So they saluted me, kneeling, and kissing my feet, and one and all made confession of their crime.
"Enough," I said, "I pardon them who are but tools. Pray to God that He may do as much."
"You may pardon here, Olaf," said Jodd, "and your God may pardon hereafter, but we, the Northmen, do not pardon. Blindfold those men and bind their arms. Now," went on Jodd after a pause, "their turn has come to show us sport. Run, friends, run, for swords are behind you. Can you not feel them?"
The rest may be guessed. Within a few minutes the seven judges and the two jailers had vanished from the world. No hand came to save them from the cruel rocks and the waters that seethed a hundred feet below that dreadful chamber.
This fantastic, savage vengeance was a thing dreadful to hear; what it must have been to see I can only guess. I know that I wished I might have fled from it and that I pleaded with Jodd for mercy on these men. But neither he nor his companions would listen to me.
"What mercy had they on you?" he cried. "Let them drink from their own cup."
"Let them drink from their own cup!" roared his companions, and then broke into a roar of laughter as one of the false judges, feeling space before him, leapt, leapt short, and with a shriek departed for ever.
It was over. I heard someone enter the hall and whisper in Jodd's ear; heard his answer also.
"Let her be brought hither," he said. "For the rest, bid the captains hold Stauracius and the others
