232 LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. [XII. 



where Saracens flee like chaff upon the wind before him, 

 and impregnable Sicilian castles fall into his power by 

 impossible feats of arms, or incredible stratagems. A Greek 

 empress, " the mature Zoe," as Gibbon calls her, falls in 

 love with him, and her husband, Constantine Monomachus, 

 puts him in prison \ but Saint Olaf still protects his mau- 

 vais sujet of a brother, and inspires "a lady of distinction" 

 with the successful idea of helping Harald out of his inac- 

 cessible tower by the prosaic expedient of a ladder of ropes. 

 A boom, however, across the harbour's mouth still prevents 

 the escape of his vessel. The Sea-king is not to be so 

 easily baffled. Moving all his ballast, arms, and men, into 

 the afterpart of the ship, until her stem slants up out of the 

 sea, he rows straight at the iron chain. The ship leaps 

 almost half-way over. The weight being then immediately 

 transferred to the fore-part, she slips down into the water 

 on the other side, — having topped the fence like an Irish 

 hunter. A second galley breaks her back in the attempt. 

 After some questionable acts of vengeance on the Greek 

 court, Harald and his bold Vaeringers go fighting and plun- 

 dering their way through the Bosphorus and Black Sea back 

 to Novogorod, where the first part of the romance termi- 

 nates, as it should, by his marriage with the object of his 

 secret attachment, Elisof, the daughter of the Russian king. 

 Hardrada's story darkens towards the end, as most of the 

 tales of that stirring time are apt to do. His death on 

 English ground is so striking, that you must have patience 

 with one other short Saga; it will give you the battle of 

 Stanford Bridge from the Norse point of view. 



The expedition against Harold of England commences 

 ill ; dreams and omens affright the fleet ; one man dreams 

 he sees a raven sitting on the stern of each vessel; another 

 sees the fair English coast ; 



" But glancing shields 

 Hide the green fields ; " 



and other fearful phenomena mar the beautiful vision. 

 Harald himself dreams that he is back again at Nidaros, 



