Hildigunna was out of doors, and said, "Now shall all the men of
my household be out of doors when Flosi rides into the yard; but
the women shall sweep the house and deck it with hangings, and
make ready the high seat for Flosi."
Then Flosi rode into the town, and Hildigunna turned to him and
said, "Come in safe and sound and happy kinsman, and my heart is
fain at thy coming hither."
"Here," says Flosi, "we will break our fast, and then we will
ride on."
Then their horses were tethered, and Flosi went into the sitting-
room and sat him down, and spurned the high seat away from him on
the dais, and said, "I am neither king nor earl, and there is no
need to make a high seat for me to sit on, nor is there any need
to make a mock of me."
Hildigunna was standing close by, and said, "It is ill if it
mislikes thee, for this we did with a whole heart."
"If thy heart is whole towards me, then what I do will praise
itself if it be well done, but it will blame itself if it be ill
done."
Hildigunna laughed a cold laugh, and said, "There is nothing new
in that, we will go nearer yet ere we have done."
She sat her down by Flosi, and they talked long and low.
After that the board was laid, and Flosi and his band washed
their hands. Flosi looked hard at the towel and saw that it was
all in rags, and had one end torn off. He threw it down on the
bench and would not wipe himself with it, but tore off a piece of
the tablecloth, and wiped himself with that, and then threw it to
his men.
After that Flosi sat down to the board and bade men eat.
Then Hildigunna came into the room and went before Flosi, and
threw her hair off her eyes and wept.
"Heavy-hearted art thou now, kinswoman," said Flosi, "when thou
weepest, but still it is well that thou shouldst weep for a good
husband."
"What vengeance or help shall I have of thee?" she says.
"I will follow up thy suit," said Flosi, "to the utmost limit of
the law, or strive for that atonement which good men and true
shall say that we ought to have as full amends."
"Hauskuld would avenge thee," she said, "if he had the blood-feud
after thee."
"Thou lackest not grimness," answered Flosi, "and what thou
wantest is plain."
"Arnor Ornolf's son, of Forswaterwood," said Hildigunna, "had
done less wrong towards Thord Frey's priest thy father; and yet
thy brothers Kolbein and Egil slew him at Skaptarfells-Thing."
Then Hildigunna went back into the hall and unlocked her chest,
and then she took out the cloak, Flosi's gift, and in it Hauskuld
had been slain, and there she had kept it, blood and all. Then
she went back into the sitting-room with the cloak; she went up
silently to Flosi. Flosi had just then eaten his full, and the
board was cleared. Hildigunna threw the cloak over Flosi, and
the gore rattled down all over him.
Then she spoke and said, "This cloak, Flosi, thou gavest to
Hauskuld, and now I will give it back to thee; he was slain in
it, and I call God and all good men to witness, that I abjure
thee, by all the might of thy Christ, and by thy manhood and
bravery, to take vengeance for all those wounds which he had on
his dead body, or else to be called every man's dastard."
Flosi threw the cloak off him and hurled it into her lap, and
said, "Thou art the greatest hell-hag, and thou wishest that we
should take that course which will be the worst for all of us.
But `women's counsel is ever cruel.'"
Flosi was so stirred at this, that sometimes he was bloodred in
the face, and sometimes ashy pale as withered grass, and
sometimes blue as death.
Flosi and his men rode away; he rode to Holtford, and there waits
for the sons of Sigfus and other of his men.
Ingialld dwelt at the Springs; he was the brother of Rodny,
Hauskuld Njal's son's mother (1). Ingialld had to wife
Thraslauga, the daughter of Egil, the son of Thord Frey's priest
(2). Flosi sent word to Ingialld to come to him, and Ingialld
went at once, with fourteen men. They were all of his household.
Ingialld was a tall man and a strong, and slow to meddle with
other men's business, one of the bravest of men, and very
bountiful to his friends.
Flosi greeted him well, and said to him, "Great trouble hath now
come on me and my brothers-in-law, and it is hard to see our way
out of it; I beseech thee not to part from my suit until this
trouble is past and gone."
"I am come into a strait myself," said Ingialld, "for the sake of
the ties that there are between me and Njal and his sons, and
other great matters which stand in the way."
"I thought," said Flosi, "when I gave away my brother's daughter
to thee, that thou gavest me thy word to stand by me in every
suit."
"It is most likely," says Ingialld, "that I shall do so, but
still I will now, first of all, ride home, and thence to the
Thing."