For a while Swanhild stood still listening, but there was nothing to hear.  Then she drew near to the shut bed where Gudruda slept, and, with her ear to the curtain, listened once more.  Gizur came with her, and as he came his foot struck against a bench and stirred it.  Now Swanhild heard murmured words and the sound of kisses.  She started back, and fury filled her heart.  Gizur also heard the voice of Eric, saying:  “I will rise.”  Then he would have fled, but Swanhild caught him by the arm.

“Fear not,” she whispered, “they shall soon sleep sound.”

He felt her stretch out her arms and presently he saw this wonderful thing:  the eyes of Swanhild glowing in the darkness as the embers glowed upon the hearth.  Now they glowed brightly, so brightly that he could see the outstretched arms and the hard white face beneath them, and now they grew dim, of a sudden to shine bright again.  And all the while she hissed words through her clenched teeth.

Thus she hissed, fierce and low: 

     “Gudruda, Sister mine, hearken and sleep! 
     By the bond of blood I bid thee sleep!—­
     By the strength that is in me I bid thee sleep!—­
     Sleep! sleep sound!

     “Eric Brighteyes, hearken and sleep! 
     By the bond of sin I charge thee sleep!—­
     By the blood of Atli I charge thee, sleep!—­
     Sleep! sleep sound!”

Then thrice she tossed her hands aloft, saying: 

     “From love to sleep! 
     From sleep to death! 
     From death to Hela! 
     Say, lovers, where shall ye kiss again?”

Then the light went out of her eyes and she laughed low.  And ever as she whispered, the spoken words of the two in the shut bed grew fainter and more faint, till at length they died away, and a silence fell upon the place.

“Thou hast no cause to fear the sword of Eric, Gizur,” she said.  “Nothing will wake him now till daylight comes.”

“Thou art awesome!” answered Gizur, for he shook with fear.  “Look not on me with those flaming eyes, I pray thee!”

“Fear not,” she said, “the fire is out.  Now to the work.”

“What must we do, then?”

“Thou must do this.  Thou must enter and slay Eric.”

“That I can not—­that I will not!” said Gizur.

She turned and looked at him, and lo! her eyes began to flame again—­upon his eyes they seemed to burn.

“Thou wilt do as I bid thee,” she said.  “With Eric’s sword thou shalt slay Eric, else I will curse thee where thou art, and bring such evil on thee as thou knowest not of.”

“Look not so, Swanhild,” he said.  “Lead on—­I come.”

Now they creep into the shut chamber of Gudruda.  It is so dark that they can see nothing, and nothing can they hear except the heavy breathing of the sleepers.

This is to be told, that at this time Swanhild had it in her mind to kill, not Eric but Gudruda, for thus she would smite the heart of Brighteyes.  Moreover, she loved Eric, and while he lived she might yet win him; but Eric dead must be Eric lost.  But on Gudruda she would be bitterly avenged—­Gudruda, who, for all her scheming, had yet been a wife to Eric!