rnulf, beware! Here our ways part,
and from this day I shall make war upon thee and thine whensoever and
wheresoever it may be; thou shalt know no safety, thou, or any whom
thou---- (Looking fiercely at KARE.) Kare! Ornulf has stood thy
friend, forsooth, and there is peace between us; but I counsel thee
not to seek thy home yet awhile; the man thou slewest has many
avengers, and it well might befall---- See, I have shown thee the
danger; thou must e'en take what follows. Come, Gunnar, we must gird
ourselves for the fight. A famous deed didst thou achieve in Iceland,
but greater deeds must here be done, if thou wouldst not have thy--
thy leman shrink with shame from thee and from herself!

GUNNAR. Curb thyself, Hiordis; it is unseemly to bear thee thus.

DAGNY (imploringly). Stay, foster-sister--stay; I will appease
my father.

HIORDIS (without listening to her). Homewards, homewards! Who could
have foretold me that I should wear out my life as a worthless leman?
But if I am to bear this life of shame, ay, even a single day longer,
then must my husband do such a deed--such a deed as shall make his name
more famous than all other names of men.

(Goes out to the right.)

GUNNAR (softly). Sigurd, this thou must promise me, that we shall
have speech together ere thou leave the land.

(Goes out with his men to the right.)
(The storm has meanwhile ceased; the mid-day sun is now visible,
like a red disc, low upon the rim of the sea.)

ORNULF (threateningly). Dearly shalt thou aby this day's work,
foster-daughter!

DAGNY. Father, father! Surely thou wilt not harm her!

ORNULF. Let me be! Now, Sigurd, now can no amends avail between
Gunnar and me.

SIGURD. What thinkest thou to do?

ORNULF. That I know not; but far and wide shall the tale be told
how Ornulf of the Fiords came to Gunnar's hall.

SIGURD (with quiet determination). That may be; but this I tell
thee, Ornulf, that thou shalt never bear arms against him so long
as I am alive.

ORNULF. So, so! And what if it be my will to?

SIGURD. It shall not be--let thy will be never so strong.

ORNULF (angrily). Go then; join thou with my foes; I can match the
twain of you!

SIGURD. Hear me out, Ornulf; the day shall never dawn that shall
see thee and me at strife. There is honourable peace between us,
Dagny is dearer to me than weapons or gold, and never shall I forget
that thou art her nearest kinsman.

ORNULF