Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/153

 REIGN OF KING OLAF THE SAINT. 143 any timber of his fleet was never seen more. Had all gone down, — ^broken oaths, bridal hopes, and all else ; mouse and man, — into the roaring waters. There was no farther Opposition-line ; the like of which had lasted ever since old heathen Hakon Jarl, down to this his grandson Hakon^s finis in the Pentland Frith. With this Hakon's disappearance it now disappeared. Indeed Knut himself, though of an empire sud- denly so great, was but a temporary phenomenon. Fate had decided that the grand and wise Knut was to be short-lived ; and to leave nothing as successors but an ineffectual young Harald Harefoot, who soon perished, and a still stupider fiercely-drinking Harda- Knut, who rushed down of apoplexy (here in London City, as I guess), with the goblet at his mouth, drink- ing health and happiness at a wedding-feast, also before long. Hakon having vanished in this dark way, there ensued a pause, both on Knut's part and on Nor- way's. Pause or interregnum of some months, till it became certain, first, whether Hakon were actually dead, secondly, till Norway, and especially till King Knut himself, could decide what to do. Knut, to the