Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (24 page)

ELINA. But, my mother ——

LADY INGER. Hush! We have played into each other’s hands. What wiles did you use, my subtle daughter? I saw the love shine out of his eyes. Hold him fast now! Draw the net closer and closer about him, and then —— Ah, Elina, if we could but rend his perjured heart within his breast!

ELINA. Woe is me — what is it you say?

LADY INGER. Let not your courage fail you. Hearken to me. I know a word that will keep you firm. Know then —— (Listening.) They are fighting outside the gate. Courage! Now comes the pinch! (Turns again to ELINA.) Know then, Nils Lykke was the man that brought your sister to her grave.

ELINA (with a shriek). Lucia!

LADY INGER. He it was, as truly as there is an Avenger above us!

ELINA. Then Heaven be with me!

LADY INGER (appalled). Elina —— ?!

ELINA. I am his bride in the sight of God.

LADY INGER. Unhappy child, — what have you done?

ELINA (in a toneless voice). Made shipwreck of my soul. — Good- night, my mother!

(She goes out to the left.)

LADY INGER. Ha-ha-ha! It goes down-hill now with Inger Gyldenlove’s house. There went the last of my daughters. Why could I not keep silence? Had she known nought, it may be she had been happy — after a kind. It
was
to be so. It is written up there in the stars that I am to break off one green branch after another, till the trunk stand leafless at last. ‘Tis well, ‘tis well! I am to have my son again. Of the others, of my daughters, I will not think. My reckoning? To face my reckoning? — It falls not due till the last great day of wrath. —
That
comes not yet awhile.

NILS STENSSON (calling from outside on the right). Ho — shut the gate!

LADY INGER. Count Sture’s voice —— !

NILS STENSSON (rushes in, unarmed, and with his clothes torn, and shouts with a desperate laugh). Well met again, Inger Gyldenlove!

LADY INGER. What have you lost?

NILS STENSSON. My kingdom and my life!

LADY INGER. And the peasants? My servants? — where are they?

NILS STENSSON. You will find the carcasses along the highway.
Who has the rest, I know not.

OLAF SKAKTAVL (outside on the right). Count Sture! Where
are you?

NILS STENSSON. Here, here!

(OLAF SKAKTAVL comes in with his right hand wrapped in a cloth).

LADY INGER. Alas Olaf Skaktavl, you too —— !

OLAF SKAKTAVL. It was impossible to break through.

LADY INGER. You are wounded, I see!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. A finger the less; that is all.

NILS STENSSON. Where are the Swedes?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. At our heels. They are breaking open the gate ——

NILS STENSSON. Oh, Jesus! No, no! I
cannot
— I
will
not
die.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. A hiding-place, Lady Inger! Is there no corner
where we can hide him?

LADY INGER. But if they search the castle —— ?

NILS STENSSON. Ay, ay; they will find me! And then to be dragged to prison, or strung up —— ! Oh no, Inger Gyldenlove, — I know full well, — you will never suffer that to be!

OLAF SKAKTAVL (listening). There burst the lock.

LADY INGER (at the window). Many men rush in at the gateway.

NILS STENSSON. And to lose my life
now!
Now, when my true
life was but beginning! Now, when I have so lately learnt that
I have aught to live for. No, no, no! — Think not I am a coward.
Might I but have time to show ——

LADY INGER. I hear them now in the hall below.
    (Firmly to OLAF SKAKTAVL.)
  He
must
be saved — cost what it will!

NILS STENSSON (seizes her hand). Oh, I knew it; — you are noble
and good!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. But how? Since we cannot hide him ——

NILS STENSSON. Ah, I have it! I have it! The secret —— !

LADY INGER. The secret?

NILS STENSSON. Even so; yours and mine!

LADY INGER. Christ in Heaven — you know it?

NILS STENSSON. From first to last. And now when ‘tis life or death —— Where is Nils Lykke?

LADY INGER. Fled.

NILS STENSSON. Fled? Then God help me; for he only can unseal my lips. — But what is a promise against a life! When the Swedish captain comes ——

LADY INGER. What then? What will you do?

NILS STENSSON. Purchase life and freedom; — tell him all.

LADY INGER. Oh no, no; — be merciful!

NILS STENSSON. Nought else can save me. When I have told him
what I know ——

LADY INGER (looks at him with suppressed excitement). You will
be safe?

NILS STENSSON. Ay, safe! Nils Lykke will speak for me. You
see, ‘tis the last resource.

LADY INGER (composedly, with emphasis). The last resource? Right, right — the last resource stands open to all. (Points to the left.) See, meanwhile you can hide in there.

NILS STENSSON (softly). Trust me — you will never repent of this.

LADY INGER (half to herself). God grant that you speak the truth!

(NILS STENSSON goes out hastily by the furthest door on the left. OLAF SKAKTAVL is following; but LADY INGER detains him.)

LADY INGER. Did you understand his meaning?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. The dastard! He would betray your secret. He would sacrifice your son to save himself.

LADY INGER. When life is at stake, he said, we must try the last resource. — It is well, Olaf Skaktavl, — let it be as he has said!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. What mean you?

LADY INGER. Life for life! One of them must perish.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ah — you would —— ?

