Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/316

 308 CHRONICLE OF THE saga vii. which army I am." Gauka-Thorer replies, " If I go into battle I will give my help to the king, for he has most need of help. And if I must believe in a God, why not in the white Christ as well as in any other? Now it is my advice, therefore, that we let ourselves be baptized, since the king insists so much upon it, and then go into the battle with him." They all agreed to this, and went to the king, and said they would receive baptism. Then they were baptized by a priest, and the baptism was confirmed by the bishop. The king then took them into the troop of his court- men, and said they should fight under his banner in the battle. King Olaf got certain intelligence now that it would be but a short time until he had a battle with the bonders; and after he had mustered his men, and reckoned up the force, he had more than 3000 men*, which appears to be a great army in one field. Then the king made the following speech to the people: " AVe have a great army, and excellent troops ; and now I will tell you, my men, how I mil have our force drawn up. I will let my banner go forward in the middle of the army, and my court-men, and pur- suivants shall follow it, together with the war forces that joined us from the Uplands, and also those who may come to us here in the Drontheim land. On the right hand of my banner shall be Dag Bingson, with all the men he brought to our aid ; and he shall have the second banner. And on the left hand of our line shall the men be whom the Swedish king gave us, together with all the people who came to us in Sweden ; and they shall have the third banner. I will Chapter CCXVI. King Olaf's speech. could be collected and supported in those days, in one body, by any king of Norway. We may judge that the numbers of Danes or Northmen who invaded England or Normandy were in reality small. They con- quered because the people had no interests to defend against them
 * It does not appear that more than three or four thousand men