Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (83 page)

KING SKULE.
There was as ‘twere a halo round your head when your mother brought you to me; now I see in its stead the lightnings of the ban.

PETER.
Father, father, think not of me; be not afraid for my woe or weal. Is it not your will I have fulfilled? — how can it be accounted to me for a crime?

KING SKULE.
I hungered for your faith in me, and your faith has turned to sin.

PETER.
[Wildly.]
For your sake, for your sake! Therefore God dare not deny to blot it out!

KING SKULE.
“Pure and blameless,” I swore to Ingeborg — and he scoffs at heaven!

PAUL FLIDA.
[Entering.]
All is in uproar! The impious deed has struck terror to your men; they flee into the churches.

KING SKULE.
They shall out; they must out!

BÅRD BRATTE.
[Entering.]
The townsfolk have risen against you; they are slaying the Varbælgs wherever they find them, on the streets or in the houses!

A MAN-AT-ARMS.
[Entering.]
The Birchlegs are sailing up the river!

KING SKULE.
Summon all my men together! None must fail me here!

PAUL FLIDA.
They will not come; they are benumbed with dread.

KING SKULE.
[Despairingly.]
But I cannot fall now! My son must not die with a deadly sin upon his soul!

PETER.
Think not of me; ‘tis you alone that are to be thought of. Let us make for Indherred; there all men are true to you!

KING SKULE.
Ay, to flight! Follow me, whoso would save his life! Bård Bratte. What way?

KING SKULE.
Over the bridge!

PAUL FLIDA.
All bridges are broken down, my lord.

KING SKULE.
Broken down — ! All the bridges broken, say you?

PAUL FLIDA.
Had you broken them down at Oslo, you might have let them stand at Nidaros.

KING SKULE.
We must over the river none the less; — we have our lives and our souls to save! To flight! To flight! [He
and
Peter
rush out to the left.

BÅRD BRATTE.
Ay, better so than to fall at the hands of the townfolk and the Birchlegs.

PAUL FLIDA.
In God’s name, then, to flight!
[All follow
Skule.
The room stands empty for a short time; a distant and confused noise is heard from the streets; then a troop of armed townsmen rushes in by the door on the right.

A TOWNSMAN.
Here! He must be here!

ANOTHER.
Slay him!

MANY.
Slay the church-robber too!

A SINGLE ONE.
Go carefully! They may yet bite!

THE FIRST TOWNSMAN.
No need; the Birchlegs are already coming up the street.

A TOWNSMAN.
[Entering.]
Too late — King Skule has fled!

MANY.
Whither? Whither?

THE NEW-COMER.
Into one of the churches, methinks; they are full of the Varbælgs.

THE FIRST TOWNSMAN.
Then let us seek for him; great thanks and reward will King Håkon give to the man who slays Skule.

ANOTHER.
Here come the Birchlegs.

A THIRD.
King Håkon himself!

MANY OF THE CROWD.
[Shout.]
Hail to King Håkon Håkonsson!

HÅKON.
[Enters from the right, followed by Gregorius Jonsson, Dagfinn the Peasant, and many others.]
Ay, now are you humble, you Tronders; you have stood against me long enough.

THE FIRST TOWNSMAN.
[Kneeling.]
Mercy, my lord! Skule Bårdsson bore so hardly on us!

ANOTHER.
[Also kneeling.]
He compelled us, else had we never followed him.

THE FIRST.
He seized our goods and forced us to fight for his unrighteous cause.

THE SECOND.
Alas, noble lord, he has been a scourge to his friends no less than to his foes.

MANY VOICES.
Ay, ay, — Skule Bårdsson has been a scourge to the whole land.

DAGFINN.
That, at least, is true enough.

HÅKON.
Good; with you townsfolk I will speak later; ‘tis my purpose to punish sternly all transgressions; but first there are other things to be thought of. Knows any man where Skule Bårdsson is?

MANY.
In one of the churches, lord!

HÅKON.
Know you that for certain?

THE TOWNSMEN.
Ay, there are all the Varbælgs.

HÅKON.
[Softly to Dagfinn.]
He must be found; set a watch on all the churches in the town.

DAGFINN.
And when he is found, he must straightway be slain.

HÅKON.
[Softly.]
Slain? Dagfinn, Dagfinn, how heavy a deed it seems!

DAGFINN.
My lord, you swore it solemnly at Oslo.

HÅKON.
And all men in the land will call for his death.
[Turns to Gregorius Jonsson and says, unheard by the others]
Go; you were once his friend; seek him out and prevail on him to fly the land.

GREGORIUS.
[Joyfully.]
You will suffer it, my lord!

HÅKON.
For the sake of my gentle, well-beloved wife.

GREGORIUS JONSSON.
But if he should not flee? If he will not or cannot?

HÅKON.
Then, in God’s name, I may not spare him; then must my kingly word be fulfilled. Go!

GREGORIUS JONSSON.
I go, and shall do my utmost. Heaven grant I may succeed. —
[Goes out by the right.

HÅKON.
You, Dagfinn, go with trusty men down to the King’s ship; you shall conduct the Queen and her child up to Elgesæter convent.

DAGFINN.
My lord, think you she will be safe there?

HÅKON.
Nowhere safer. The Vavbælgs have shut themselves up in the churches, and she has besought to be sent thither; her mother is at Elgesæter.

