Henrik Ibsens Prose Dramas, Vol III. | Page 9

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