rength, and
mustering a larger body of forces, he resolved to avenge the wrong he
had suffered in losing his sovereignty, not only upon the Saxons, but
upon the whole people of Germany. He began by subduing Friesland with
his fleet.

This province lies very low, and whenever the fury of the ocean bursts
the dykes that bar its waves, it is wont to receive the whole mass of
the deluge over its open plains. On this country Gotrik imposed a kind
of tribute, which was not so much harsh as strange. I will briefly
relate its terms and the manner of it. First, a building was arranged,
two hundred and forty feet in length, and divided into twelve spaces;
each of these stretching over an interval of twenty feet, and thus
making together, when the whole room was exhausted, the aforesaid total.
Now at the upper end of this building sat the king's treasurer, and in a
line with him at its further end was displayed a round shield. When the
Frisians came to pay tribute, they used to cast their coins one by one
into the hollow of this shield; but only those coins which struck the
ear of the distant toll-gatherer with a distinct clang were chosen by
him, as he counted, to be reckoned among the royal tribute. The result
was that the collector only reckoned that money towards the treasury of
which his distant ear caught the sound as it fell. But that of which the
sound was duller, and which fell out of his earshot, was received indeed
into the treasury, but did not count as any increase to the sum paid.
Now many coins that were cast in struck with no audible loudness
whatever on the collector's ear, so that men who came to pay their
appointed toll sometimes squandered much of their money in useless
tribute. Karl is said to have freed them afterwards from the burden of
this tax. After Gotrik had crossed Friesland, and Karl had now come back
from Rome, Gotrik determined to swoop down upon the further districts of
Germany, but was treacherously attacked by one of his own servants, and
perished at home by the sword of a traitor. When Karl heard this, he
leapt up overjoyed, declaring that nothing more delightful had ever
fallen to his lot than this happy chance.

ENDNOTES:
(1) Furthest Thule--The names of Icelanders have thus crept
into the account of a battle fought before the discovery of
Iceland.

BOOK NINE.

After Gotrik's death reigned his son OLAF; who, desirous to avenge his
father, did not hesitate to