"Let them be carried at once to the wheel!" cried Junker Christopherson, as he menaced them with his clenched hand.
The queen's indignation was great; but she remained silent, and sank back, pale and agitated, on her seat. The appearance of the murderers, and the wild faces of the people, painfully reminded her of the audacious visit of Marsk Stig, on the morning after the king's assassination.
"Had I imagined that these gentlemen had personally participated in the deed, they should never have received a safe conduct from me," exclaimed the duke, in some perturbation. "But now, for the sake of my own honour and that of the crown, I must demand that they be suffered freely to depart, whatever judgment may be pronounced upon them."
"You are right, Duke Waldemar," said the young king, suppressing his indignation. "Would we be knights with honour, we must keep faith and promise, even with these most impious murderers; and I have vowed to God and to Our Lady to rule righteously. If, therefore, on behalf of the crown, you have promised them safety, we must suffer them freely to depart. But they shall first hear their doom; and, wherever they may flee to, by the assistance of the righteous God, it will certainly reach them. Read aloud the sentence," he added, hastily, "as it stands in King Waldemar's law-book. If they have forfeited life and honour, so shall we adjudge."
"No punishment seems to me too severe for so heinous a crime," observed the duke, sternly. "But it may assume a different aspect when viewed from another point; and, therefore, before any just and impartial sentence can be pronounced, the Dane-court should hear what the accused have to advance in their defence, and what others, skilled in the laws, can state to guide us. Let the accused advance. The king and the people will hear their defence."
Count Jacob and Arved Bengtson moved not; but Jacob Blaafod, who was celebrated for his eloquence, approached the throne, while the blood again mounted to his sun-burnt cheeks. Having bowed on every side with knightly grace, he began his defence, and immediately quelled the murmurs of the assembly by a short but flattering exordium, in which he extolled the justice of the Danish laws, and the love of freedom and magnanimity of the people. He then frankly admitted the truth of the accusation, but represented the murder of the king as a bold and heroic action, as a great sacrifice to the freedom of the nation, and as altogether a just and lawful deed. He recounted all the violations of his contracts, and of the charters of the kingdom, perpetrated by the late king, by which, he affirmed, he had forfeited his crown, and placed himself on a level with every knight and nobleman in the kingdom, each of whom could defend his own honour and integrity against any of his peers, without being guilty of lese-majesty. He then proceeded to expose, in bitter language, the deep injustice which had been suffered by the chief noblemen in the kingdom; especially depicting, in the strongest colour, the crime perpetrated by King Erik Christopherson against Marsk Stig and his wife, with its heartrending results; and concluded by demanding of the king and the people, in the name of Danish justice, honour, and freedom, that the country's greatest general, the famed Marsk Stig, with his injured friends and kinsmen, should be acquitted of all guilt, and restored to their honours and dignities, which they had never lawfully forfeited.
His words made a deep impression, and no inconsiderable number of voices were raised in favour of the accused.
The queen had veiled her face; and the youthful Erik, in spite of his grief and indignation, could not avoid blushing at the shame of his unhappy father, whilst the tears stood in his eyes.
"Speak, Drost Peter, speak!" he cried: "is it not enough that they have murdered my father? Must I also sit on Denmark's throne, and hear them mock and insult his memory?"
At this heartrending appeal Drost Peter advanced. He exhibited great emotion, and some time elapsed before he could command his voice. "In what our murdered lord and king has here offended," he began, "he has gone to his account before the King of kings. May the Almighty Judge be merciful to him, and all of us! They are not men, but monsters, who demand that his son and his bereaved subjects should justify his actions and defend his fame in the presence of his murderers. It is not as the man Erik Christopherson that he is here in question; but as Denmark's king, as the wearer of Denmark's crown, whose inviolable majesty and sacredness have been profaned by bloody and audacious hands: it is the crime against the anointed ruler of the people and of the kingdom we are here to judge."