Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/100

 90 EARLY KINGS OF NORWAY. on the subject,* addressed to contemporary audiences | setting forth such a state of tilings, — sons selling thei fathers, mothers, and sisters as Slaves to the Dani robber; themselves living in debauchery, blusteroi gluttony, and depravity; the details of which well-nigh incredible, though clearly stated as thin^ generally known, — the humour of these poor wretche*| sunk to a state of what we may call greasy despera- tion, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die/' The manner in which they treated their own English nuns, if young, good-looking, and captive to the Danes ; buying them on a kind of brutish or sub- ter-brutish 'Greatest Happiness Principle' (for the moment), and by a Joint- Stock arrangement, far trans- cends all human speech or imagination, and awakens in one the momentary red-hot thought. The Danes have served you right, ye accursed ! The so-called soldiers, one finds made not the least fight anywhere; could make none, led and guided as they were : and the 'Generals,' often enough traitors, always ignorant, Langebek in his excellent Collection, Eerum Danicarum Scriptores MediiMvi. Hafnice, 1772-18di.
 * This sermon was printed by Heame ; and is given also by