the reward; you know what I have done for you, and from
your righteousness I ask my wage."

Every heart had been moved while the young man thus spoke; he affected
some to compassion, and some even to tears. When the lamentation ceased,
he was appointed king by prompt and general acclaim. For one and all
rested their greatest hopes on his wisdom, since he had devised the
whole of such an achievement with the deepest cunning, and accomplished
it with the most astonishing contrivance. Many could have been seen
marvelling how he had concealed so subtle a plan over so long a space of
time.

After these deeds in Denmark, Amleth equipped three vessels, and went
back to Britain to see his wife and her father. He had also enrolled in
his service the flower of the warriors, and arrayed them very choicely,
wishing to have everything now magnificently appointed, even as of old
he had always worn contemptible gear, and to change all his old devotion
to poverty for outlay on luxury. He also had a shield made for him,
whereon the whole series of his exploits, beginning with his earliest
youth, was painted in exquisite designs. This he bore as a record of his
deeds of prowess, and gained great increase of fame thereby. Here were
to be seen depicted the slaying of Horwendil; the fratricide and incest
of Feng; the infamous uncle, the whimsical nephew; the shapes of the
hooked stakes; the stepfather suspecting, the stepson dissembling; the
various temptations offered, and the woman brought to beguile him; the
gaping wolf; the finding of the rudder; the passing of the sand; the
entering of the wood; the putting of the straw through the gadfly; the
warning of the youth by the tokens; and the privy dealings with the
maiden after the escort was eluded. And likewise could be seen the
picture of the palace; the queen there with her son; the slaying of the
eavesdropper; and how, after being killed, he was boiled down, and so
dropped into the sewer, and so thrown out to the swine; how his limbs
were strewn in the mud, and so left for the beasts to finish. Also
it could be seen how Amleth surprised the secret of his sleeping
attendants, how he erased the letters, and put new characters in their
places; how he disdained the banquet and scorned the drink; how
he condemned time face of the king and taxed the Queen with faulty
behaviour. There was also represented the hanging of the envoys, and
the young man's wedding; then the voyage back to Denmark