urged them in a passionate harangue unto valorous deeds.  But the barbarians, loth to engage without a general, and seeing that they needed a head, appointed a king over them; and, displaying all the rest of their military force, hid two companies of armed men in a dark spot.  But Rorik saw the trap; and perceiving that his fleet was wedged in a certain narrow creek among the shoal water, took it out from the sands where it was lying, and brought it forth to sea; lest it should strike on the oozy swamps, and be attacked by the foe on different sides.  Also, he resolved that his men should go into hiding during the day, where they could stay and suddenly fall on the invaders of his ships.  He said that perchance the guile might in the end recoil on the heads of its devisors.  And in fact the barbarians who had been appointed to the ambuscade knew nothing of the wariness of the Danes, and sallying against them rashly, were all destroyed.  The remaining force of the Slavs, knowing nothing of the slaughter of their friends, hung in doubt wondering over the reason of Rorik’s tarrying.  And after waiting long for him as the months wearily rolled by, and finding delay every day more burdensome, they at last thought they should attack him with their fleet.

Now among them there was a man of remarkable stature, a wizard by calling.  He, when he beheld the squadrons of the Danes, said:  “Suffer a private combat to forestall a public slaughter, so that the danger of many may be bought off at the cost of a few.  And if any of you shall take heart to fight it out with me, I will not flinch from these terms of conflict.  But first of all I demand that you accept the terms I prescribe, the form whereof I have devised as follows:  If I conquer, let freedom be granted us from taxes; if I am conquered, let the tribute be paid you as of old:  For to-day I will either free my country from the yoke of slavery by my victory or bind her under it by my defeat.  Accept me as the surety and the pledge for either issue.”  One of the Danes, whose spirit was stouter than his strength, heard this, and proceeded to ask Rorik, what would be the reward for the man who met the challenger in combat?  Rorik chanced to have six bracelets, which were so intertwined that they could not be parted from one another, the chain of knots being inextricaly laced; and he promised them as a reward for the man who would venture on the combat.  But the youth, who doubted his fortune, said:  “Rorik, if I prove successful, let thy generosity award the prize of the conqueror, do thou decide and allot the palm; but if my enterprise go little to my liking, what prize canst thou owe to the beaten, who will be wrapped either in cruel death or in bitter shame?  These things commonly go with feebleness, these are the wages of the defeated, for whom naught remains but utter infamy.  What guerdon must be paid, what thanks offered, to him who lacks the prize of courage?  Who has ever garlanded with ivy the