LADY INGER (starts violently). Ah! He is found?
NILS LYKKE. ----And he is too closely akin to you, Lady Inger,
to be far from your thoughts at this moment.
(Looks at her.)
The last Count Sture left a son----
LADY INGER (with a cry). Holy Saviour, how know you----?
NILS LYKKE (surprised). Be calm, Madam, and let me finish.--
This young man has lived quietly till now with his mother, Sten
Sture's widow.
LADY INGER (breathes more freely). With----? Ah, yes--true,
true!
NILS LYKKE. But now he has come forward openly. He has shown
himself in the Dales as leader of the peasants; their numbers are
growing day by day; and--as perhaps you know--they are finding
friends among the peasants on this side of the border-hills.
LADY INGER (who has in the meantime regained her composure). Sir
Councillor,--you speak of all these things as though they must of
necessity be known to me. What ground have I given you to believe
so? I know, and wish to know, nothing. All my care is to live
quietly within my own domain; I give no helping hand to the rebels;
but neither must you count on me if it be your purpose to put
them down.
NILS LYKKE (in a low voice). Would you still be inactive, if
it were my purpose to stand by them?
LADY INGER. How am I to understand you?
NILS LYKKE. Have you not seen whither I have been aiming all this
time?--Well, I will tell you all, honestly and straightforwardly.
Know, then, that the King and his Council see clearly that we can
have no sure footing in Norway so long as the nobles and the people
continue, as now, to think themselves wronged and oppressed. We
understand to the full that willing allies are better than sullen
subjects; and we have therefore no heartier wish than to loosen the
bonds that hamper _us_, in effect, quite as straitly as you. But
you will scarce deny that the temper of Norway towards us makes
such a step too dangerous--so long as we have no sure support
behind us.
LADY INGER. And this support----?
NILS LYKKE. Should naturally come from Sweden. But, mark well,
not so long as Gustav Vasa holds the helm; _his_ reckoning with
Denmark is not settled yet, and mayhap never will be. But a new
king of Sweden, who had the people with him, and who owed his throne
to the help of Denmark---- ---- Well, you begin to understand me?
_Then_ we could safely say to you Norwegians: "Take back your old
ancestral rights; choose you a ruler after your own mind; be our
friends in need, as we will be in yours!"--Mark you well, Lady
Inger, herein is our generosity less than it may seem; for you
must see that, far from weakening, 'twill rather strengthen us.
And now I have opened my heart to you so fully, do you too cast
away all mistrust. And therefore (confidently)--the knight from
Sweden, who came hither an hour before me----
LADY INGER. Then you already know of his coming?
NILS LYKKE. Most certainly. It is him I seek.
LADY INGER (to herself). Strange! It must be as Olaf Skaktavl
said. (To NILS LYKKE.) I pray you wait here, Sir Councillor! I
go to bring him to you.
(Goes out through the Banquet Hall.)
NILS LYKKE (looks after her a while in exultant astonishment).
She is bringing him! Ay, truly--she is bringing him! The battle
is half won. I little thought it would go so smoothly----
She is deep in the counsels of the rebels; she started in terror
when I named Sten Sture's son----
And now? Hm! Since Lady Inger has been simple enough to walk
into the snare, Nils Sture will not make many difficulties. A
hot-blooded boy, thoughtless and rash---- ---- With my promise
of help he will set forth at once--unhappily Jens Bielke will snap
him up by the way--and the whole rising will be nipped in the bud.
And then? Then one step more in our own behalf. It is spread
abroad that the young Count Sture has been at Ostrat,--that a
Danish envoy has had audience of Lady Inger--that thereupon the
young Count Nils has been snapped up by King Gustav's men-at-arms
a mile from the castle---- ---- Let Inger Gyldenlove's name among
the people stand never so high--it will scarce recover from such
a blow.
(Starts up in sudden uneasiness.)
By all the devils----! What if she has scented mischief! It
may be he is slipping through our fingers even now---- (Listens
toward the hall, and says with relief.) Ah, there is no fear.
Here they come.
(LADY INGER GYLDENLOVE enters from the hall along with
OLAF SKAKTAVL.)
LADY INGER (to NILS LYKKE). Here is the man you seek.
NILS LYKKE (aside). In the name of hell--what means this?
LADY INGER. I have told this knight your name and all that you
have imparted to me----