of his own land, and here he passed forever from the sight of Norway.
The Lady Aastrid and Maidoch had returned to Nidaros. Neither of these faithful women knew at first what had befallen their lords. Unas, the guard of the palace at Nidaros, had told the bower women of Lady Aastrid, that he had seen the Jarl Sigvalde brought down by an arrow from the “Long Serpent,” but that the Lord Thorgills, who had stayed with the king to the last moment, had escaped to the shore.
Maidoch listened with deep thankfulness to the tidings of Unas, and she gently checked the gossip of the women, when they rejoiced at Jarl Sigvalde’s punishment for his treachery. “Let not the Lady Aastrid hear thy harsh words. Jarl Sigvalde was her lord, and even if we do believe he died in his traitor’s plot, my dear lady in this hour will but remember his past good deeds.”
Then clasping her hands, she said unto herself: “My dear lord is spared to me. I will serve him so faithfully. I will grieve no more, but I will be thankful for the love and the protection of my dear lord.”
“And the poor queen, Unas?” asked Maidoch of the guard.
The man shook his head. “When Jarl Erik captured the ‘Long Serpent,’ he found Queen Thyra in her cabin. Of a truth the jarl was most courteous
