LADY INGER (in a low voice, as though bewildered). Did you hear it, Olaf Skaktavl? or was it but a dream? Heard you what he said?
NILS LYKKE. It was no dream, Lady Inger!
LADY INGER. And you know it! You,—you!— Where is he then?
Where have you got him? What would you do with him? (Screams.)
Do not kill him, Nils Lykke! Give him back to me! Do not kill
my child!
OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ah, I begin to understand——
LADY INGER. And this fear——this torturing dread! Through all these years it has been ever with me—— —— and then all fails at last, and I must bear this agony!—Oh Lord my God, is it right of thee? Was it for this thou gavest him to me? (Controls herself and says with forced composure:) Nils Lykke—tell me one thing. Where have you got him? Where is he?
NILS LYKKE. With his foster-father.
LADY INGER. Still with his foster-father. Oh, that merciless man——! For ever to deny my prayers.—But it must not go on thus! Help me, Olaf Skaktavl!
OLAF SKAKTAVL. I?
NILS LYKKE. There will be no need, if only you——
LADY INGER. Hearken, Sir Councillor! What you know you shall know thoroughly. And you too, my old and faithful friend——! Listen then. To-night you bade me call to mind that fatal day when Knut Alfson was slain at Oslo. You bade me remember the promise I made as I stood by his corpse amid the bravest men in Norway. I was scarce full-grown then; but I felt God's strength in me, and methought, as many have thought since, that the Lord himself had set his mark on me and chosen me to fight in the forefront for my country's cause. Was it vanity? Or was it a calling from on high? That I have never clearly known. But woe to him that has a great mission laid upon him. For seven years I fear not to say that I kept my promise faithfully. I stood by my countrymen in all their miseries. All my playmates were now wives and mothers. I alone could give ear to no wooer—not to one. That you know best, Olaf Skaktavl! Then I saw Sten Sture for the first time. Fairer man had never met my sight.