"You stand in the presence of your liege sovereign. Archbishop Grand," began King Eric; but he paused again to restrain his anger at the captive's look of rude defiance.
"Yes, truly, I stand in the presence of my heavenly Ruler and King," answered Archbishop Grand, folding his fettered hands, without withdrawing his gaze from the crucifix. "He shall judge between me and the tyrants of this world."
"You stand also before your temporal ruler and king," continued Eric--"before your lawful superior in this country and kingdom. For what ye have sinned against me and Denmark's crown you will have to answer at the great day of judgment, but first here; as certainly as there is justice upon earth, first here. I have sent in my accusation of your crimes to the tribunal of St. Peter; the Holy Father hath required me to liberate you that he may hear your defence, or your confession."
"Why then have ye not obeyed, King Eric?" interrupted the captive, for the first time turning his proud glance upon the king. "Will ye delay until the holy lightnings melt the crown from off your brow?"
"How long I shall wear the crown, the righteous God alone can determine," answered the king. "Without His Almighty permission no power on earth can injure a hair of my head." He paused for a moment. "When we liberate a dangerous offender," he continued, with more calmness, "he must give us security for his release. The guiltiest criminal shall have the right of defending himself, but not of committing fresh crimes on his way to his tribunal. If he hath any remains of conscience and honour, and if we are to trust him, he must take the oath we require. If he will not--be it so! he may be tried in his dungeon, and defend himself in his chains."
"And what security doth King Eric demand for the release of the captive, whom he, without lawful sentence, and contrary to the law of God and the church, caused to be imprisoned and maltreated?" asked the archbishop, with bitterness.
"For the justice of your imprisonment I will answer to the Great Judge above," answered the king, raising his hand; "but the point in question is only whether you may justly and reasonably be released; to decide this I have summoned you hither. Know then, Archbishop Grand! although you were undoubtedly an accomplice in my father's murder--although I abhor you as my bitterest and deadliest foe, and as the greatest traitor in Denmark, I fear not, nevertheless, to loose your guilty hands when justice demands it; but here ye shall neither raise hand nor voice against crowns and sovereigns; ere ye leave these walls ye shall swear by your salvation, in the sight of God and the chivalry of Denmark, to promise that which I here, as the protector of the crown and people, have required and demanded. When you have read the conditions of your release, and are willing to take the oath before my throne, in the hearing of all my knights, your imprisonment may end this very hour."
At a signal from the king Thorkild Knudson reached the sheet of parchment to the archbishop, and placed one of the tapers closer to him. The hand of the proud captive trembled as he took the parchment, and it cost him evident effort to read it; but it seemed as if his strength and spirit increased as he proceeded; and when he had perused it to the end he laughed scornfully, and crumpled the parchment in his hand.--"Shall I leave my degradation unavenged?" he cried--"Shall I fetter my tongue myself that it may not announce to you eternal death and damnation?--Shall I part with my last earthly defence?--Shall I subject the holy church's right to the arbitration of a tyrant? No, King Eric Ericson! as yet I am an anointed and consecrated archbishop, with power to bless or curse the crown thou wearest. Even in these chains I have the power to push the crown from off thy head with a single word. Over my body, tyrant! thou may'st have power, but, by the Lord above, not over my free immortal spirit! Ere I will consent to one of these conditions thou and thy executioners may sever every limb from my body, as I now rend asunder, with this hellish compact, all bond and tie between me and the despots of this world." So saying, he rent the parchment before the king's eyes, threw the fragments on the floor, and stamped upon them until his chains rattled.
"Madman!" cried the king, in great anger, "stay then in thy prison, and defy me there, until thy dying day! I release thee not until thou hast put thy seal to every word thou hast here trampled under foot, should I be a hundred times excommunicated by the pope in consequence," Eric hastily pulled the bell-string. The door of the knights' hall opened, and the master of the household appeared. "The guard," commanded the king--"the captive is to return to prison."
The loud talking in the king's private chamber had excited apprehensions among the king's knights and courtiers, who knew he was next to being alone with the dreaded prisoner. As the chamber door opened, all thronged towards it, as if fearing some misfortune.