nd
flight for a little while, if they were attacked by Gotar, for so they
would have a juster plea for fighting. For they had every right to
thrust out the hand in order to shield the head from peril. Seldom
could a man carry to a successful end a battle he had begun against the
innocent; so, to give them a better plea for assaulting the enemy, he
must be provoked to attack them first.

Erik then turned to Gunwar, and asked her, in order to test her
fidelity, whether she had any love for Gotar, telling her it was
unworthy that a maid of royal lineage should be bound to the bed of a
man of the people. Then she began to conjure him earnestly by the power
of heaven to tell her whether his purpose was true or reigned? He said
that he had spoken seriously, and she cried: "And so thou art prepared
to bring on me the worst of shame by leaving me a widow, whom thou
lovedst dearly as a maid! Common rumour often speaks false, but I have
been wrong in my opinion of thee. I thought I had married a steadfast
man; I hoped his loyalty was past question; but now I find him to be
more fickle than the winds." Saying this, she wept abundantly.

Dear to Erik was his wife's fears; presently he embraced her and said:
"I wished to know how loyal thou wert to me. Nought but death has the
right to sever us, but Gotar means to steal thee away, seeking thy love
by robbery. When he has committed the theft, pretend it is done with thy
goodwill; yet put off the wedding till he has given me his daughter in
thy place. When she has been granted, Gotar and I will hold our
marriage on the same day. And take care that thou prepare rooms for
our banqueting which have a common party-wall, yet are separate: lest
perchance, if I were before thine eyes, thou shouldst ruffle the king
with thy lukewarm looks at him. For this will be a most effective trick
to baffle the wish of the ravisher." Then he bade Brak (one of his
men), to lie in ambush not far from the palace with a chosen band of his
quickest men, that he might help him at need.

Then he summoned Roller, and fled in his ship with his wife and all his
goods, in order to tempt the king out, pretending panic: So, when he saw
that the fleet of Gotar was pressing him hard, he said: "Behold how the
bow of guile shooteth the shaft of treachery;" and instantly rousing his
sailors with the war-shout, he steered the ship about. Gotar came close
up to him and asked who was the pilot of the ship, and he was told