Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 3.djvu/348

 336 CHRONICLE OF THE SAGA XVI. Chapter XL. The fall of Nicolas. Chapter XLL Eysteiii proclaimed Linij. Nicolas then went into the church. When the mass was over Eric went to Nicolas, and said, " My horses are saddled ; I will ride away." Nicolas replies, " Farewell, then: we mil hold a Thing to-day on the Ore, and examine what force of men there may be in the to^vn." Eric rode away, and Nicolas went to his house, and then to dinner. The meat was scarcely put on the table, when a man came into the house to tell Nicolas that the Birkebeiners were rowing up the river. Then Nicolas called to his men to take their weapons. When they were armed Nicolas ordered them to go up into the loft. But that was a most imprudent step ; for if they had remained in the yard, the townspeople might have come to their assistance ; but now the Birkebeiners filled the whole yard, and from thence scrambled from all sides up to the loft. They called to Nicolas, and offered him quarter, but he refused it. Then they attacked the loft. Nicolas and his men defended themselves with bow-shot, hand-shot, and stones of the chimney ; but the Birkebeiners hewed down the houses, broke up the loft, and returned shot for shot from bow or hand. Nicolas had a red shield in which were gilt nails, and about it was a border of stars. The Birkebeiners shot so that the arrows went in up to the arrow-feather. Then said Nicolas, " My shield deceives me." Nicolas and a number of his people fell, and his death was greatly lamented. The Birke- beiners gave all the townspeople their lives. Eystein was then proclaimed king, and all the people submitted to him. He staid a while in the town, and then went into the interior of the Drontheim land, where many joined him, and among them Thorfin Swart of Snaas with a troop of people. When the Birkebeiners, in the beginning of winter, came again into the town, the sons of Gudrun from Saltness,