(The room at Ostrat, as in the first Act.)
(LADY INGER GYLDENLOVE is seated at the table on the right, by the
window. OLAF SKAKTAVL is standing a little way from her. Their
faces show that they have been engaged in an animated discussion.)
OLAF SKAKTAVL. For the last time, Inger Gyldenlove--you are not
to be moved from your purpose?
LADY INGER. I can do nought else. And my counsel to you is:
do as I do. If it be heaven's will that Norway perish utterly,
perish it must, for all we may do to save it.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. And think you I can content myself with words
like these? Shall I sit and look quietly on, now that the hour
is come? Do you forget the reckoning I have to pay? They have
robbed me of my lands, and parcelled them out among themselves.
My son, my only child, the last of my race, they have slaughtered
like a dog. Myself they have outlawed and forced to lurk by forest
and fell these twenty years.--Once and again have folk whispered
of my death; but this I believe, that they shall not lay me beneath
the earth before I have seen my vengeance.
LADY INGER. Then is there a long life before you. What would
you do?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Do? How should I know what I will do? It has
never been my part to plot and plan. That is where you must help
me. You have the wit for that. I have but my sword and my two arms.
LADY INGER. Your sword is rusted, Olaf Skaktavl! All the swords
in Norway are rusted.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. That is doubtless why some folk fight only with
their tongues.--Inger Gyldenlove--great is the change in you. Time
was when the heart of a man beat in your breast.
LADY INGER. Put me not in mind of what was.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. 'Tis for that alone I am here. You _shall_ hear
me, even if----
LADY INGER. Be it so then; but be brief; for--I must say it--
this is no place of safety for you.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ostrat is no place of safety for an outlaw?
That I have long known. But you forget that an outlaw is unsafe
wheresoever he may wander.
LADY INGER. Speak then; I will not hinder you.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. It is nigh on thirty years now since first I
saw you. It was at Akershus* in the house of Knut Alfson and
his wife. You were scarce more than a child then; yet you were
bold as the soaring falcon, and wild and headstrong too at times.
Many were the wooers around you. I too held you dear--dear as
no woman before or since. But you cared for nothing, thought of
nothing, save your country's evil case and its great need.
* Pronounce _Ahkers-hoos_.
LADY INGER. I counted but fifteen summers then--remember that.
And was it not as though a frenzy had seized us all in those days?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Call it what you will; but one thing I know--even
the old and sober men among us doubted not that it was written in
the counsels of the Lord that you were she who should break our
thraldom and win us all our rights again. And more: you yourself
then thought as we did.
LADY INGER. It was a sinful thought, Olaf Skaktavl. It was my
proud heart, and not the Lord's call, that spoke in me.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. You could have been the chosen one had you but
willed it. You came of the noblest blood in Norway; power and
riches were at your feet; and you had an ear for the cries of
anguish--then!---- ----
Do you remember that afternoon when Henrik Krummedike and the
Danish fleet anchored off Akershus? The captains of the fleet
offered terms of settlement, and, trusting to the safe-conduct,
Knut Alfson rowed on board. Three hours later, we bore him through
the castle gate----
LADY INGER. A corpse; a corpse!
OLAF SKAKTAVL. The best heart in Norway burst, when Krummedike's
hirelings struck him down. Methinks I still can see the long
procession that passed into the banquet-hall, heavily, two by two.
There he lay on his bier, white as a spring cloud, with the axe-
cleft in his brow. I may safely say that the boldest men in Norway
were gathered there that night. Lady Margrete stood by her dead
husband's head, and we swore as one man to venture lands and life
to avenge this last misdeed and all that had gone before.-- Inger
Gyldenlove,--who was it that burst through the circle of men? A
maiden--then almost a child--with fire in her eyes and her voice
half choked with tears.-- What was it she swore? Shall I repeat
your words?
LADY INGER. And how did the others keep their promise? I speak
not of you, Olaf Skaktavl, but of your friends, all our Norwegian
nobles? Not one of them, in all these years, has had the courage
to be a man; and yet they lay it to my charge that I am a woman.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. I know what you would say. Why have they bent
to the yoke, and not defied the tyrants to the last? 'Tis but
too true; there is base metal enough in our noble houses nowadays.
But had they held together--who knows what might have been? And
you could have held them together, for before you all had bowed.
LADY INGER. My answer were easy enough, but it would scarce
content you. So let us leave speaking of what cannot be changed.
Tell me rather what has brought you to Ostrat. Do you need harbour?
Well, I will try to hide you. If you would have aught else, speak
out; you shall find me ready----
OLAF SKAKTAVL. For twenty years have I been homeless. In the
mountains of Jaemteland my hair has grown grey. My dwelling has
been with wolves and bears.--You see, Lady Inger--_I_ need you
not; but both nobles and people stand in sore need of you.
LADY INGER. The old burden.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, it sounds but ill in your ears, I know; yet
hear it you must for all that. In brief, then: I come from Sweden:
troubles are at hand: the Dales are ready to rise.
LADY INGER. I know it.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Peter Kanzler is with us--secretly, you understand.
LADY INGER (starting). Peter Kanzler?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. It is he that has sent me to Ostrat.
LADY INGER (rises). Peter Kanzler, say you?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. He himself;--but mayhap you no longer know him?
LADY INGER (half to herself). Only too well!--But tell me, I
pray you,--what message do you bring?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. When the rumour of the rising reached the border
mountains, where I then was, I set off at once into Sweden. 'Twas
not hard to guess that Peter Kanzler had a finger in the game. I
sought him out and offered to stand by him;--he knew me of old, as
you know, and knew that he could trust me; so he has sent me hither.
LADY INGER (impatiently). Yes yes,--he sent you hither to----?
OLAF SKAKTAVL (with secrecy). Lady Inger--a stranger comes to
Ostrat to-night.
LADY INGER (surprised). What? Know you that----?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Assuredly I know it. I know all. 'Twas to meet
him that Peter Kanzler sent me hither.
LADY INGER. To meet him? Impossible, Olaf Skaktavl,--impossible!
OLAF SKAKTAVL. 'Tis as I tell you. If he be not already come,
he will soon----