y growing poorer, and a strong hand
was needed at the helm of the ship-of-state.

It was when King Inge, who was not of royal blood, and whose hand was not
the strong hand needed, was on the throne, that new hope came to the
people, for it was made known that they had among them a boy of kingly
descent, a grandson of the noble Sverre. Men thought that King Sverre's
line had died out, and there was great joy in their hearts when they
learned that his son Haakon had left a son.

This boy was born in 1203, son of the beautiful Inga of Varteig, whom
King Haakon had warmly loved though she was not his wife. The little
prince was named Haakon, after his father, but he was born in the midst
of the Baglers, his father's foes, and the priest who baptized him bade
Inga to keep his birth a strict secret, letting none outside her own
family know that a new prince had come to the land.

The secret was well kept for a time, but whispers got abroad, and Thrond,
the priest, at length told the story to Erland of Huseby, whom he knew to
be on the right side. Erland heard the news with joy, but feared peril
for the little prince, thus born in the land of his enemies. Rumors were
growing, danger might at any moment come, and though it was mid-winter, a
season of deep snows and biting winds, he advised the priest to send the
boy and his mother to the court of King Inge, offering himself to take
them across the pathless mountains.

The difficult journey was made in safety and the boy and his mother were
kindly welcomed by the king, and joyfully greeted by the Birchlegs, who
were strong in that district. Little Haakon was then less than two years
old, and it is said that the old loyalists, who were eager to have a king
of the royal blood, used in playfulness to pull him between them by the
arms and legs, to make him grow faster.

The Birchlegs were in fear of Haakon Galen, the king's brother, who was
ambitious to succeed to the throne. Yet Earl Haakon took a great fancy to
the helpless little child and seemed to love him as much as any of them.
Thus the child prince, though in the midst of plotters for the throne,
who would naturally be likely to act as his enemies, seemed protected by
the good angels and brought safely through all his perils.

Even when he was captured by the Baglers, when four years of age, they
did not harm him, being possibly so taken by his infantile beauty and
winning ways that they could not bring themselves to in