s disgrace he had received neither word nor groan. But
he could not long bear to hide the bitterness of his anger in silence.
Rising, and retreating to the furthest end of the palace, he flung his
body against the walls; and strong as they were, he so battered them
with the shock, that the beams quaked mightily; and he nearly brought
the house down in a crash. Thus, stung not only with his rebuff, but
with the shame of having poverty cast in his teeth, he unsheathed
his wrath against the insulting speech of the queen with inexorable
sternness.

Ingild, on his return from hunting, scanned him closely, and, when
he noticed that he neither looked cheerfully about, nor paid him the
respect of rising, saw by the sternness written on his brow that it was
Starkad. For when he noted his hands horny with fighting, his scars in
front, the force and fire of his eye, he perceived that a man whose
body was seamed with so many traces of wounds had no weakling soul.
He therefore rebuked his wife, and charged her roundly to put away her
haughty tempers, and to soothe and soften with kind words and gentle
offices the man she had reviled; to comfort him with food and drink,
and refresh him with kindly converse; saying, that this man had been
appointed his tutor by his father long ago, and had been a most tender
guardian of his childhood. Then, learning too late the temper of the old
man, she turned her harshness into gentleness, and respectfully waited
on him whom she had rebuffed and railed at with bitter revilings.
The angry hostess changed her part, and became the most fawning of
flatterers. She wished to check his anger with her attentiveness; and
her fault was the less, inasmuch as she was so quick in ministering
to him after she had been chidden. But she paid dearly for it, for she
presently beheld stained with the blood of her brethren the place where
she had flouted and rebuffed the brave old man from his seat.

Now, in the evening, Ingild took his meal with the sons of Swerting,
and fell to a magnificent feast, loading the tables with the profusest
dishes. With friendly invitation he kept the old man back from leaving
the revel too early; as though the delights of elaborate dainties could
have undermined that staunch and sturdy virtue! But when Starkad had set
eyes on these things, he scorned so wanton a use of them; and, not to
give way a whit to foreign fashions, he steeled his appetite against
these tempting delicacies with