And, craving her ruin, with hand resolute
She pressed out the milk before Valdemar’s foot.
She pressed out the milk ’fore the King on the floor:
“My King and my husband, canst doubt any more?”
Then black as the earth grew King Valdemar’s face,
And Kirstenlil swooned ’neath the load of disgrace.
“I intended to wed thee but full speedily,
Now thou shalt this evening with agony die.
“To a mighty lord I’d resolv’d thee to espouse,
Now this very night thy young life thou shalt lose.
“The death the most cruel and painful of all,
This night thou shalt suffer in this very hall.”
Little Kirsten she fell ’fore the King on her knee:
“Dear brother! I pray shew some pity to me.”
“Thy kneeling, O Kirsten, will profit thee nought,
The basest and vilest of sins thou hast wrought.
’Tis folly to hope I shall mercy display,
Thou injured me hast in such infamous way.
I promised thy hand, for of this nought I knew,
To the son of a king ’cross the Haf’s water blue.”