eloquence; but after a sentence or two, broke down; one, and then
another, and still another, and remained all three staring in
open-mouthed silence there! The peasant-proprietors accepted the
phenomenon as ludicrous, perhaps partly as miraculous withal, and
consented to baptism this time.

On another occasion of a Thing, which had assembled near some heathen
temple to meet him,--temple where Hakon Jarl had done much repairing,
and set up many idol figures and sumptuous ornaments, regardless of
expense, especially a very big and splendid Thor, with massive gold
collar round the neck of him, not the like of it in Norway,--King Olaf
Tryggveson was clamorously invited by the Bonders to step in there,
enlighten his eyes, and partake of the sacred rites. Instead of which
he rushed into the temple with his armed men; smashed down, with his
own battle-axe, the god Thor, prostrate on the ground at one stroke,
to set an example; and, in a few minutes, had the whole Hakon Pantheon
wrecked; packing up meanwhile all the gold and preciosities
accumulated there (not forgetting Thor's illustrious gold collar, of
which we shall hear again), and victoriously took the plunder home
with him for his own royal uses and behoof of the state.
In other cases, though a friend to strong measures, he had to hold in,
and await the favorable moment. Thus once, in beginning a
parliamentary address, so soon as he came to touch upon Christianity,
the Bonders rose in murmurs, in vociferations and jingling of arms,
which quite drowned the royal voice; declared, they had taken arms
against king Hakon the Good to compel him to desist from his Christian
proposals; and they did not think King Olaf a higher man than him
(Hakon the Good). The king then said, "He purposed coming to them
next Yule to their great sacrificial feast, to see for himself what
their customs were," which pacified the Bonders for this time. The