ACT THIRD

Lady Inger.

[To herself.] Strange! Then it must be as Olaf Skaktavl said. [ToNils Lykke.] I pray you wait here, Sir Councillor! I will go 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? H’m! 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 further point to our advantage. It is spread abroad that the young Count Sture has been at Östråt,—that a Danish envoy has had audience of Lady Inger—that thereupon the young Count Nils has beensnapped up by King Gustav’s men-at-arms a mile from the castle.——Let Inger Gyldenlöve’s name among the people stand never so high—’twill 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 even now slipping through our fingers—[Listens towards the hall, and says with relief.] Ah, there is no fear. Here they come.

[Lady Inger Gyldenlöveenters from the hall, accompanied byOlaf Skaktavi.

Lady Inger.

[ToNils Lykke.] Here is the man you seek.

Nils Lykke.

[Aside.] Powers of hell—what means this?

Lady Inger.

I have told this knight your name and all that you have imparted to me——

Nils Lykke.

[Irresolutely.] Ay? Have you so? Well——

Lady Inger.

——and I will not hide from you that his faith in your help is none of the strongest.

Nils Lykke.

Is it not?

Lady Inger.

Can you marvel at that? Surely you know both his way of thinking and his bitter fate——

Nils Lykke.

This man’s—? Ah—yes, truly——

Olaf Skaktavl.

[ToNils Lykke.] But seeing ’tis Peter Kanzler himself that has appointed us this meeting——

Nils Lykke.

Peter Kanzler—? [Recovers himself quickly.] Ay, right,—I have a mission from Peter Kanzler——

Olaf Skaktavl.

He must know best whom he can trust. So why should I trouble my head with pondering how——

Nils Lykke.

Ay, you are right, noble Sir; why waste time over that?

Olaf Skaktavl.

Rather let us come straight to the matter.

Nils Lykke.

Straight to the point; no beating about the bush—’tis ever my fashion.

Olaf Skaktavl.

Then will you tell me your errand here?

Nils Lykke.

Methinks you can partly guess my errand——

Olaf Skaktavl.

Peter Kanzler said something of papers that——

Nils Lykke.

Papers? Ay, true, the papers!

Olaf Skaktavl.

Doubtless you have them with you?

Nils Lykke.

Of course; safely bestowed; so safely that I cannot at once——

[Appears to search the inner pockets of his doublet; says to himself:

Who the devil is he? What pretext can I make? I may be on the brink of great discoveries——

[Notices that theServantsare laying the table and lighting the lamps in the Banquet Hall, and says toOlaf Skaktavl:

Ah, I see Lady Inger has taken order for the evening meal. Mayhap we could better talk of our affairs at table.

Olaf Skaktavl.

Good; as you will.

Nils Lykke.

[Aside.] Time gained—all gained!

[ToLady Ingerwith a show of great friendliness:

And meanwhile we might learn what part Lady Inger Gyldenlöve purposes to take in our design?

Lady Inger.

I?—None.

Nils Lykke and Olaf Skaktavl.

None!

Lady Inger.

Can ye marvel, noble Sirs, that I venture not on a game wherein loss would mean loss of all? And that, too, when none of my allies dare trust me fully.

Nils Lykke.

That reproach touches not me. I trust you blindly; I pray you be assured of that.

Olaf Skaktavl.

Who should believe in you, if not your countrymen?

Lady Inger.

Truly,—this confidence rejoices me.

[Goes to a cupboard in the back wall and fills two goblets with wine.

Nils Lykke.

[Aside.] Curse her, will she slip out of the noose?

Lady Inger.

[Hands a goblet to each.] And since so it is, I offer you a cup of welcome to Östråt. Drink, noble knights! Pledge me to the last drop!

[Looks from one to the other after they have drunk, and says gravely:

But now I must tell you—one goblet held a welcome for my friend; the other—death for my enemy!

Nils Lykke.

[Throws down the goblet.] Ah, I am poisoned!

Olaf Skaktavl.

[At the same time, clutches his sword.] Death and hell, have you murdered me?

Lady Inger.

