, and it is
only what is looked for from us."

Grim and Helgi came home ere the board was cleared, and men were much
struck at that. Njal asked why they had returned so quickly, but they
told what they had heard.

Njal bade no man go to sleep, but to beware of themselves.

CHAPTER CXXVII.

THE ONSLAUGHT ON BERGTHORSKNOLL.

Now Flosi speaks to his men--

"Now we will ride to Bergthorsknoll, and come thither before
supper-time."

They do so. There was a dell in the knoll, and they rode thither, and
tethered their horses there, and stayed there till the evening was far
spent.

Then Flosi said, "Now we will go straight up to the house, and keep
close, and walk slow, and see what counsel they will take".

Njal stood out of doors, and his sons, and Kari and all the serving-men,
and they stood in array to meet them in the yard, and they were near
thirty of them.

Flosi halted and said--"Now we shall see what counsel they take, for it
seems to me, if they stand out of doors to meet us, as though we should
never get the mastery over them".

"Then is our journey bad," says Grani Gunnar's son, "if we are not to
dare to fall on them."

"Nor shall that be," says Flosi; "for we will fall on them though they
stand out of doors; but we shall pay that penalty, that many will not go
away to tell which side won the day."

Njal said to his men, "See ye now what a great band of men they have".

"They have both a great and well-knit band," says Skarphedinn; "but this
is why they make a halt now, because they think it will be a hard
struggle to master us."

"That cannot be why they halt," says Njal; "and my will is that our men
go indoors, for they had hard work to master Gunnar of Lithend, though
he was alone to meet them; but here is a strong house as there was
there, and they will be slow to come to close quarters."

"This is not to be settled in that wise," says Skarphedinn, "for those
chiefs fell on Gunnar's house, who were so noble-minded, that they would
rather turn back than burn him, house and all; but these will fall on us
at once with fire, if they cannot get at us in any other way, for they
will leave no stone unturned to get the better of us; and no doubt they
think, as is not unlikely, that it will be their deaths if we escape
out of their hands. Besides, I am unwilling to let myself be stifled
indoors like a fox in his earth."

"Now," said Njal, "as often it happens, my sons, ye set my counsel at