mployed before to
take the shield back, and put the letter in its place again; playing the
very trick on Amleth which, as she had learnt, he had himself used in
outwitting his companions.

Amleth, meanwhile, who found that his shield had been filched from under
his head, deliberately shut his eyes and cunningly feigned sleep, hoping
to regain by pretended what he had lost by real slumbers. For he thought
that the success of his one attempt would incline the spy to deceive
him a second time. And he was not mistaken. For as the spy came up
stealthily, and wanted to put back the shield and the writing in their
old place, Amleth leapt up, seized him, and detained him in bonds.
Then he roused his retinue, and went to the abode of the queen. As
representing his father-in-law, he greeted her, and handled her
the writing, sealed with the king's seal. The queen, who was named
Hermutrude, took and read it, and spoke most warmly of Amleth's
diligence and shrewdness, saying, that Feng had deserved his punishment,
and that the unfathomable wit of Amleth had accomplished a deed past
all human estimation; seeing that not only had his impenetrable
depth devised a mode of revenging his father's death and his mother's
adultery, but it had further, by his notable deeds Of prowess, seized
the kingdom of the man whom he had found constantly plotting against
him. She marvelled therefore that a man of such instructed mind could
have made the one slip of a mistaken marriage; for though his renown
almost rose above mortality, he seemed to have stumbled into an obscure
and ignoble match. For the parents of his wife had been slaves, though
good luck had graced them with the honours of royalty. Now (said she),
when looking for a wife a wise man must reckon the lustre of her birth
and not of her beauty. Therefore, if he were to seek a match in a proper
spirit, he should weigh the ancestry, and not be smitten by the looks;
for though looks were a lure to temptation, yet their empty bedizenment
had tarnished the white simplicity of many a man. Now there was a woman,
as nobly born as himself, whom he could take. She herself, whose means
were not poor nor her birth lowly, was worthy his embraces, since he did
not surpass her in royal wealth nor outshine her in the honour of his
ancestors. Indeed she was a queen, and but that her sex gainsaid it,
might be deemed a king; may (and this is yet truer), whomsoever she
thought worthy of her bed was at once a