Amleth, when he had accomplished the slaughter of his stepfather, feared to expose his deed to the fickle judgment of his countrymen, and thought it well to lie in hiding till he had learnt what way the mob of the uncouth populace was tending.  So the whole neighbourhood, who had watched the blaze during the night, and in the morning desired to know the cause of the fire they had seen, perceived the royal palace fallen in ashes; and, on searching through its ruins, which were yet warm, found only some shapeless remains of burnt corpses.  For the devouring flame had consumed everything so utterly that not a single token was left to inform them of the cause of such a disaster.  Also they saw the body of Feng lying pierced by the sword, amid his blood-stained raiment.  Some were seized with open anger, others with grief, and some with secret delight.  One party bewailed the death of their leader, the other gave thanks that the tyranny of the fratricide was now laid at rest.  Thus the occurrence of the king’s slaughter was greeted by the beholders with diverse minds.

Amleth, finding the people so quiet, made bold to leave his hiding.  Summoning those in whom he knew the memory of his father to be fast-rooted, he went to the assembly and there made a speech after this manner: 

“Nobles!  Let not any who are troubled by the piteous end of Horwendil be worried by the sight of this disaster before you; be not ye, I say, distressed, who have remained loyal to your king and duteous to your father.  Behold the corpse, not of a prince, but of a fratricide.  Indeed, it was a sorrier sight when ye saw our prince lying lamentably butchered by a most infamous fratricide-brother, let me not call him.  With your own compassionating eyes ye have beheld the mangled limbs of Horwendil; they have seen his body done to death with many wounds.  Surely that most abominable butcher only deprived his king of life that he might despoil his country of freedom!  The hand that slew him made you slaves.  Who then so mad as to choose Feng the cruel before Horwendil the righteous?  Remember how benignantly Horwendil fostered you, how justly he dealt with you, how kindly he loved you.  Remember how you lost the mildest of princes and the justest of fathers, while in his place was put a tyrant and an assassin set up; how your rights were confiscated; how everything was plague-stricken; how the country was stained with infamies; how the yoke was planted on your necks, and how, your free will was forfeited!  And now all this is over; for ye see the criminal stifled in his own crimes, the slayer of his kin punished for his misdoings.  What man of but ordinary wit, beholding it, would account this kindness a wrong?  What sane man could be sorry that the crime has recoiled upon the culprit?  Who could lament the killing of a most savage executioner?  Or bewail the righteous death of a most cruel despot?  Ye behold the doer of the deed; he is before you.  Yea, I own that I