I bore
my brother I will take his revenge on myself. Let no one interfere. This
murderer is mine."

Then King Pellam snatched up a mighty weapon and struck fiercely at
Balin, who threw up his own sword in guard. He was in time to save his
head, but the treacherous blade went into pieces beneath the stroke,
leaving him unarmed before the furious king.

Balin, finding himself thus in danger of death, ran into a neighboring
chamber in search of a weapon, closely pursued by his enraged adversary.
Finding none there, he ran on from chamber to chamber, seeking a weapon
in vain, with King Pellam raging like a maddened lion behind him.

At length Balin entered a rich and marvellously adorned chamber, within
which was a bed covered with cloth of gold of the noblest texture, and
in this bed a person lay. Near by was a table with a top of solid gold
and four curiously-shaped pillars of silver for its legs, while upon it
stood a mighty spear, whose handle was strangely wrought, as though it
had been made for a mighty king.

But of all this marvel and magnificence Balin saw only the spear, which
he seized at once with a strong grip, and turned with it to face his
adversary. King Pellam was close at hand, with sword uplifted for a
fatal stroke, but as he rushed in blind rage forward Balin pierced his
body with the spear, hurling him insensible to the floor.

Little dreamed the fated warrior of all that thrust portended. The spear
he used was a magical weapon, and prophecy had long declared that the
deadliest evil should come from its use. King Pellam had no sooner
fallen beneath that fatal thrust than all the castle rocked and tottered
as if a mighty earthquake had passed beneath its walls, and the air was
filled with direful sounds. Then down crushed the massive roof, and with
a sound like that of the trumpet-blast of disaster the strong walls rent
asunder, and rushed downward in a torrent of ruin. One moment that
stately pile lifted its proud battlements in majesty toward the skies;
the next it lay prostrate as though it had been stricken by the hand of
God to the earth.

Men say who saw it that when fell that fatal blow--thereafter to be
known in history and legend as the "dolorous stroke"--the castle
shivered like a forest struck by a strong wind, and then fell with a
mighty crash, burying hundreds beneath its walls. Among these were Balin
and King Pellam, who lay there for three days without aid or relief, in
deep agony a