"
And the Abbot held his staff aloft between Haafager's people and
the sun, it being fashioned in the form of a cross, and under its
shadow the Danes passed by into the town of seven towers, there
being of them, with the women and the children, nearly two thousand
souls, and the gates were made fast behind them.
So they who had fought face to face, feasted side by side, pledging
one another in the wine cup, as was the custom; and Haafager's men,
knowing themselves amongst friends, cast aside their arms, and when
the feast was done, being weary, they lay down to sleep.
Then an evil voice arose in the town, and said: "Who are these
that have come among us to share our land? Are not the stones of
our streets red with the blood of wife and child that they have
slain? Do men let the wolf go free when they have trapped him with
meat? Let us fall upon them now that they are heavy with food and
wine, so that not one of them shall escape. Thus no further harm
shall come to us from them nor from their children."
And the voice of evil prevailed, and the men of the town of seven
towers fell upon the Danes with whom they had broken meat, even to
the women and the little children; and the blood of the people of
Haafager cried with a loud voice at the Abbey door, through the
long night it cried, saying:-
"I trusted in your spoken word.
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