on board in time; Helge river all the while alongside of him, with
ever-increasing roar, and wider-spreading deluge, hastening down the
steeps in the night-watches. So that, along with Olaf or some way
ahead of him, came immeasurable roaring waste of waters upon Knut's
negligent fleet; shattered, broke, and stranded many of his ships, and
was within a trifle of destroying the Golden Dragon herself, with Knut
on board. Olaf and Onund, we need not say, were promptly there in
person, doing their very best; the railings of the Golden Dragon,
however, were too high for their little ships; and Jarl Ulf, husband
of Knut's sister, at the top of his speed, courageously intervening,
spoiled their stratagem, and saved Knut from this very dangerous pass.

Knut did nothing more this winter. The two Norse kings, quite unequal
to attack such an armament, except by ambush and engineering, sailed
away; again plundering at discretion on the Danish coast; carrying
into Sweden great booties and many prisoners; but obliged to lie fixed
all winter; and indeed to leave their fleets there for a series of
winters,--Knut's fleet, posted at Elsinore on both sides of the Sound,
rendering all egress from the Baltic impossible, except at his
pleasure. Ulf's opportune deliverance of his royal brother-in-law did
not much bestead poor Ulf himself. He had been in disfavor before,
pardoned with difficulty, by Queen Emma's intercession; an ambitious,
officious, pushing, stirring, and, both in England and Denmark, almost
dangerous man; and this conspicuous accidental merit only awoke new
jealousy in Knut. Knut, finding nothing pass the Sound worth much
blockading, went ashore; "and the day before Michaelmas," says Snorro,
"rode with a great retinue to Roeskilde." Snorro continues his tragic
narrative of what befell there:

"There Knut's brother-in-law, Jarl Ulf, had prepared a great feast for