"Wilt thou flee?" asked Grani.
A spear struck Sweyn in the leg, and down he sat. "Here I stay," quoth he.
"Then here stay I," answered Grani.
But those fisher-folk who had thrown down their arms ran to Grani in a crowd, and cried that he should not stay to be killed. Some bore Sweyn within the church, where no Scot would slay him before the altar; and when Grani saw that, he suffered himself to be pushed away. So he came to the hillside before ever the Scots reached him; and when they began to shoot at him with arrows, he ran. And Rolf and Frodi ran along the hillside a little higher up.
Now the Scots sent swift archers in chase. Grani was armed and had heavy weapons; Frodi was slow and Rolf would not leave him; so the archers began to come up on them, and it looked bad for them. Grani knew the country; he sought the best ways, calling to Rolf that they should meet at the Vale of the Hermit. Then he threw off his mail and ran freely, and shook off his pursuers in a little wood. But in that same wood Rolf took the wrong course; for thinking he knew the way to the Vale he led Frodi where should be a glen with a growth of trees.—Nothing was there of the kind, but a bare hillside rose, where was no cover, and the Scots began to shout as they saw them close in front.
Now Grani knew the way better. When he reached the copse he stood and looked where Rolf and Frodi ran on the hillside above him. Then he heard a panting, and looked down. There was Kiartan hiding in the fern.
"Look up now," said Grani, "and see who runneth there above us."
When Kiartan saw Rolf, first he started and then he looked sidewise at Grani. "They can never escape," said he.
"I will call them hither," replied Grani.
"That will bring us in danger!" Kiartan cried.