LADY INGER. If we close not the lips of him that is within ere he come to speech with the Swedish captain, then is my son lost to me. But if he be swept from my path, when the time comes I can claim all his rights for my own child. Then shall you see that Inger Ottisdaughter has metal in her yet. And be assured you shall not have long to wait for the vengeance you have thirsted after for twenty years. — Hark! They are coming up the stairs! Olaf Skaktavl, — it lies with you whether to-morrow I shall be a childless woman, or ——

OLAF SKAKTAVL. So be it! I have one sound hand left yet. (Gives her his hand.) Inger Gyldenlove — your name shall not die out through me.

(Follows NILS STENSSON into the inner room.)

LADY INGER (pale and trembling). But dare I —— ?
    (A noise is heard in the room; she rushes with a scream towards
    the door.)
  No, no, — it must not be!
    (A heavy fall is heard within; she covers her ears with her
      hands and hurries back across the hall with a wild look.
      After a pause she takes her hands cautiously away, listens
      again and says softly:)
  Now it is over. All is still within ——
  Thou sawest it, God — I repented me! But Olaf Skaktavl was too
swift of hand.

(OLAF SKAKTAVL comes silently into the hall.)

LADY INGER (after a pause, without looking at him). Is it done?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. You need fear him no more; he will betray no one.

LADY INGER (as before). Then he is dumb?

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Six inches of steel in his breast. I felled him with my left hand.

LADY INGER. Ay — the right was too good for such work.

OLAF SKAKTAVL. That is your affair; — the thought was yours. — And now to Sweden! Peace be with you meanwhile! When next we meet at Ostrat, I shall bring another with me.

(Goes out by the furthest door on the right.)

LADY INGER. Blood on my hands. Then it was to come to that! —
He begins to be dear-bought now.

 (BIORN comes in, with a number of Swedish men-at-arms, by the
      first door on the right.)

ONE OF THE MEN-AT-ARMS. Pardon me, if you are the lady of the
house ——

LADY INGER. Is it Count Sture you seek?

THE MAN-AT-ARMS. The same.

LADY INGER. Then you are on the right scent. The Count has
sought refuge with me.

THE MAN-AT-ARMS. Refuge? Pardon, my noble lady, — you have no
power to harbour him; for ——

LADY INGER. That the Count himself has doubtless understood; and therefore he has — ay, look for yourselves — therefore he has taken his own life.

THE MAN-AT-ARMS. His own life!

LADY INGER. Look for yourselves. You will find the corpse within there. And since he already stands before another judge, it is my prayer that he may be borne hence with all the honour that beseems his noble birth. — Biorn, you know my own coffin has stood ready this many a year in the secret chamber. (To the Men- at-Arms.) I pray that in it you will bear Count Sture’s body to Sweden.

THE MAN-AT-ARMS. It shall be as you command. (To one of the others.) Haste with these tidings to Jens Bielke. He holds the road with the rest of the troop. We others must in and ——

(One of the Men-at-Arms goes out to the right; the others go with BIORN into the room on the left.)

LADY INGER (moves about for a time in uneasy silence). If Count Sture had not said farewell to the world so hurriedly, within a month he had hung on a gallows, or had sat for all his days in a dungeon. Had he been better served with such a lot? Or else he had bought his life by betraying my child into the hands of my foes. Is it
I
, then, that have slain him? Does not even the wolf defend her cubs? Who dare condemn me for striking my claws into him that would have reft me of my flesh and blood? — It had to be. No mother but would have done even as I. But ‘tis no time for idle musings now. I must to work. (Sits down by the table on the left.) I will write to all my friends throughout the land. They rise as one man to support the great cause. A new king, — regent first, and then king —— (Begins to write, but falls into thought, and says softly:) Whom will they choose in the dead man’s place? — A king’s mother —— ? ‘Tis a fair word. It has but one blemish — the hateful likeness to another word. — King’s
mother
and king’s
murderer
.* — King’s mother — one that takes a king’s life. King’s mother — one that gives a king life.

*The words in the original are “Kongemoder” and “Kongemorder,” a difference of one letter only.

(She rises.) Well, then; I will make good what I have taken. — My son shall be king! (She sits down again and begins writing, but pushes the paper away again, and leans back in her chair.) There is no comfort in a house where lies a corpse. ‘Tis therefore I feel so strangely. (Turns her head to one side as if speaking to some one.) Not therefore? Why else should it be? (Broodingly.) Is there such a great gulf, then, between openly striking down a foe and slaying one — thus? Knut Alfson had cleft many a brain with his sword; yet was his own as peaceful as a child’s. Why then do I ever see this — (makes a motion as though striking with a knife) — this stab in the heart — and the gush of red blood after? (Rings, and goes on speaking while shifting about her papers.) Hereafter I will have none of these ugly sights. I will work both day and night. And in a month — in a month my son will be here ——
 
——

BIORN (entering). Did you strike the bell, my lady?

LADY INGER (writing). Bring more lights. See to it in future that there are many lights in the room

(BIORN goes out again to the left.)

LADY INGER (after a pause, rises impetuously). No, no, no; — I cannot guide the pen to-night! My head is burning and throbbing —— (Startled, listens.) What is
that?
Ah, they are screwing the lid on the coffin in there. When I was a child they told me the story of Sir Age,* who rose up and walked with his coffin on his back. — If he in there were one night to think of coming with the coffin on his back, to thank me for the loan? (Laughs quietly.) Hm — what have we grown people to do with childish fancies? (Vehemently.) But such stories are hurtful none the less! They give uneasy dreams. When my son is king, they shall be forbidden.