As representing his father-in-law, he greeted her, and handled her the writing, sealed with the king's seal.

The queen, who was named Hermutrude, took and read it, and spoke most warmly of Amleth's diligence and shrewdness, saying, that Feng had deserved his punishment, and that the unfathomable wit of Amleth had accomplished a deed past all human estimation; seeing that not only had his impenetrable depth devised a mode of revenging his father's death and his mother's adultery, but it had further, by his notable deeds Of prowess, seized the kingdom of the man whom he had found constantly plotting against him.

She marvelled therefore that a man of such instructed mind could have made the one slip of a mistaken marriage; for though his renown almost rose above mortality, he seemed to have stumbled into an obscure and ignoble match.

For the parents of his wife had been slaves, though good luck had graced them with the honours of royalty.

Now (said she), when looking for a wife a wise man must reckon the lustre of her birth and not of her beauty.