But Toste lacked not heart to avenge himself.  For, not having store enough in his own land to recruit his forces—­so heavy was the blow he had received—­he went to Britain, calling himself an ambassador.  Upon his outward voyage, for sheer wantonness, he got his crew together to play dice, and when a wrangle arose from the throwing of the cubes, he taught them to wind it up with a fatal affray.  And so, by means of this peaceful sport, he spread the spirit of strife through the whole ship, and the jest gave place to quarrelling, which engendered bloody combat.  Also, fain to get some gain out of the misfortunes of others, he seized the moneys of the slain, and attached to him a certain rover then famous, named Koll; and a little after returned in his company to his own land, where he was challenged and slain by Hadding, who preferred to hazard his own fortune rather than that of his soldiers.  For generals of antique valour were loth to accomplish by general massacre what could be decided by the lot of a few.

After these deeds the figure of Hadding’s dead wife appeared before him in his sleep, and sang thus: 

“A monster is born to thee that shall tame the rage of wild beasts, and crush with fierce mouth the fleet wolves.”

Then she added a little:  “Take thou heed; from thee hath issued a bird of harm, in choler a wild screech-owl, in tongue a tuneful swan.”

On the morrow the king, when he had shaken off slumber, told the vision to a man skilled in interpretations, who explained the wolf to denote a son that would be truculent and the word swan as signifying a daughter; and foretold that the son would be deadly to enemies and the daughter treacherous to her father.  The result answered to the prophecy.  Hadding’s daughter, Ulfhild, who was wife to a certain private person called Guthorm, was moved either by anger at her match, or with aspirations to glory, and throwing aside all heed of daughterly love, tempted her husband to slay her father; declaring that she preferred the name of queen to that of princess.  I have resolved to set forth the manner of her exhortation almost in the words in which she uttered it; they were nearly these: 

“Miserable am I, whose nobleness is shadowed by an unequal yoke!  Hapless am I, to whose pedigree is bound the lowliness of a peasant!  Luckless issue of a king, to whom a common man is equal by law of marriage!  Pitiable daughter of a prince, whose comeliness her spiritless father hath made over to base and contemptible embraces!  Unhappy child of thy mother, with thy happiness marred by consorting with this bed! thy purity is handled by the impurity of a peasant, thy nobility is bowed down by ignoble commonness, thy high birth is impaired by the estate of thy husband!  But thou, if any pith be in thee, if valour reign in thy soul at all, if thou deem thyself fit husband for a king’s daughter, wrest the sceptre from her father, retrieve thy lineage by thy