The Feast at Solhoug | Page 6

half aside.] Nay--nay, my dear wife--
KNUT.
[Springing up.] Stands it so, Dame Margit! You think that your sister--

BENGT.
[Seeking to calm him.] Nay, nay, Knut Gesling! Have patience, now.
You must understand us aright.
MARGIT.
There is naught in my words to wound you. My sister knows you only
by the songs that are made about you--and these songs sound but ill in
gentle ears.
No peaceful home is your father's house. With your lawless, reckless
crew, Day out, day in, must you hold carouse-- God help her who
mates with 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