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Chap. XXVIII.
BIRNAM WOOD STRATAGEM.
11
the soldiers to hang up first his scarlet cloak, to see how
he would look hereafter. Scarce had the cloak swung
in the air, when a volume of smoke arises from the
bower of the faithful Signe, and Hagbard, satisfied
with her constancy, is “ launched into eternity.” Then
in rushes the “lille smaa dreng” before the king’s
board to announce the sad news how Signe and her
maidens burn in the “ hoie loft,” and all for love of
Hagbard the Dane. “Extinguish the flames!” cries
the king ; “ cut him down ; I pardon them both.”
“ But when they arrived at Signelit’s bower,
There she lay burnt in the flames ;
And when they came where the gallows stood,
Young Hagbard hung in his chains.”
Do not imagine the matter to have ended here. In a
short space of time arrived from Ireland, where he was
comfortably settled, Hakon, brother of the murdered
prince. Silently, accompanied by his followers, he glides
up the waters of the Suus Aa. To conceal their
movements from the enemy, each warrior bears in his hand a
branch of the beech-tree—Birnam wood coming to
Dun-sinane five hundred years before it was ever heard or
thought of in Scotland. King Sigurd discovers the
stratagem: a battle takes place, and he is slain in the
contest. This stratagem of bearing boughs occurs very
often in the ancient Sagas. When a battle was fought
near Restaffarith, in Skaane, between the Danes and the
Swedes, the former broke branches from the trees and
fastened them to their horses. When the villagers saw
it from afar, they exclaimed, “May Heaven destroy this
walking wood, for it will make us pay bloody forfeits
this day before the sun goes down.”
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