in which they had learnt by report that the king used to take his walks unaccompanied, they hid their weapons.  Then they talked long with Athisl, giving themselves out as deserters; and when he asked them what was their native country, they said they were men of Sleswik, and had left their land “for manslaughter”.  The king thought that this statement referred not to their vow to commit the crime, but to the guilt of some crime already committed.  For they desired by this deceit to foil his inquisitiveness, so that the truthfulness of the statement might baffle the wit of the questioner, and their true answer, being covertly shadowed forth in a fiction, might inspire in him a belief that it was false.  For famous men of old thought lying a most shameful thing.  Then Athisl said he would like to know whom the Danes believed to be the slayer of Frowin.  Ket replied that there was a doubt as to who ought to claim so illustrious a deed, especially as the general testimony was that he had perished on the field of battle.  Athisl answered that it was idle to credit others with the death of Frowin, which he, and he alone, had accomplished in mutual combat.  Soon he asked whether Frowin had left any children.  Ket answering that two sons of his were alive, said that he would be very glad to learn their age and stature.  Ket replied that they were almost of the same size as themselves in body, alike in years, and much resembling them in tallness.  Then Athisl said:  “If the mind and the valour of their sire were theirs, a bitter tempest would break upon me.”  Then he asked whether those men constantly spoke of the slaying of their father.  Ket rejoined that it was idle to go on talking and talking about a thing that could not be softened by any remedy, and declared that it was no good to harp with constant vexation on an inexpiable ill.  By saying this he showed that threats ought not to anticipate vengeance.

When Ket saw that the king regularly walked apart alone in order to train his strength, he took up his arms, and with his brother followed the king as he walked in front of them.  Athisl, when he saw them, stood his ground on the sand, thinking it shameful to avoid threateners.  Then they said that they would take vengeance for his slaying of Frowin, especially as he avowed with so many arrogant vaunts that he alone was his slayer.  But he told them to take heed lest while they sought to compass their revenge, they should be so foolhardy as to engage him with their feeble and powerless hand, and while desiring the destruction of another, should find they had fallen themselves.  Thus they would cut off their goodly promise of overhasty thirst for glory.  Let them then save their youth and spare their promise; let them not be seized so lightly with a desire to perish.  Therefore, let them suffer him to requite with money the trespass done them in their father’s death, and account it great honour that they would be credited with forcing so mighty a chief to pay a fine, and in a manner with