to lay hands on Ireland. Dublin, which was
considered the capital of the country, was beseiged. Its king went into
a wood adjoining the city with a few very skilled archers, and with
treacherous art surrounded Kanute (who was present with a great throng
of soldiers witnessing the show of the games by night), and aimed a
deadly arrow at him from afar. It struck the body of the king in front,
and pierced him with a mortal wound. But Kanute feared that the enemy
would greet his peril with an outburst of delight. He therefore wished
his disaster to be kept dark; and summoning voice with his last breath,
he ordered the games to be gone through without disturbance. By this
device he made the Danes masters of Ireland ere he made his own death
known to the Irish.

Who would not bewail the end of such a man, whose self-mastery served to
give the victory to his soldiers, by reason of the wisdom that outlasted
his life? For the safety of the Danes was most seriously endangered, and
was nearly involved in the most deadly peril; yet because they obeyed
the dying orders of their general they presently triumphed over those
they feared.

Germ had now reached the extremity of his days, having been blind for
many years, and had prolonged his old age to the utmost bounds of the
human lot, being more anxious for the life and prosperity of his sons
than for the few days he had to breathe. But so great was his love
for his elder son that he swore that he would slay with his own hand
whosoever first brought him news of his death. As it chanced, Thyra
heard sure tidings that this son had perished. But when no man durst
openly hint this to Germ, she fell back on her cunning to defend her,
and revealed by her deeds the mischance which she durst not speak
plainly out. For she took the royal robes off her husband and dressed
him in filthy garments, bringing him other signs of grief also, to
explain the cause of her mourning; for the ancients were wont to use
such things in the performance of obsequies, bearing witness by their
garb to the bitterness of their sorrow. Then said Germ: "Dost thou
declare to me the death of Kanute?" (2) And Thyra said: "That is
proclaimed by thy presage, not by mine." By this answer she made out her
lord a dead man and herself a widow, and had to lament her husband as
soon as her son. Thus, while she announced the fate of her son to her
husband, she united them in death, and followed the obsequies of both
with equal