ce. So he plaited one of those baskets
of rushes and withies, shaped like a man, with which countrymen used to
scare the birds from the corn, and put a live dog in it; then he took
off his own clothes, and dressed it in them, to give a more plausible
likeness to a human being. Then he broke into the private treasury of
the king, took out the money, and hid himself in places of which he
alone knew.

Meantime Gunn, whom he had told to conceal the absence of his friend,
took the basket into the palace and stirred up the dog to bark; and when
the queen asked what this was, he answered that Jarmerik was out of
his mind and howling. She, beholding the effigy, was deceived by the
likeness, and ordered that the madman should be cast out of the house.
Then Gunn took the effigy out and put it to bed, as though it were his
distraught friend. But towards night he plied the watch bountifully with
wine and festal mirth, cut off their heads as they slept, and set them
at their groins, in order to make their slaying more shameful. The
queen, roused by the din, and wishing to learn the reason of it, hastily
rushed to the doors. But while she unwarily put forth her head, the
sword of Gunn suddenly pierced her through. Feeling a mortal wound, she
sank, turned her eyes on her murderer, and said, "Had it been granted
me to live unscathed, no screen or treachery should have let thee leave
this land unpunished." A flood of such threats against her slayer poured
from her dying lips.

Then Jarmerik, with Gunn, the partner of his noble deed, secretly set
fire to the tent wherein the king was celebrating with a banquet the
obsequies of his brother; all the company were overcome with liquor. The
fire filled the tent and spread all about; and some of them, shaking
off the torpor of drink, took horse and pursued those who had endangered
them. But the young men fled at first on the beasts they had taken;
and at last, when these were exhausted with their long gallop, took to
flight on foot. They were all but caught, when a river saved them. For
they crossed a bridge, of which, in order to delay the pursuer, they
first cut the timbers down to the middle, thus making it not only
unequal to a burden, but ready to come down; then they retreated into a
dense morass.

The Sclavs pressed on them hard and, not forseeing the danger, unwarily
put the weight of their horses on the bridge; the flooring sank, and
they were shaken off and flung into the river. B