s true, and it will cost you an effort to free yourself
of the charge."
She said she was quite ready to do that, and therewith they parted.
After this Thorsteinn remained entirely with the Varangians. Men say
that he acted by the advice of Harald the son of Sigurd, and it is
thought that they would not have got out of it as they did if they had
not made use of him and his wits.
After a time Sigurd gave out that he was about to go abroad on some
business. His wife did not try to dissuade him. When he was gone
Thorsteinn came to Spes and they were always together. Her house was
built on the very edge of the sea and there were some of the rooms under
which the sea flowed.
Here it was that Spes and Thorsteinn always sat. There was a small
trap-door in the floor, known to no one but these two, and it was kept
open in case of its being wanted in a hurry.
Sigurd, it must be told, did not go away, but concealed himself so as to
be able to watch his wife's doings. One evening when they were sitting
unconcernedly in the room over the sea and enjoying themselves, in came
her husband with a party of men, taking them by surprise. He had taken
some of the men to the window of the room that they might see whether it
was not as he had said. They all said that he had spoken truly, and that
it must have been so too on the former occasions. Then they rushed into
the room.
On hearing the noise Spes said to Thorsteinn: "You must go down here
whatever it costs. Give me some sign that you have got away from the
house."
He promised that he would, and descended through the floor. The lady
closed the trap-door with her foot, and it fell back into its place so
that no one could see any mark of the floor having been touched. Sigurd
entered the room with his men, searched, and of course found nothing.
The room was uninhabited and there was no furniture in it, but only the
bare floor and a bed, on which the lady was sitting and twirling her
fingers. She paid little attention to them and seemed as if their
business did not concern her. Sigurd thought it altogether ridiculous
and asked his followers if they had not seen the man. They declared that
they had seen him most assuredly.
The lady said: "Now we may say as the proverb has it: All good things
are in threes. This is your case, Sigurd. Three times you have disturbed
me, if I remember rightly; and now are you any the wiser than you were
in the beginning?"
"This time I am not a
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