Norwegian.

"I like thine answer," said Tostig, smiling, "and I like still more to
watch thine eye gazing on the prows of thy war-ships. Strange indeed
it were if thou, who hast been fighting fifteen years for the petty
kingdom of Denmark, shouldst hesitate now, when all England lies
before thee to seize."

"I hesitate," replied the King, "because he whom Fortune has
befriended so long, should beware how he strain her favour too far.
Eighteen pitched battles fought I in the Saracen land, and in every
one was a victor--never, at home or abroad, have I known shame and
defeat. Doth the wind always blow from one point?--and is Fate less
unstable than the wind?"

"Now, out on thee, Harold Hardrada," said Tostig the fierce; "the good
pilot wins his way through all winds, and the brave heart fastens fate
to its flag. All men allow that the North never had warrior like
thee; and now, in the mid-day of manhood, wilt thou consent to repose
on the mere triumph of youth?"

"Nay," said the King, who, like all true poets, had something of the
deep sense of a sage, and was, indeed, regarded as the most prudent as
well as the most adventurous chief in the Northland,--"nay, it is not
by such words, which my soul seconds too well, that thou canst entrap
a ruler of men. Thou must show me the chances of success, as thou
wouldst to a grey-beard. For we should be as old men before we
engage, and as youths when we wish to perform."

Then the traitor succinctly detailed all the weak points in the rule