Bishop Nicholas.
[Nods, looks round, and says softly.] And if King Håkon were not that child?
Earl Skule.
[Starts a step backwards.] Great God——! [Controls himself.] It is beyond belief.
Bishop Nicholas.
Hearken to me, Earl Skule. I have lived seventy years and six; it begins to go sharply downhill with me now, and I dare not take this secret with me over yonder——
Earl Skule.
Speak, speak! Is he not the son of Håkon Sverresson?
Bishop Nicholas.
Hear me. It was known to none that Inga was with child. Håkon Sverresson was lately dead, and doubtless she feared Inge Bårdsson, who was then king, and you, and—well, and the Baglers[[32]] too mayhap. She was brought to bed secretly in the house of Trond the Priest, in Heggen parish, and after nine days she departed homewards; but the child remained a whole year with the priest, she not daring to look to it, and none knowing that it breathed saved Trond and his two sons.