第158章

Meanwhile Ubbe was led by his grandfather, Esbern, to conceive an unholy desire for the throne; and, casting away all thought of the reverence due to his father, he claimed the emblem of royalty for his own head.

When Ragnar heard of his arrogance from Kelther and Thorkill, the earls of Sweden, he made a hasty voyage towards Gothland.

Esbern, finding that these men were attached with a singular loyalty to the side of Ragnar, tried to bribe them to desert the king.But they did not swerve from their purpose, and replied that their will depended on that of Biorn, declaring that not a single Swede would dare to do what went against his pleasure.

Esbern speedily made an attempt on Biorn himself, addressing him most courteously through his envoys.Biorn said that he would never lean more to treachery than to good faith, and judged that it would be a most abominable thing to prefer the favour of an infamous brother to the love of a most righteous father.The envoys themselves he punished with hanging, because they counselled him to so grievous a crime.The Swedes, moreover, slew the rest of the train of the envoys in the same way, as a punishment for their mischievous advice.So Esbern, thinking that his secret and stealthy manoeuvres did not succeed fast enough, mustered his forces openly, and went publicly forth to war.But Iwar, the governor of Jutland, seeing no righteousness on either side of the impious conflict, avoided all unholy war by voluntary exile.

Ragnar attacked and slew Esbern in the bay that is called in Latin Viridis; he cut off the dead man's head and bade it be set upon the ship's prow, a dreadful sight for the seditious.But Ubbe took to flight, and again attacked his father, having revived the war in Zealand.Ubbe's ranks broke, and he was assailed single-handed from all sides; but he felled so many of the enemy's line that he was surrounded with a pile of the corpses of the foe as with a strong bulwark, and easily checked his assailants from approaching.At last he was overwhelmed by the thickening masses of the enemy, captured, and taken off to be laden with public fetters.By immense violence he disentangled his chains and cut them away.But when he tried to sunder and rend the bonds that were (then) put upon him, he could not in any wise escape his bars.But when Iwar heard that the rising in his country had been quelled by the punishment of the rebel, he went to Denmark.Ragnar received him with the greatest honour, because, while the unnatural war had raged its fiercest, he had behaved with the most entire filial respect.

Meanwhile Daxo long and vainly tried to overcome Hwitserk, who ruled over Sweden; but at last he enrapped him under pretence of making a peace, and attacked him.Hwitserk received him hospitably, but Daxo had prepared an army with weapons, who were to feign to be trading, ride into the city in carriages, and break with a night-attack into the house of their host.Hwitserk smote this band of robbers with such a slaughter that he was surrounded with a heap of his enemies' bodies, and could only be taken by letting down ladders from above.Twelve of his companions, who were captured at the same time by the enemy, were given leave to go back to their country; but they gave up their lives for their king, and chose to share the dangers of another rather than be quit of their own.

Daxo, moved with compassion at the beauty of Hwitserk, had not the heart to pluck the budding blossom of that noble nature, and offered him not only his life, but his daughter in marriage, with a dowry of half his kingdom; choosing rather to spare his comeliness than to punish his bravery.But the other, in the greatness of his soul, valued as nothing the life which he was given on sufferance, and spurned his safety as though it were some trivial benefit.Of his own will he embraced the sentence of doom, saying, that Ragnar would exact a milder vengeance for his son if he found that he had made his own choice in selecting the manner of his death.The enemy wondered at his rashness, and promised that he should die by the manner of death which he should choose for this punishment.This leave the young man accepted as a great kindness, and begged that he might be bound and burned with his friends.Daxo speedily complied with his prayers that craved for death, and by way of kindness granted him the end that he had chosen.When Ragnar heard of this, he began to grieve stubbornly even unto death, and not only put on the garb of mourning, but, in the exceeding sorrow of his soul, took to his bed and showed his grief by groaning.But his wife, who had more than a man's courage, chid his weakness, and put heart into him with her manful admonitions.Drawing his mind off from his woe, she bade him be zealous in the pursuit of war; declaring that it was better for so brave a father to avenge the bloodstained ashes of his son with weapons than with tears.She also told him not to whimper like a woman, and get as much disgrace by his tears as he had once earned glory by his valour.