Sigurd--O my mother!
The Nun--Thou wilt keep away from this battle, is it not so? We two will win another kingdom,--a much better one.
Sigurd--I understand thee, mother. [Leads her to a seat, and falls upon his knee.]
The Nun--Yes, dost thou not? Thou art not so bad as all men would have it. I knew that well, but wanted so much to speak with thee,--and since thou art wearied and hast lost thy hopes for this world, thou hast come back to me, for even now there is time! And of all thy realm they must leave thee some little plot, and there we will live by the church, so that when the bells ring for vespers we shall be near the blessed Olaf, and with him seek the presence of the Almighty. And there we will heal thy wounds with holy water, and thoughts of love, more than thou canst remember ever to have had, shall come back to thee robed in white, and wondering recollection shall have no end. For the great shall be made small and the small great, and there shall be questionings and revelations and eternal happiness. Thou wilt come and thus live with me, my son, wilt thou not? Thou wilt stay from this battle and come quickly?
Sigurd--Mother, I have not wept till now since I lay upon the parched earth of the Holy Land.
The Nun--Thou wilt follow me?
Sigurd--To do thus were to escape the pledges I have made but by breaking them.
The Nun--To what art thou now pledged?
Sigurd--Pledged to the blind king I took from the cloister; pledged to the men I have led hither.
The Nun--And these pledges thou shalt redeem--how?