharp javelins to avenge his father. This answer was not a
little scoffed at, all men deriding his idle and ridiculous pursuit; but
the thing helped his purpose afterwards. Now it was his craft in this
matter that first awakened in the deeper observers a suspicion of his
cunning. For his skill in a trifling art betokened the hidden talent of
the craftsman; nor could they believe the spirit dull where the hand had
acquired so cunning a workmanship. Lastly, he always watched with the
most punctual care over his pile of stakes that he had pointed in the
fire. Some people, therefore, declared that his mind was quick enough,
and fancied that he only played the simpleton in order to hide his
understanding, and veiled some deep purpose under a cunning feint. His
wiliness (said these) would be most readily detected, if a fair woman
were put in his way in some secluded place, who should provoke his mind
to the temptations of love; all men's natural temper being too blindly
amorous to be artfully dissembled, and this passion being also too
impetuous to be checked by cunning. Therefore, if his lethargy were
feigned, he would seize the opportunity, and yield straightway to
violent delights. So men were commissioned to draw the young man in
his rides into a remote part of the forest, and there assail him with a
temptation of this nature. Among these chanced to be a foster-brother of
Amleth, who had not ceased to have regard to their common nurture;
and who esteemed his present orders less than the memory of their past
fellowship. He attended Amleth among his appointed train, being anxious
not to entrap, but to warn him; and was persuaded that he would suffer
the worst if he showed the slightest glimpse of sound reason, and above
all if he did the act of love openly. This was also plain enough to
Amleth himself. For when he was bidden mount his horse, he deliberately
set himself in such a fashion that he turned his back to the neck and
faced about, fronting the tail; which he proceeded to encompass with the
reins, just as if o