[ToOlaf Skaktavl,pointing toNils Lykke.] You see the Danes’ confidence in Inger Gyldenlöve——

[ToNils Lykke,pointing toOlaf Skaktavl.] ——and likewise my countrymen’s faith in me![To both of them.

Yet you would have me place myself in your power? Gently, noble Sirs—gently! The Lady of Östråt is not yet in her dotage.

[Elina Gyldenlöveenters by the door on the left.

Elina.

I heard loud voices—. What is amiss?

Lady Inger.

[ToNils Lykke.] My daughter Elina.

Nils Lykke.

[Softly.] Elina! I had not pictured her thus.

[Elinacatches sight ofNils Lykke,and stands still, as in surprise, gazing at him.

Lady Inger.

[Touches her arm.] My child—this knight is——

Elina.

[Motions her mother back with her hand, still looking intently at him, and says:] There is no need! I see who he is. He is Nils Lykke.

Nils Lykke.

[Aside, toLady Inger.] How? Does she know me? Can Lucia have—? Can she know——?

Lady Inger.

Hush! She knows nothing.

Elina.

[To herself.] I knew it;—even so must Nils Lykke appear.

Nils Lykke.

[Approaches her.] Yes, Elina Gyldenlöve,—you have guessed aright. And as it seems that, in some sense, you know me,—and, moreover,as I am your mother’s guest,——you will not deny me the flower-spray you wear in your bosom. So long as it is fresh and fragrant, I shall have in it an image of yourself.

Elina.

[Proudly, but still gazing at him.] Pardon me, Sir Knight——’twas plucked in my own chamber, andtherecan grow no flower for you.

Nils Lykke.

[Loosening a spray of flowers that he wears in the front of his doublet.] At least you will not disdain this humble gift. ’Twas a farewell token from a courtly dame when I set forth from Trondhiem this morning.——But mark me, noble maiden,——were I to offer you a gift that were fully worthy of you, it could be nought less than a princely crown.

Elina.

[Who has taken the flowers passively.] And were it the royal crown of Denmark you held forth to me——before I shared it withyou, I would crush it to pieces between my hands, and cast the fragments at your feet!

[Throws down the flowers at his feet, and goes into the Banquet Hall.

Olaf Skaktavl.

[Mutters to himself.] Bold——as Inger Ottisdaughter by Knut Alfson’s bier!

Lady Inger.

[Softly, after looking alternately atElinaandNils Lykke.] The wolfcanbe tamed. Now to forge the fetters.

Nils Lykke.

[Picks up the flowers and gazes in rapture afterElina.] God’s holy blood, but she is proud and fair!

ACT THIRD

The Banquet Hall. A high bow-window in the background; a smaller window in front on the left. Several doors on each side. The ceiling is supported by massive wooden pillars, on which, as well as on the walls, are hung all sorts of weapons. Pictures of saints, knights, and ladies hang in long rows. Pendent from the ceiling a large many-branched lamp, alight. In front, on the right, an ancient carven high-seat. In the middle of the hall, a table with the remnants of the evening meal.

Elina Gyldenlöveenters from the left, slowly and in deep thought. Her expression shows that she is going over again in her mind the scene withNils Lykke.At last she repeats the motion with which she flung away the flowers, and says in a low voice:

Elina.

——And then he gathered up the fragments of the crown of Denmark—no, ’twas the flowers—and: “God’s holy blood, but she is proud and fair!”

Had he whispered the words in the most secret spot, long leagues from Östråt,—still had I heard them!

How I hate him! How I have always hated him,—this Nils Lykke!—There lives not another man like him, ’tis said. He plays with women—and treads them under his feet.

And ’twas tohimmy mother thought to offer me!—How I hate him!

They say Nils Lykke is unlike all other men. It is not true! There is nothing strange in him. There are many, many like him! When Biörn used to tell me his tales, all the princes looked as Nils Lykke looks. When I sat lonely here in the hall and dreamed my histories, and my knights came and went,—they were one and all even as he.

