BIORN. As tight as need be.
LADY INGER. Ay, ay--who can tell how tight it needs to be? Do
you see that 'tis well done.
(Goes up to him with her hand full of papers, and says
mysteriously:)
Biorn, you are an old man; but _one_ counsel I will give you. Be
on your guard against all men--both those that _are_ dead and those
that are still to die.--Now go in--go in and see to it that they
screw the lid down tightly.
BIORN (softly, shaking his head). I cannot make her out.
(Goes back again into the room on the left.)
LADY INGER (begins to seal a letter, but throws it down half-
closed; walks up and down awhile, and then says vehemently:)
Were I a coward I had never done it--never to all eternity!
Were I a coward, I had shrieked to myself: Refrain, ere yet thy
soul is utterly lost!
(Her eye falls on Sten Sture's picture; she turns to avoid
seeing it, and says softly:)
He is laughing down at me as though he were alive! Pah!
(Turns the picture to the wall without looking at it.)
Wherefore did you laugh? Was it because I did evil to your son?
But the other,--is not he your son too? And he is _mine_ as well;
mark that!
(Glances stealthily along the row of pictures.)
So wild as they are to-night, I have never seen them yet. Their
eyes follow me wherever I may go. (Stamps on the floor.) I will
not have it! (Begins to turn all the pictures to the wall.) Ay,
if it were the Holy Virgin herself---- ----- Thinkest thou _now_
is the time----? Why didst thou never hear my prayers, my burning
prayers, that I might get back my child? Why? Because the monk
of Wittenberg is right. There is no mediator between God and man!
(She draws her breath heavily and continues in ever-increasing
distraction.)
It is well that I know what to think in such things. There was
no one to see what was done in there. There is none to bear witness
against me.
(Suddenly stretches out her hands and whispers:)
My son! My beloved child! Come to me! Here I am! Hush! I
will tell you something: They hate me up there--beyond the stars--
because I bore you into the world. It was meant that I should
bear the Lord God's standard over all the land. But I went my
own way. It is therefore I have had to suffer so much and so
long.
BIORN (comes from the room on the left). My lady, I have to
tell you---- Christ save me--what is this?
LADY INGER (has climbed up into the high-seat by the right-hand
wall). Hush! Hush! I am the King's mother. They have chosen
my son king. The struggle was hard ere it came to this--for 'twas
with the Almighty One himself I had to strive.
NILS LYKKE (comes in breathless from the right). He is saved!
I have Jens Bielke's promise. Lady Inger,--know that----
LADY INGER. Peace, I say! look how the people swarm.
(A funeral hymn is heard from the room within.)
There comes the procession. What a throng! All bow themselves
before the King's mother. Ay, ay; has she not fought for her son--
even till her hands grew red withal?--Where are my daughters? I
see them not.
NILS LYKKE. God's blood!--what has befallen here?
LADY INGER. My daughters--my fair daughters! I have none any
more. I had _one_ left, and her I lost even as she was mounting
her bridal bed. (Whispers.) Lucia's corpse lay in it. There
was no room for two.
NILS LYKKE. Ah--it has come to this! The Lord's vengeance is
upon me.
LADY INGER. Can you see him? Look, look! It is the King. It
is Inger Gyldenlove's son! I know him by the crown and by Sten
Sture's ring that he wears round his neck. Hark, what a joyful
sound! He is coming! Soon will he be in my arms! Ha-ha!--who
conquers, God or I.
(The Men-at-Arms come out with the coffin.)
LADY INGER (clutches at her head and shrieks). The corpse!
(Whispers.) Pah! It is a hideous dream.
(Sinks back into the high-seat.)
JENS BIELKE (who has come in from the right, stops and cries in
astonishment). Dead! Then after all----