LADY INGER. The old burden.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ay, it sounds but ill in your ears, I know; yet hear it you must for all that. In brief, then: I come from Sweden: troubles are at hand: the Dales are ready to rise.
LADY INGER. I know it.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Peter Kanzler is with us—secretly, you understand.
LADY INGER (starting). Peter Kanzler?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. It is he that has sent me to Ostrat.
LADY INGER (rises). Peter Kanzler, say you?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. He himself;—but mayhap you no longer know him?
LADY INGER (half to herself). Only too well!—But tell me, I pray you,—what message do you bring?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. When the rumour of the rising reached the border mountains, where I then was, I set off at once into Sweden. 'Twas not hard to guess that Peter Kanzler had a finger in the game. I sought him out and offered to stand by him;—he knew me of old, as you know, and knew that he could trust me; so he has sent me hither.