But they caught him, and
turned a knife against him, and he yelled and screamed or ever he
felt the point thereof.
Then in such wise spake Hogni as a man seldom speaketh who is
fallen into hard need, for he prayed for the thrall's life, and
said that these shrieks he could not away with, and that it were
a lesser matter to him to play out the play to the end; and
therewithal the thrall gat his life as for that time: but Gunnar
and Hogni are both laid in fetters.
Then spake King Atli with Gunnar the king, and bade him tell out
concerning the gold, and where it was, if he would have his life.
But he answered, "Nay, first will I behold the bloody heart of
Hogni, my brother."
So now they caught hold of the thrall again, and cut the heart
from out of him, and bore it unto King Gunnar, but he said --
"The faint heart of Hjalli may ye here behold, little like the
proud heart of Hogni, for as much as it trembleth now more by the
half it trembled whenas it lay in the breast of him.
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