KARIN. Why do you talk like that? He drinks a lot of wine, like most young men and Hush! Somebody is coming....
AGDA. Good-bye, Karin. I have to run....
[She hurries into the tavern at the left.
KARIN. [As she goes to the right] I'll be back.
PRINCE ERIC and JORGHEN PERSSON enter from the rear.
ERIC. Here's my new well-spring of wine. Come quick to the bower here.
JORGHEN. And Agda is here, too!
ERIC. Well, what of it? [Rapping on the table.
AGDA appears.
ERIC. [To AGDA] Bring us some Rhine wine and then make yourself invisible. [To JORGHEN] You know, Jorghen, I am facing a crucial moment and must be ready to act at once. The King has lost his reason and is committing acts that cannot be defended! Yesterday he cut off the heads of those Dalecarlians. To-day comes the news that his troops have been beaten by the peasants of Småland, who are now crossing Holaved Forest.[1] Now the Dalecarlians will rise, of course, and everything is lost.