r his plots, and thought that here was a
chance offered to do his purpose. So he took out of his bosom the stakes
he has long ago prepared, and went into the building, where the ground
lay covered with the bodies of the nobles wheezing off their sleep and
their debauch. Then, cutting away its support, he brought down the
hanging his mother had knitted, which covered the inner as well as
the outer walls of the hall. This he flung upon the snorers, and then
applying the crooked stakes, he knotted and bound them up in such
insoluble intricacy, that not one of the men beneath, however hard he
might struggle, could contrive to rise. After this he set fire to the
palace. The flames spread, scattering the conflagration far and wide. It
enveloped the whole dwelling, destroyed the palace, and burnt them all
while they were either buried in deep sleep or vainly striving to arise.
Then he went to the chamber of Feng, who had before this been conducted
by his train into his pavilion; plucked up a sword that chanced to be
hanging to the bed, and planted his own in its place. Then, awakening
his uncle, he told him that his nobles were perishing in the flames, and
that Amleth was here, armed with his crooks to help him, and thirsting
to exact the vengeance, now long overdue, for his father's murder. Feng,
on hearing this, leapt from his couch, but was cut down while deprived
of his own sword, and as he strove in vain to draw the strange one. O
valiant Amleth, and worthy of immortal fame, who being shrewdly armed
with a feint of folly, covered a wisdom too high for human wit under
a marvellous disguise of silliness! And not only found in his subtlety
means to protect his own safety, but also by its guidance found
opportunity to avenge his father. By this skilful defence of himself,
and strenuous revenge for his parent, he has left it doubtful whether we
are to think more of his wit or his bravery. (3)

ENDNOTES:
(1) Saxo now goes back to the history of Denmark. All the
events hitherto related in Bk. III, after the first
paragraph, are a digression in retrospect.
(2) M. conjectures that this was a certain Harald, the bastard
son of Erik the Good, and a wild and dissolute man, who died
in 1135, not long before the probable date of Saxo's birth.
(3) Shakespere's tragedy, "Hamlet", is derived from this story.

BOOK FOUR.

Amleth, when he had accomplished the slaughter of his stepfather,