at this man had a double lot for his share? By one, he had a fleet
unscathed, an empire well-inclined, and immense power as a rover; while
the other inflicted on him the ruin of his fame, the slaughter of his
soldiers, and a most bitter end. The executioner beheld him beset with
poisonous beasts, and asps gorging on that heart which he had borne
steadfast in the face of every peril. Thus a most glorious conqueror
declined to the piteous lot of a prisoner; a lesson that no man should
put too much trust in fortune.

Iwar heard of this disaster as he happened to be looking on at the
games. Nevertheless, he kept an unmoved countenance, and in nowise broke
down. Not only did he dissemble his grief and conceal the news of
his father's death, but he did not even allow a clamour to arise, and
forbade the panic-stricken people to leave the scene of the sports.
Thus, loth to interrupt the spectacle by the ceasing of the games,
he neither clouded his countenance nor turned his eyes from public
merriment to dwell upon his private sorrow; for he would not fall
suddenly into the deepest melancholy from the height of festal joy, or
seem to behave more like an afflicted son than a blithe captain.

But when Siward heard the same tidings, he loved his father more than he
cared for his own pain, and in his distraction plunged deeply into his
foot the spear he chanced to be holding, dead to all bodily troubles in
his stony sadness. For he wished to hurt some part of his body severely,
that he might the more patiently bear the wound in his soul. By this act
he showed at once his bravery and his grief, and bore his lot like a son
who was more afflicted and steadfast. But Biorn received the tidings
of his father's death while he was playing at dice, and squeezed so
violently the piece that he was grasping that he wrung the blood from
his fingers and shed it on the table; whereon he said that assuredly
the cast of fate was more fickle than that of the very die which he was
throwing. When Ella heard this, he judged that his father's death had
been borne with the toughest and most stubborn spirit by that son of the
three who had paid no filial respect to his decease; and therefore he
dreaded the bravery of Iwar most.

Iwar went towards England, and when he saw that his fleet was not strong
enough to join battle with the enemy, he chose to be cunning rather than
bold, and tried a shrewd trick on Ella, begging as a pledge of peace
between them a