nst so merciless and dark
spirit must be used the deeper devices of the mind. And thou, who
hadst been better employed in lamenting thine own disgrace, know it is
superfluity to bewail my witlessness; thou shouldst weep for the blemish
in thine own mind, not for that in another's. On the rest see thou
keep silence." With such reproaches he rent the heart of his mother
and redeemed her to walk in the ways of virtue; teaching her to set the
fires of the past above the seductions of the present.

When Feng returned, nowhere could he find the man who had suggested the
treacherous espial; he searched for him long and carefully, but none
said they had seen him anywhere. Amleth, among others, was asked in jest
if he had come on any trace of him, and replied that the man had gone
to the sewer, but had fallen through its bottom and been stifled by the
floods of filth, and that he had then been devoured by the swine that
came up all about that place. This speech was flouted by those who
heard; for it seemed senseless, though really it expressly avowed the
truth.

Feng now suspected that his stepson was certainly full of guile, and
desired to make away with him, but durst not do the deed for fear of the
displeasure, not only of Amleth's grandsire Rorik, but also of his own
wife. So he thought that the King of Britain should be employed to
slay him, so that another could do the deed, and he be able to feign
innocence. Thus, desirous to hide his cruelty, he chose rather to
besmirch his friend than to bring disgrace on his own head. Amleth, on
departing, gave secret orders to his mother to hang the hall with
woven knots, and to perform pretended obsequies for him a year thence;
promising that he would then return. Two retainers of Feng then
accompanied him, bearing a letter graven on wood--a kind of writing
material frequent in old times; this letter enjoined the king of the
Britons to put to death the youth who was sent over to him. While they
were reposing, Amleth searched their coffers, found the letter, and read
the instructions therein. Whereupon he erased all the writing on the
surface, substituted fresh characters, and so, changing the purport of
the instructions, shifted his own doom upon his companions. Nor was he
satisfied with removing from himself the sentence of death and passing
the peril on to others, but added an entreaty that the King of Britain
would grant his daughter in marriage to a youth of great judgment whom