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204 sorrow have well-nigh broken her tender heart. I would keep this matter from her memory if I could.”

“As thou wilt, Thorgills; but it angers me that so great a crime should go without punishment. But God will remember, and Christ will avenge His true servant in His own time. Let Bishop Sigurd have the funeral with all due honor, and we will attend to do reverence to this martyr of Norway. Ah, Thorgills! I would that my Norsemen were as quick to accept the Christ as were the children of Erin when Patrick came to them. Never a drop of blood was shed when the whole island came to the Cross. In every other land the Faith has cost many martyrs, but not one in Patrick’s land. Now my own Norraway is stained with the blood of God’s anointed. It were indeed a fearful sacrifice. But now, Thorgills, we must hasten back to Nidaros, after we have sojourned a space with Sigurd Syr, the overlord of Ringerike.”