the eye of anyone who came near.  When Frode learned this, he arranged a counter-ambuscade with a strong force of nobles, that he might not go heedlessly to the banquet, and be cheated of timely aid.  They went into hiding, and he warned them that the note of the trumpet was the signal for them to bring assistance.  Then with a select band, lightly armed, he went to the banquet.  The hall was decked with regal splendour; it was covered all round with crimson hangings of marvellous rich handiwork.  A curtain of purple dye adorned the propelled walls.  The flooring was bestrewn with bright mantles, which a man would fear to trample on.  Up above was to be seen the twinkle of many lanterns, the gleam of lamps lit with oil, and the censers poured forth fragrance whose sweet vapour was laden with the choicest perfumes.  The whole way was blocked by the tables loaded with good things; and the places for reclining were decked with gold-embroidered couches; the seats were full of pillows.  The majestic hall seemed to smile upon the guests, and nothing could be noticed in all that pomp either inharmonious to the eye or offensive to the smell.  In the midst of the hall stood a great butt ready for refilling the goblets, and holding an enormous amount of liquor; enough could be drawn from it for the huge revel to drink its fill.  Servants, dressed in purple, bore golden cups, and courteously did the office of serving the drink, pacing in ordered ranks.  Nor did they fail to offer the draught in the horns of the wild ox.

The feast glittered with golden bowls, and was laden with shining goblets, many of them studded with flashing jewels.  The place was filled with an immense luxury; the tables groaned with the dishes, and the bowls brimmed over with divers liquors.  Nor did they use wine pure and simple, but, with juices sought far and wide, composed a nectar of many flavours.  The dishes glistened with delicious foods, being filled mostly with the spoils of the chase; though the flesh of tame animals was not lacking either.  The natives took care to drink more sparingly than the guests; for the latter felt safe, and were tempted to make an orgy; while the others, meditating treachery, had lost all temptations to be drunken.  So the Danes, who, if I may say so with my country’s leave, were seasoned to drain the bowl against each other, took quantities of wine.  The Britons, when they saw that the Danes were very drunk, began gradually to slip away from the banquet, and, leaving their guests within the hall, made immense efforts, first to block the doors of the palace by applying bars and all kinds of obstacles, and then to set fire to the house.  The Danes were penned inside the hall, and when the fire began to spread, battered vainly at the doors; but they could not get out, and soon attempted to make a sally by assaulting the wall.  And the Angles, when they saw that it was tottering under the stout attack of the Danes, began to shove against it on their side, and to prop the staggering pile