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So saying he left him and advanced to where the conspirators stood expecting to be summoned.

Then Sigurd could contain himself no longer. With hurried strides, pushing his way among the crowd, he followed and overtook the knight before he could deliver his summons. Seizing him fiercely by the arm, in a way which made the man of war start in amazement, he led him aside, and said eagerly–

“Sir, I must see the king before those men.” The knight, in anger at being thus handled, cast him off roughly. But Sigurd would not be daunted.

“Bring me to the king,” he said, “or I will go to him without thy leave.”

The knight, amazed at being thus spoken to, looked round, and made as though he would summon the guard; but Sigurd seeing it, and now grown desperate, caught him by the neck, and putting his mouth to his ear, whispered something, which done, he drew back, and for a moment lifted the hood from his face.

The knight started in amazement, but quickly recovering his presence of mind, stepped aside with Sigurd.

Then Sigurd, knowing the man to be loyal and trustworthy, hurriedly told him all, and charged him to be secret, and see to his brother’s safety.

The knight begged him to remain and see the king; but Sigurd, fearing all delay, and feeling that his task at the castle was done, would not stay, but departed forthwith.

Before he had well left the place the four conspirators were arrested, and lodged in the deepest dungeon of the fortress. The guards, especially such as stood near the person of the king, were enlarged, the guests were quietly dispersed, and that night Ulf slept secure at Niflheim, little dreaming of the peril he had escaped or of the brother who had saved him.

Sigurd, meanwhile, light at heart, sped on the wings of the wind back to Jockjen. People wondered at the wild haste of the monk as he passed. But he looked neither right nor left till he stood once more at the great gate of the castle.

The guard stood at the entrance as before.

“Thou art returned betimes, holy father,” said he, “for our prisoner is like to want thee for a last shrift presently.”

Great was Sigurd’s joy to learn that he was in time, and that the man he had left behind lived still.

“When is he to die?” he inquired.

“Before an hour is past,” said the guard.

“For what crime?”

The guard laughed. “You are a stranger in Ulf’s kingdom, monk, if you think a man needs to be a criminal in order to die. But, in truth, the king knows nothing of it.”

“What is the man’s name?” said Sigurd.

“I know not.”

“Did you see his face or hear his voice?”

“No; why should we? We could believe those who brought him here.”

“And were they the king’s officers?”

“The king’s that is now,” said the guard.

“Why?” exclaimed Sigurd; “what do you mean? Is not Ulf the king?”

“No,” said the man. “When you went out two hours ago he was, but now Sigurd is king.”

“False villain!” cried Sigurd, catching the fellow by the throat; “thou art a traitor like all the rest.”

The soldier, astonished to be thus assailed by a monk, stood for a moment speechless; and before he could find words Sigurd had cast back the hood from his own head.

The man, who knew him at once, turned pale as ashes, and, trembling from head to foot, fell on his knees.

But Sigurd scornfully bade him rise and summon the guard, which he did. Great was the amazement of the soldiers as they assembled, to see a monk bareheaded stand with his hand on the throat of their comrade. And greater still did it become when they recognised in those stern, noble features their own Prince Sigurd.

Before they could recover their presence of mind, Sigurd held up his hand to enjoin silence, and said–