Now the highway was but a little way from the dungeon, and Thorstein sang so loud and clear that the walls resounded therewith, and great game this seemed to him who had been half-dead erst; and in such wise did Thorstein keep it going till the evening.
CHAP. XC.
How the Lady Spes redeemed Thorstein from the Dungeon.
There was a great lady of a castle in that town called Spes, exceeding rich and of great kin; Sigurd was the name of her husband, a rich man too, but of lesser kin than she was, and for money had she been wedded to him; no great love there was betwixt them, for she thought she had been wedded far beneath her; high-minded she was and a very stirring woman.
Now so it befell, that, as Thorstein made him merry that[254] night, Spes walked in the street hard by the dungeon, and heard thence so fair a voice, that she said she had never yet heard its like. She went with many folk, and so now she bade them go learn who had that noble voice. So they called out and asked who lay there in such evil plight; and Thorstein named himself.
Then said Spes, "Art thou a man as much skilled in other matters as in singing?"
He said there was but little to show for that.
"What ill-deed hast thou done," said she, "that thou must needs be tormented here to the death?"