How strange and how good it is to hate! Never have I known how sweet it can be—till to-night. Ah—not to live a thousand years would I sell the moments I have lived since I saw him!—

“God’s holy blood, but she is proud——”

[Goes slowly towards the back, opens the window and looks out.Nils Lykkecomes in by the first door on the right.

Nils Lykke.

[To himself.] “Sleep well at Östråt, Sir Knight,” said Inger Gyldenlöve as she left me. Sleep well? Ay, ’tis easily said, but——Out there, sky and sea in tumult; below, in the grave-vault, a young girl on her bier; the fate of two kingdoms in my hand;—and in my breast a withered flower that a woman has flung at my feet. Truly, I fear me sleep will be slow of coming.

[NoticesElina,who has left the window, and is going out on the left.

There she is. Her haughty eyes seem veiled with thought.—Ah, if I but dared—.[Aloud.]Mistress Elina!

Elina.

[Stops at the door.] What will you? Why do you pursue me?

Nils Lykke.

You err; I pursue you not$1 $2am myself pursued.

Elina.

You?

Nils Lykke.

By a multitude of thoughts. Therefore ’tis with sleep as with you:—it flees me.

Elina.

Go to the window, and there you will find pastime;—a storm-tossed sea——

Nils Lykke.

[Smiles.] A storm-tossed sea? That may I find in you as well.

Elina.

In me?

Nils Lykke.

Ay, of that our first meeting has assured me.

Elina.

And that offends you?

Nils Lykke.

Nay, in nowise; yet I could wish to see you of milder mood.

Elina.

[Proudly.] Think you that you will ever have your wish?

Nils Lykke.

I am sure of it. I have a welcome word to say to you.

Elina.

What is it?

Nils Lykke.

Farewell.

Elina.

[Comes a step nearer him.] Farewell? You are leaving Östråt—so soon?

Nils Lykke.

This very night.

Elina..

[Seems to hesitate for a moment; then says coldly.] Then take my greeting, Sir Knight!

[Bows and is about to go.

Nils Lykke.

Elina Gyldenlöve,—I have no right to keep you here; but ’twill be unlike your nobleness if you refuse to hear what I have to say to you.

Elina.

I hear you, Sir Knight.

Nils Lykke.

I know you hate me.

Elina.

You are keen-sighted, I perceive.

Nils Lykke.

But I know, too, that I have fully merited your hate. Unseemly and wounding were the words I wrote of you in my letter to Lady Inger.

Elina.

Like enough; I have not read them.

Nils Lykke.

But at least their purport is not unknown to you; I know your mother has not left you in ignorance of the matter; at the least she has told you how I praised the lot of the man who—; surely you know the hope I nursed—

Elina.

Sir Knight—if ’tis of that you would speak—

Nils Lykke.

I speak of it, only to ask pardon for my words; for no other reason, I swear to you. If my fame—as I have too much cause to fear—has gone before me to Östråt, you must needs know enough of my life not to wonder that insuch things I should go to work something boldly. I have met many women, Elina Gyldenlöve; but not one have I found unyielding. Such lessons, look you, teach a man to be secure. He loses the habit of roundabout ways——

Elina.

May be so. I know not of what metal those women can have been made.

For the rest, you err in thinking ’twas your letter to my mother that aroused my soul’s hatred and bitterness against you. It is of older date.

Nils Lykke.

[Uneasily.] Of older date? What mean you?

Elina.

’Tis as you guessed:—your fame has gone before you, to Östråt, even as over all the land. Nils Lykke’s name is never spoken save with the name of some woman whom he has beguiled and cast off. Some speak it in wrath, others with laughter and wanton jeering at those weak-souled creatures. But through the wrath and the laughter and the jeers rings the song they have made of you, full of insolent challenge, like an enemy’s song of triumph.

’Tis all this together that has begotten my hate for you. You were ever in my thoughts, and ever I longed to meet you face to face, that you might learn that there are women on whom your subtle speeches are lost—if you should think to use them.

Nils Lykke.

