The king thought that this statement referred not to their vow to commit the crime, but to the guilt of some crime already committed.

For they desired by this deceit to foil his inquisitiveness, so that the truthfulness of the statement might baffle the wit of the questioner, and their true answer, being covertly shadowed forth in a fiction, might inspire in him a belief that it was false.

For famous men of old thought lying a most shameful thing.

Then Athisl said he would like to know whom the Danes believed to be the slayer of Frowin.

Ket replied that there was a doubt as to who ought to claim so illustrious a deed, especially as the general testimony was that he had perished on the field of battle.