When Aslog saw the darkness of his countenance, and heard his angry words, she turned pale as death, for she knew his temper, and doubted not that he would put his threats into execution.  Without uttering a word in reply, she retired to her chamber, and thought deeply but in vain how to avert the dark storm that hung over her.  The great festival approached nearer and nearer, and her anguish increased every day.

At last the lovers resolved on flight.

“I know,” said Orm, “a secure place where we may remain undiscovered until we find an opportunity of quitting the country.”

At night, when all were asleep, Orm led the trembling Aslog over the snow and ice-fields away to the mountains.  The moon and the stars, sparkling still brighter in the cold winter’s night, lighted them on their way.  They had under their arms a few articles of dress and some skins of animals, which were all they could carry.  They ascended the mountains the whole night long till they reached a lonely spot enclosed with lofty rocks.  Here Orm conducted the weary Aslog into a cave, the low and narrow entrance to which was hardly perceptible, but it soon enlarged to a great hall, reaching deep into the mountain.  He kindled a fire, and they now, reposing on their skins, sat in the deepest solitude far away from all the world.

Orm was the first who had discovered this cave, which is shown to this very day, and as no one knew anything of it, they were safe from the pursuit of Aslog’s father.  They passed the whole winter in this retirement.  Orm used to go a-hunting, and Aslog stayed at home in the cave, minded the fire, and prepared the necessary food.  Frequently did she mount the points of the rocks, but her eyes wandered as far as they could reach only over glittering snow-fields.

The spring now came on:  the woods were green, the meadows pat on their various colours, and Aslog could but rarely, and with circumspection, venture to leave the cave.  One evening Orm came in with the intelligence that he had recognised her father’s servants in the distance, and that he could hardly have been unobserved by them whose eyes were as good as his own.

“They will surround this place,” continued he, “and never rest till they have found us.  We must quit our retreat then without a minute’s delay.”

They accordingly descended on the other side of the mountain, and reached the strand, where they fortunately found a boat.  Orm shoved off, and the boat drove into the open sea.  They had escaped their pursuers, but they were now exposed to dangers of another kind.  Whither should they turn themselves?  They could not venture to land, for Aslog’s father was lord of the whole coast, and they would infallibly fall into his hands.  Nothing then remained for them but to commit their bark to the wind and waves.  They drove along the entire night.  At break of day the coast had disappeared, and they saw nothing but the sky above, the sea beneath, and the waves that rose and fell.  They had not brought one morsel of food with them, and thirst and hunger began now to torment them.  Three days did they toss about in this state of misery, and Aslog, faint and exhausted, saw nothing but certain death before her.