. Soon after the queen handed him
a cup, and, bidding him assuage his thirst, vexed him with threats after
this manner:

"Now, insolent Hagbard, whom the whole assembly has pronounced worthy of
death, now to quench thy thirst thou shalt give thy lips liquor to drink
in a cup of horn.

"Wherefore cast away fear, and, at this last hour of thy life, taste
with bold lips the deadly goblet;

"That, having drunk it, thou mayst presently land by the dwellings of
those below, passing into the sequestered palace of stern Dis, giving
thy body to the gibbet and thy spirit to Orcus."

Then the young man took the cup offered him, and is said to have made
answer as follows:

"With this hand, wherewith I cut off thy twin sons, I will take my last
taste, yea the draught of the last drink.

"Now not unavenged shall I go to the Elysian regions, not unchastising
to the stern ghosts. For these men have first been shut in the dens of
Tartarus by a slaughter wrought by my endeavours. This right hand was
wet with blood that was yours, this hand robbed thy children of the
years of their youth, children whom thy womb brought to light; but
the deadly sword spared it not then. Infamous woman, raving in spirit,
hapless, childless mother, no years shall restore to thee the lost, no
time and no day whatsoever shall save thy child from the starkness of
death, or redeem him!"

Thus he avenged the queen's threats of death by taunting her with the
youths whom he had slain; and, flinging back the cup at her, drenched
her face with the sprinkled wine.

Meantime Signe asked her weeping women whether they could endure to bear
her company in the things which she purposed. They promised that they
would carry out and perform themselves whatsoever their mistress should
come to wish, and their promise was loyally kept. Then, drowned in
tears, she said that she wished to follow in death the only partner of
her bed that she had ever had; and ordered that, as soon as the signal
had been given from a place of watch, torches should be put to the room,
then that halters should be made out of their robes; and to these they
should proffer their throats to be strangled, thrusting away the support
to the feet. They agreed, and that they might blench the less at death,
she gave them a draught of wine. After this Hagbard was led to the hill,
which afterwards took its name from him, to be hanged. Then, to test
the loyalty of his true love, he told the executioners