The Feast at Solhoug | Page 6

you. God help the maiden you lure or buy With gold and with forests green-- Soon will her sore heart long to lie Still in the grave, I ween.
ERIK.
Aye, aye--true enough--Knut Gesling lives not overpeaceably. But there will soon come a change in that, when he gets him a wife in his hall.
KNUT.
And this I would have you mark, Dame Margit: it may be a week since, I was at a feast at Hegge, at Erik's bidding, whom here you see. I vowed a vow that Signe, your fair sister, should be my wife, and that before the year was out. Never shall it be said of Knut Gesling that he brake any vow. You can see, then, that you must e'en choose me for your sister's husband--be it with your will or against it.
MARGIT.
Ere that may be, I must tell you plain, You must rid yourself of your ravening train. You must scour no longer with yell and shout O'er the country-side in a galloping rout; You must still the shudder that spreads around When Knut Gesling is to a bride-ale bound. Courteous must your mien be when a-feasting you ride; Let your battle-axe hang at home at the chimney-side-- It ever sits loose in your hand, well you know, When the mead has gone round and your brain is aglow. From no man his rightful gear shall you wrest, You shall harm no harmless maiden; You shall send no man the shameless hest That when his path crosses yours, he were best Come with his grave-clothes laden. And if you will so bear you till the year be past, You may win my sister for your bride at last.
KNUT.
[With suppressed rage.] You know how to order your words cunningly, Dame Margit. Truly, you should have been a priest, and not your husbands wife.
BENGT.
Oh, for that matter, I too could--
KNUT.
[Paying no heed to him.] But I would have you take note that had a sword-bearing man spoken to me in such wise--
BENGT.
Nay, but listen, Knut Gesling--you must understand us!
KNUT.
[As before.] Well, briefly, he should have learnt that the axe sits loose in my hand, as you said but now.
BENGT.
[Softly.] There we have it! Margit, Margit, this will never end well.
MARGIT.
[To KNUT.] You asked for a forthright answer, and that I have given you.
KNUT.
Well, well; I will not reckon too closely with you, Dame Margit. You have more wit than all the rest of us together. Here is my hand;--it may be there was somewhat of reason in the keen-edged words you spoke to me.
MARGIT.
This I like well; now are you already on the right way to amendment. Yet one word more--to-day we hold a feast at Solhoug.
KNUT.
A feast?
BENGT.
Yes, Knut Gesling: you must know that it is our wedding day; this day three years ago made me Dame Margit's husband.
MARGIT.
[Impatiently, interrupting.] As I said, we hold a feast to-day. When Mass is over, and your other business done, I would have you ride hither again, and join in the banquet. Then you can learn to know my sister.
KNUT.
So be it, Dame Margit; I thank you. Yet 'twas not to go to Mass that I rode hither this morning. Your kinsman, Gudmund Alfson, was the cause of my coming.
MARGIT.
[Starts.] He! My kinsman? Where would you seek him?
KNUT.
His homestead lies behind the headland, on the other side of the fiord.
MARGIT.
But he himself is far away.
ERIK.
Be not so sure; he may be nearer than you think.
KNUT.
[Whispers.] Hold your peace!
MARGIT.
Nearer? What mean you?
KNUT.
Have you not heard, then, that Gudmund Alfson has come back to Norway? He came with the Chancellor Audun of Hegranes, who was sent to France to bring home our new Queen.
MARGIT.
True enough, but in these very days the King holds his wedding- feast in full state at Bergen, and there is Gudmund Alfson a guest.
BENGT.
And there could we too have been guests had my wife so willed it.
ERIK.
[Aside to KNUT.] Then Dame Margit knows not that--?
KNUT.
[Aside.] So it would seem; but keep your counsel. [Aloud.] Well, well, Dame Margit, I must go my way none the less, and see what may betide. At nightfall I will be here again.
MARGIT.
And then you must show whether you have power to bridle your unruly spirit.
BENGT.
Aye, mark you that.
MARGIT.
You must lay no hand on your axe--hear you, Knut Gesling?
BENGT.
Neither on your axe, nor on your knife, nor on any other weapon whatsoever.
MARGIT.
For then can you never hope to be one of our kindred.
BENGT.
Nay, that is our firm resolve.
KNUT.
[To MARGIT.] Have no fear.
BENGT.
And what we have firmly resolved stands fast.
KNUT.
That I like well, Sir Bengt Gauteson. I, too, say the same; and I have pledged myself at the feast-board to wed your kinswoman. You may be sure that my pledge, too, will stand fast.--God's peace till to-night!
[He and ERIK, with their men, go out at the