conquests, fell, all by the sloth of one man, from the most illustrious fortune and prosperity into such disgrace that it paid the tribute which it used to exact.  But Siward, too often defeated and guilty of shameful flights, could not endure, after that glorious past, to hold the troubled helm of state any longer in this shameful condition of his land; and, fearing that living longer might strip him of his last shred of glory, he hastened to win an honourable death in battle.  For his soul could not forget his calamity, it was fain to cast off its sickness, and was racked with weariness of life.  So much did he abhor the light of life in his longing to wipe out his shame.  So he mustered his army for battle, and openly declared war with one Simon, who was governor of Skaane under Gotar.  This war he pursued with stubborn rashness; he slew Simon, and ended his own life amid a great slaughter of his foes.  Yet his country could not be freed from the burden of the tribute.

Jarmerik, meantime, with his foster-brother of the same age as himself, Gunn, was living in prison, in charge of Ismar, the King of the Sclavs.  At last he was taken out and put to agriculture, doing the work of a peasant.  So actively did he manage this matter that he was transferred and made master of the royal slaves.  As he likewise did this business most uprightly, he was enrolled in the band of the king’s retainers.  Here he bore himself most pleasantly as courtiers use, and was soon taken into the number of the king’s friends and obtained the first place in his intimacy; thus, on the strength of a series of great services, he passed from the lowest estate to the most distinguished height of honour.  Also, loth to live a slack and enfeebled youth, he trained himself to the pursuits of war, enriching his natural gifts by diligence.  All men loved Jarmerik, and only the queen mistrusted the young man’s temper.  A sudden report told them that the king’s brother had died.  Ismar, wishing to give his body a splendid funeral, prepared a banquet of royal bounty to increase the splendour of the obsequies.

But Jarmerik, who used at other times to look after the household affairs together with the queen, began to cast about for means of escape; for a chance seemed to be offered by the absence of the king.  For he saw that even in the lap of riches he would be the wretched thrall of a king, and that he would draw, as it were, his very breath on sufferance and at the gift of another.  Moreover, though he held the highest offices with the king, he thought that freedom was better than delights, and burned with a mighty desire to visit his country and learn his lineage.  But, knowing that the queen had provided sufficient guards to see that no prisoner escaped, he saw that he must approach by craft where he could not arrive by force.  So he plaited one of those baskets of rushes and withies, shaped like a man, with which countrymen used to scare the birds from the corn, and put a live dog in it; then he took off his own clothes, and dressed it in them, to give a more plausible likeness to a human being.  Then he broke into the private treasury of the king, took out the money, and hid himself in places of which he alone knew.