Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/159

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REIGN OF KING OLAF THE SAINT. 149 Bonder, Olaf delivered all the money he had, with solemn order to lay out the whole of it in masses and prayers for the souls of such of his enemies as fell. " Such of thy enemies. King ? " " Yes, surely," said Olaf, "my friends will all either conquer, or go whither I also am going." At last the Bonder army too was got ranked; three commanders, one of them with a kind of loose chief command, having settled to take charge of it; and began to shake itself towards actual advance. Olaf, in the meanwhile, had laid his head on the knees of Finn Arneson, his trustiest man, and fallen fast asleep. Finn's brother, Kalf Arneson, once a warm friend of Olaf, was chief of the three com- manders on the opposite side. Finn and he addressed angry speech to one another from the opposite ranks, when they came near enough. Finn, seeing the enemy fairly approach, stirred Olaf from his sleep. " Oh, why hast thou wakened me from such a dream ? " said Olaf, in a deeply solemn tone. "What dream was it, then ? " asked Finn. " I dreamt that there rose a ladder here reaching up to very Heaven,**' said Olaf; '^ I had climbed and climbed, and got to