You judge me unjustly, if you judge from what rumour has told of me. Even if there be truth in all you have heard,—you know not the causes behind it.—As a boy of seventeen I began my course of pleasure. I have lived full fifteen years since then. Light women granted me all that I would—even before the wish had shaped itself into a prayer; and what I offered them they seized with eager hands. You are the first woman that has flung back a gift of mine with scorn at my feet.

Think not I reproach you. Rather I honour you for it, as never before have I honoured woman. But for this I reproach my fate—and the thought is a gnawing pain to me—that you and I were not sooner brought face to face.——Elina Gyldenlöve! Your mother has told me of you. While far from Östråt life ran its restless course, you went your lonely way in silence, living in your dreams and histories. Therefore you will understand what I have to tell you.—Know, then, that once I too lived even such a life as yours. Methought that when I stepped forth into the great world, a noble and stately woman would come to meet me, and would beckon to me and point out the path towards a glorious goal.—I was deceived, Elina Gyldenlöve! Women came to meet me; butshewas not among them. Ere yet I had come to full manhood, I had learnt to despise them all.

Was it my fault? Why were not the others even as you?—I know the fate of your fatherland lies heavy on your soul; and you know thepart I have in these affairs——. ’Tis said of me that I am false as the sea-foam. Mayhap I am; but if I be, it is women who have made me so. Had I sooner found what I sought,—had I met a woman proud and noble and high-souled even as you, then had my path been different indeed. At this moment, maybe, I had been standing at your side as the champion of all that suffer wrong in Norway’s land. ForthisI believe: a woman is the mightiest power in the world, and in her hand it lies to guide a man whither God Almighty would have him go.

Elina.

[To herself.] Can it be as he says? Nay, nay; there is falsehood in his eyes and deceit on his lips. And yet—no song is sweeter than his words.

Nils Lykke.

[Coming closer, speaks low and more intimately.] As you have dwelt here at Östråt, alone with your changeful thoughts, how often have you felt your bosom stifling; how often have the roof and walls seemed to shrink together till they crushed your very soul. Then have your longings taken wing with you; then have you yearned to fly far from here, you knew not whither.—How often have you not wandered alone by the fiord; far out a ship has sailed by in fair array, with knights and ladies on her deck, with song and music of stringed instruments;—a faint, far-off rumour of great events has reached your ears;—and you have felt a longing in your breast, an unconquerablecraving to know all that lies beyond the sea. But you have not understood what ailed you. At times you have thought it was the fate of your fatherland that filled you with all these restless broodings. You deceived yourself;—a maiden so young as you has other food for musing.——Elina Gyldenlöve! Have you never had visions of an unknown power—a strong mysterious might, that binds together the destinies of mortals? When you dreamed of the many-coloured life far out in the wide world—when you dreamed of knightly jousts and joyous festivals—saw you never in your dreams a knight, who stood in the midst of the gayest rout, with a smile on his lips and with bitterness in his heart,—a knight that had once dreamed a dream as fair as yours, of a woman noble and stately, for whom he went ever a-seeking, and ever in vain?

Elina.

Who are you, that have power to clothe my most secret thoughts in words? How can you tell me what I have borne in my inmost soul—yet knew it not myself? How know you——?

Nils Lykke.

All that I have told you, I have read in your eyes.

Elina.

Never has any man spoken to me as you have spoken. I have understood you but dimly; and yet—all, all seems changed since——

[To herself.] Now I understand why they said that Nils Lykke was unlike all others.

Nils Lykke.

There is one thing in the world that might drive a man to madness, but to think of it; and that is the thought of what might have been, had things but fallen out in this way or that. Had I met you on my path while the tree of my life was yet green and budding, at this hour, mayhap, you had been——

But forgive me, noble lady! Our speech of these past few moments has made me forget how we stand one to another. ’Twas as though a secret voice had told me from the first that to you I could speak openly, without flattery or dissimulation.

Elina.

That can you.

Nils Lykke.

’Tis well;—and it may be that this openness has already in part reconciled us. Ay—my hope is yet bolder. The time may yet come when you will think of the stranger knight without hate or bitterness in your soul. Nay,—mistake me not! I mean notnow—but some time, in the days to come. And that this may be the less hard for you—and as I have begun once for all to speak to you plainly and openly —let me tell you——

Elina.

