dstrong country. After this he wished to avenge
Erik, who had been slain in Sweden by the malice of a certain Osten. But
while he was narrowly bent on avenging another, he squandered his
own blood on the foe; and while he was eagerly trying to punish the
slaughter of his brother, sacrificed his own life to brotherly love.

Thus SIWARD, by the sovereign vote of the whole Danish assembly,
received the empire of his father. But after the defeats he had
inflicted everywhere he was satisfied with the honour he received at
home, and liked better to be famous with the gown than with the sword.
He ceased to be a man of camps, and changed from the fiercest of despots
into the most punctual guardian of peace. He found as much honour in
ease and leisure as he had used to think lay in many victories. Fortune
so favoured his change of pursuits, that no foe ever attacked him, nor
he any foe. He died, and ERIK, who was a very young child, inherited his
nature, rather than his realm or his tranquillity. For Erik, the brother
of Harald, despising his exceedingly tender years, invaded the country
with rebels, and seized the crown; nor was he ashamed to assail the
lawful infant sovereign, and to assume an unrightful power. In thus
bringing himself to despoil a feeble child of the kingdom he showed
himself the more unworthy of it. Thus he stripped the other of his
throne, but himself of all his virtues, and cast all manliness out of
his heart, when he made war upon a cradle: for where covetousness and
ambition flamed, love of kindred could find no place. But this brutality
was requited by the wrath of a divine vengeance. For the war between
this man and Gudorm, the son of Harald, ended suddenly with such
slaughter that they were both slain, with numberless others; and the
royal stock of the Danes, now worn out by the most terrible massacres,
was reduced to the only son of the above Siward.

This man (Erik) won the fortune of a throne by losing his kindred; it
was luckier for him to have his relations dead than alive. He forsook
the example of all the rest, and hastened to tread in the steps of his
grandfather; for he suddenly came out as a most zealous practitioner of
roving. And would that he had not shown himself rashly to inherit
the spirit of Ragnar, by his abolition of Christian worship! For he
continually tortured all the most religious men, or stripped them of
their property and banished them. But it were idle for me to blame the
m