After this, Bikk, the son of the King of the Livonians, escaped from the captivity in which he lay under these said brothers, and went to Jarmerik.  But he did not forget his wrongs, Jarmerik having long before deprived him of his own brothers.  He was received kindly by the king, in all whose secret counsels he soon came to have a notable voice; and, as soon as he found the king pliable to his advice in all things, he led him, when his counsel was asked, into the most abominable acts, and drove him to commit crimes and infamies.  Thus he sought some device to injure the king by a feint of loyalty, and tried above all to steel him against his nearest of blood; attempting to accomplish the revenge of his brother by guile, since he could not by force.  So it came to pass that the king embraced filthy vices instead of virtues, and made himself generally hated by the cruel deeds which he committed at the instance of his treacherous adviser.  Even the Sclavs began to rise against him; and, as a means of quelling them, he captured their leaders, passed a rope through their shanks, and delivered them to be torn asunder by horses pulling different ways.  So perished their chief men, punished for their stubbornness of spirit by having their bodies rent apart.  This kept the Sclavs duly obedient in unbroken and steady subjugation.

Meantime, the sons of Jarmerik’s sister, who had all been born and bred in Germany, took up arms, on the strength of their grandsire’s title, against their uncle, contending that they had as good a right to the throne as he.  The king demolished their strongholds in Germany with engines, blockaded or took several towns, and returned home with a bloodless victory.  The Hellespontines came to meet him, proffering their sister for the promised marriage.  After this had been celebrated, at Bikk’s prompting he again went to Germany, took his nephews in war, and incontinently hanged them.  He also got together the chief men under the pretence of a banquet and had them put to death in the same fashion.

Meantime, the king appointed Broder, his son by another marriage, to have charge over his stepmother, a duty which he fulfilled with full vigilance and integrity.  But Bikk accused this man to his father of incest; and, to conceal the falsehood of the charge, suborned witnesses against him.  When the plea of the accusation had been fully declared, Broder could not bring any support for his defence, and his father bade his friends pass sentence upon the convicted man, thinking it less impious to commit the punishment proper for his son to the judgment of others.  All thought that he deserved outlawry except Bikk, who did not shrink from giving a more terrible vote against his life, and declaring that the perpetrator of an infamous seduction ought to be punished with hanging.  But lest any should think that this punishment was due to the cruelty of his father, Bikk judged that, when he had been put in the noose, the servants should