e nun._]

_The Nun_ [_without seeing_]--Sigurd! [_Mounts up._] Yes, there he is!

_Sigurd_--Mother!

_The Nun_--My child, found once more! [_They remain long clasped in each
other's arms._] My son, my son, now shalt thou no more escape me!

_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?

_Sigurd_--By fighting and falling at their head.

_The Nun [springs to her feet. Sigurd also rises_.]--No! No! No! Shall I
now, after a lifetime of sorrow, behold thy death?

_Sigurd_--Yes, mother. The Lord of life and death will have it so.

_The Nun_--Ah! what sufferings a moment's sin may bring! [_She falls
upon his breast, then sinks, with outstretched arms_.] O my son,
spare me!

_Sigurd_--Do not tempt me, mother!

_The Nun_--Hast thou taken thought of what may follow? Hast thou thought
of capture, of mutilation?

_Sigurd_--I have some hymns left me from childhood. I can sing them.

_The Nun_--But I--thy mother--spare me