DAGFINN.
Ay, ay, that I know.

HÅKON.
Greet the Queen most lovingly from me; and greet Lady Ragnhild also. You may tell them that so soon as the Varbœlgs shall have made submission and been taken to grace, all the bells in Nidaros shall be rung, for a sign that there has come peace in the land once more. — You townsfolk shall reckon with me to-morrow, and punishment shall be meted to each according to his misdeeds. —
[Goes with his men.

THE FIRST TOWNSMAN.
Woe upon us to-morrow!

THE SECOND.
We have a long reckoning to pay.

THE FIRST.
We, who have stood against Håkon so long — who bore our part in acclaiming Skule when he took the kingly title.

THE SECOND.
Who gave Skule both ships and war-tribute — who bought all the goods he seized from Håkon’s thanes.

THE FIRST.
Ay, woe upon us to-morrow! A Townsman.
[Rushes in from the left.]
Where is Håkon? Where is the King?

THE FIRST.
What would you with him?

THE NEW-COMER.
Bring him great and weighty tidings.

MANY.
What tidings?

THE NEW-COMER.
I tell them to no other than the King himself.

MANY.
Ay, tell us, tell us!

THE NEW-COMER.
Skule Bårdsson is fleeing up toward Elgesæter.

THE FIRST.
It cannot be! He is in one of the churches.

THE NEW-COMER.
No, no; he and his son crossed over the river in a skiff.

THE FIRST.
Ha, then we can save us from Håkon’s wrath!

THE SECOND.
Ay, let us forthwith give him to know where Skule is.

THE FIRST.
Nay, better than that; we will say nought, but ourselves go up to Elgesæter and slay Skule.

THE SECOND.
Ay, ay — that will we!

A THIRD.
But did not many Varbælgs go with him over the river?

THE NEW-COMER.
No, there were but few men in the boat.

THE FIRST.
We will arm us as best we can. Oh, now are we townsfolk safe enough! Let no man know what we are about; we are enough for the task! — And now, away to Elgesæter. ALL.
[Softly.]
Ay, away to Elgesæter!
[They go out to the left, rapidly but cautiously. A fir-wood on the hills above Nidaros. It is moonlight, but the night is misty, so that the background is seen indistinctly, and sometimes scarcely at all. Tree stumps and great boulders lie round about.
KING SKULE, PETER, PAUL FLIDA, BÅRD BRATTE,
and other
VARBÆLGS
come through the wood from the left.

PETER.
Come hither and rest you, my father.

KING SKULE.
Ay, let me rest, rest.
[Sinks down beside a stone.

PETER.
How goes it with you?

KING SKULE.
I am hungry! I am sick, sick! I see dead men’s shadows!

PETER.
[Springing up.]
Help here — bread for the King!

BÅRD BRATTE.
Here is every man king; for life is at stake. Stand up, Skule Bårdsson, if you be king! Lie not there to rule the land.

PETER.
If you scoff at my father, I will kill you.

BÅRD BRATTE.
I shall be killed whatever betides; for me King Håkon will have no grace; for I was his thane, and deserted him for Skule’s sake. Think of somewhat that may save us. No deed so desperate but I will risk it now.

A VÂRBÆLG.
Could we but get over to the convent at Holm?

PAUL FLIDA.
Better to Elgesæter.

BÅRD BRATTE.
[With a sadden outburst.]
Best of all to go down to Håkon’s ship and bear away the King-child.

PAUL FLIDA.
Are you distraught?

BÅRD BRATTE.
No, no; ‘tis our one hope, and easy enough to do. The Birchlegs are ransacking every house, and keeping watch on all the churches; they think none of us can have taken flight, since all the bridges are broken. There can be but few men on board the ships; when once we have his heir in our power, Håkon must grant us peace, else will his child die with us. Who will go with me to save our lives?

PAUL FLIDA.
Not I, if they are to be saved in such wise.

SEVERAL.
Not I! Not I!

PETER.
Ha, but if it were to save my father — !

BÅRD BRATTE.
If you will go with me, come. First I go down to Hladehammer; there lies the troop we met at the bottom of the hill; they are the wildest daredevils of all the Varbælgs; they had swum the river, knowing that they would find no grace in the churches. They are the lads for a raid on the King’s ship! Which of you will follow me? Some. I! I!

PETER.
Mayhap I too; but first must I see my father into safe shelter.

BÅRD BRATTE.
Ere daybreak will we make speed up the river. Come, here goes a short way downwards towards Hlade.
[He and some others go out to the right.

PETER.
[To Paul Flida.]
Let not my father know aught of this; he is soul-sick to-night, we must act for him. There is safety in Bård Bratte’s deed; ere daybreak shall the King-child be in our hands.

PAUL FLIDA.
To be slain, most like. See you not that it is a sin —

PETER.
Nay, it cannot be a sin; for my father doomed the child in Oslo. Sooner or later it must die, for it blocks my father’s path; — my father has a great king’s-thought to carry through; it matters not who or how many fall for its sake.

PAUL FLIDA.
Hapless for you was the day you came to know that you were King S’kule’s son.
[Listening.]
Hist! — east you flat to the ground; there come people this way.
[All throw themselves down behind stones and stumps; a troop of people, some riding, some on foot, can be seen indistinctly through the mist and between the trees; they come from the left, and pass on to the right.