Sir Knight——!

Nils Lykke.

[Smiling.] Ah, I see the thought of my letter still affrights you. Fear nought on that score. I would from my heart it were unwritten, for—I know ’twill concern you little enough, so I may even say it right out—for I love you not, and shall never come to love you. Fear nothing, therefore, as I said before; I shall in nowise seek to——

But what ails you——?

Elina.

Me? Nothing, nothing.—Tell me but one thing: why do you still wear those flowers? What would you with them?

Nils Lykke.

These? Are they not a gage of battle you have thrown down to the wicked Nils Lykke, on behalf of all womankind? What could I do but take it up?

You asked what I would with them? [Softly.] When I stand again amid the fair ladies of Denmark—when the music of the strings is hushed and there is silence in the hall—then will I bring forth these flowers and tell a tale of a young maiden sitting alone in a gloomy black-beamed hall, far to the north in Norway——[Breaks off and bows respectfully.

But I fear I detain the noble daughter of the house too long. We shall meet no more; for before daybreak I shall be gone. So now I bid you farewell.

Elina.

Fare you well, Sir Knight! [A short silence.

Nils Lykke.

Again you are deep in thought, Elina Gyldenlöve! Is it the fate of your fatherland that weighs upon you still?

Elina.

[Shakes her head, absently gazing straight in front of her.] My fatherland?—I think not of my fatherland.

Nils Lykke.

Then ’tis the strife and misery of the time that disquiets you.

Elina.

The time? I had forgotten it——You go to Denmark? Said you not so

Nils Lykke.

I go to Denmark.

Elina.

Can I look towards Denmark from this hall?

Nils Lykke.

[Points to the window on the left.] Ay, from this window. Denmark lies there, to the south.

Elina.

And is it far from here? More than a hundred leagues?

Nils Lykke.

Much more. The sea lies between you and Denmark.

Elina.

[To herself.] The sea? Thought has seagulls’ wings. The sea cannot stay it.

[Goes out to the left.

Nils Lykke.

[Looks after her awhile; then says:] If I could but spare two days now—or even one—I would have her in my power, even as the others.

And yet is there rare stuff in this maiden. She is proud. Might I not after all——? No; rather humble her——

[Paces the room.

Verily, I believe she has set my blood afire. Who would have thought it possible after all these years?—Enough of this! I must get out of the tangle I have here thrust myself into.

[Sits in a chair on the right.

What is the meaning of it? Both Olaf Skaktavl and Inger Gyldenlöve seem blind to the mistrust ’twill waken, when ’tis rumoured that I am in their league.—Or can Lady Inger have seen through my purpose? Can she have seen that all my promises were but designed to lure Nils Sture forth from his hiding-place?

[Springs up.

Damnation! Is it I that have been fooled? ’Tis like enough that Count Sture is not at Östråt at all. It may be the rumour of his flight was buta feint. He may be safe and sound among his friends in Sweden, while I——

[Walks restlessly up and down.

And to think I was so sure of success! If I should effect nothing? If Lady Inger should penetrate all my designs—and publish my discomfiture—-. To be a laughing-stock both here and in Denmark! To have sought to lure Lady Inger into a trap—and given her cause the help it most needed—strengthened her in the people’s favour——! Ah, I could well-nigh sell myself to the Evil One, would he but help me to lay hands on Count Sture.

[The window in the background is pushed open.Nils Stenssonappears outside.

Nils Lykke.

[Clutches at his sword.] Who is there?

Nils Stensson.

[Jumps down on to the floor.] Ah; here I am at last then!

Nils Lykke.

[Aside.] What means this?

Nils Stensson.

God’s peace, master!

Nils Lykke.

Thanks, good Sir! Methinks you have chosen a strange way of entrance.

Nils Stensson.

Ay, what the devil was I to do? The gate was shut. Folk must sleep in this house like bears at Yuletide.

Nils Lykke.

God be thanked! Know you not that a good conscience is the best pillow?

Nils Stensson.

Ay, it must be even so; for with all my rattling and thundering, I——

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