228 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [XII. 



Stout, faithful heart ! if they gave you no place in your 

 master's stately tomb, there is room for you by his side in 

 heaven ! 



I have at last received — I need not say how joy fully — two 

 letters from vou ; one addressed to Hammerfest. I had 

 begun to think that some Norwegian warlock had bewitched 

 the post-bags, in the approved old ballad fashion, to prevent 

 their rendering up my dues ; for when the packet of letters 

 addressed to the " Foam" was brought on board, immediately 

 after our arrival, I alone got nothing. From Sigurdr and the 

 Doctor to the cabin-boy, every face was beaming over " news 

 from home ! " while I was left to walk the deck, with my 

 hands in my pockets, pretending not to care. But the spell is 

 broken now, and I retract my evil thoughts of the warlock 

 and you. 



Yesterday, we made an excursion as far as Lade, saw a 

 waterfall, which is one of the lions of this neighbourhood 

 (but a very mitigated lion, which " roars you as soft as any 

 sucking dove "), and returned in the evening to attend a ball 

 given to celebrate the visit of the Crown Prince. 



At Lade', I confess I could think of nothing but "the great 

 Jarl " Hacon, the counsellor, and maker of kings, king himself 

 in all but the name, for he ruled over the western sea-board 

 of Norway, while Olaf Tryggvesson was yet a wanderer and 

 exile. He is certainly one of the most picturesque figures of 

 these Norwegian dramas; what with his rude wit, his personal 

 bravery, and that hereditary beauty of his race for which he 

 was conspicuous above the rest. His very errors, great as 

 they were, have a dash and prestige about them, which in 

 that rude time must have dazzled men's eyes, and especially 

 women's, as his story proves. It was his sudden passion for 

 the beautiful Gudrun Lyrgia (the "Sun of Lunde," as she was 

 called), which precipitated the avenging fate which years of 

 heart-burnings and discontent among his subjects had been 

 preparing. Gudrun's husband incites the Bonders to throw 



Norse leeches to give him an onion to eat ; by this means they learnt 

 whether the weapon had perforated the viscera. 



