Amleth, meanwhile, who found that his shield had been filched from under his head, deliberately shut his eyes and cunningly feigned sleep, hoping to regain by pretended what he had lost by real slumbers.  For he thought that the success of his one attempt would incline the spy to deceive him a second time.  And he was not mistaken.  For as the spy came up stealthily, and wanted to put back the shield and the writing in their old place, Amleth leapt up, seized him, and detained him in bonds.  Then he roused his retinue, and went to the abode of the queen.  As representing his father-in-law, he greeted her, and handled her the writing, sealed with the king’s seal.  The queen, who was named Hermutrude, took and read it, and spoke most warmly of Amleth’s diligence and shrewdness, saying, that Feng had deserved his punishment, and that the unfathomable wit of Amleth had accomplished a deed past all human estimation; seeing that not only had his impenetrable depth devised a mode of revenging his father’s death and his mother’s adultery, but it had further, by his notable deeds Of prowess, seized the kingdom of the man whom he had found constantly plotting against him.  She marvelled therefore that a man of such instructed mind could have made the one slip of a mistaken marriage; for though his renown almost rose above mortality, he seemed to have stumbled into an obscure and ignoble match.  For the parents of his wife had been slaves, though good luck had graced them with the honours of royalty.  Now (said she), when looking for a wife a wise man must reckon the lustre of her birth and not of her beauty.  Therefore, if he were to seek a match in a proper spirit, he should weigh the ancestry, and not be smitten by the looks; for though looks were a lure to temptation, yet their empty bedizenment had tarnished the white simplicity of many a man.  Now there was a woman, as nobly born as himself, whom he could take.  She herself, whose means were not poor nor her birth lowly, was worthy his embraces, since he did not surpass her in royal wealth nor outshine her in the honour of his ancestors.  Indeed she was a queen, and but that her sex gainsaid it, might be deemed a king; may (and this is yet truer), whomsoever she thought worthy of her bed was at once a king, and she yielded her kingdom with herself.  Thus her sceptre and her hand went together.  It was no mean favour for such a woman to offer her love, who in the case of other men had always followed her refusal with the sword.  Therefore she pressed him to transfer his wooing, to make over to her his marriage vows, and to learn to prefer birth to beauty.  So saying, she fell upon him with a close embrace.