Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/158

 150 CHRONICLE OF THE saga vil Olver replies, that this accusation against the bon- ders was false. " We had," said he, ' c Yule feasts and drinking feasts wide around in the districts ; and the bonders do not prepare their feasts so sparingly, sire, that there is not much left over, which people con- sume long afterwards. At Maere there is a great farm, with a large house on it, and a great neighbourhood all around it, and it is the great delight of the people to drink many together in company." The king said little in reply, but looked angry, as he thought he knew the truth of the matter better than it was now represented. He ordered the bonders to return home. " I shall some time or other," says he, " come to the truth of what you are now concealing, and in such a way that ye shall not be able to contradict it. But, however that may be, do not try such things again." The bonders returned home, and told the result of their journey, and that the king was altoge- ther enraged. c £xv R ^ Easter the king held a feast, to which he had Murder of invited many of the townspeople as well as bonders. E^ge. After Easter he ordered his ships to be launched into the water, oars and tackle to be put on board, decks to be laid in the ships, and tilts* and rigging to be set up, and to be laid ready for sea at the piers. Im- mediately after Easter he sent men into Vserdal. There was a man called Thorald, who was the king's bailiff, and who managed the king's farm there at at Haug ; and to him the king sent a message to come to him as quickly as possible. Thorald did not de- cline the journey, but went immediately to the town with the messenger. The king called him in, and in a private conversation asked him what truth there was in what had been told him of the principles and the middle, where the rowers sat, to have had tilts or tents set up at night to sleep under.
 * The ships appear to have heen decked fore and aft only; and in