XII.] OLAF THE SAINT. 225 



had then God's honour to defend ; but this treason against 

 their sovereign is a much less grievous crime ; it is more 

 in my power to spare those who have dealt ill with me, 

 than those whom God hated." The same hard measure 

 which he meted to others he applied to his own actions : 

 witness that curiously characteristic scene, when, sitting in 

 his high seat, at table, lost in thought, he begins uncon- 

 sciously to cut splinters from a piece of fir-wood which he 

 held in his hand. The table servant, seeing what the King 

 was about, says to him, (mark the respectful periphrasis !) 

 " // is Monday, Sire, to-morrow" The King looks at him, 

 and it came into his mind what he was doing on a Sunday. 

 He sweeps up the shavings he had made, sets fire to them, 

 and lets them burn on his naked hand ; " showing thereby 

 that he would hold fast by • God's law, and not trespass 

 without punishment." 



But whatever human weaknesses may have mingled with 

 the pure ore of this noble character, whatever barbarities 

 may have stained his career, they are forgotten in the 

 pathetic close of his martial story. 



His subjects, — alienated by the sternness with which he 

 administers his own severely religious laws, or corrupted 

 by the bribes of Canute, king of Denmark and England, 

 are fallen from their allegiance. The brave, single-hearted 

 monarch is marching against the rebellious Bonders, at the 

 head of a handful of foreign troops, and such as remained 

 faithful among his own people. On the eve of that last 

 battle, on which he stakes throne and life, he intrusts a large 

 sum of money to a Bonder, to be laid out " on churches, 

 priests, and alms-men, as gifts for the souls of such as may 

 fall in battle against himself" — strong in the conviction of 

 the righteousness of his cause, and the assured salvation of 

 such as upheld it. 



He makes a glorious end. Forsaken by many whom lie 

 had loved and served, — yet forgiving and excusing them ; 

 rejecting the aid of all who denied that holy Faith which 

 had become the absorbing interest of his life, — but sur- 



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