Only the long black ship, which still pulled slowly away from us, and the fiercely-burning fires on every hilltop spoilt the quiet of the place.
"Now it is a question whether the Irish or we take Heidrek," said Hakon.

"It is plain that his time has come, one way or the other.
On my word, I am almost in the mind to hail him and bid him yield to us to save himself from these axes." I believe that so Hakon would have done, but that the chance never came.

And that was the doing of Heidrek himself, or of his crew.
What madness of despair fell on those pirates I cannot say, but Asbiorn has it that they went berserk as one man at the last, as the wilder Vikings will, when the worst has to be faced.
The Irish swarmed at the upper end of this reach, as I have said, and those who had dealt with the other ship were coming fast along the shore to join them.

There must have been five hundred of them in all, if not more.

The river beyond the broad reach narrowed fast, and one could see by the broken water that there was no passing upward any farther until the tide was at its height.