m withdrew.

SVANHILD [nearer him].
Let them withdraw; their ways and mine divide;
I will not swell the number of their band.

FALK.
You'll stay?

SVANHILD.
If you make war on lies, I stand
A trusty armour-bearer by your side.

FALK.
You, Svanhild, you who--

SVANHILD.
I, who--yesterday--?
Were you yourself, Falk, yesterday the same?
You bade me be a sallow, for your play.

FALK.
And a sweet sallow sang me into shame.
No, you are right: I was a child to ask;
But you have fired me to a nobler task.
Right in the midst of men the Church is founded
Where Truth's appealing clarion must be sounded
We are not called, like demigods, to gaze on
The battle from the far-off mountain's crest,
But in our hearts to bear our fiery blazon,
An Olaf's cross upon a mailed breast,--
To look afar across the fields of flight,
Tho' pent within the mazes of its might,--
Beyond the mirk descry one glimmer still
Of glory--that's the Call we must fulfil.

SVANHILD.
And you'll fulfil it when you break from men,
Stand free, alone,--

FALK.
Did I frequent them then?
And there lies duty. No, that time's gone by,--
My solitary compact with the sky.
My four-wall-chamber poetry is done;
My verse shall live in forest and in field,
I'll fight under the splendour of the sun;--
I or the Lie--one of us two must yield!

SVANHILD.
Then forth with God from Verse to Derring-doe!
I did you wrong: you have a feeling heart;
Forgive me,--and as good friends let us part--

FALK.
Nay, in my future there is room for two!
We part not. Svanhild, if you dare decide,
We'll battle on together side by side.

SVANHILD.
We battle?

FALK.
See, I have no friend, no mate,
By all abandoned, I make war on all:
At me they aim the piercing shafts of hate;
Say, do you dare with me to stand or fall?
Henceforth along the beaten walks I'll move
Heedful of each constraining etiquette;
Spread, like the rest of men, my board, and set
The ring upon the finger of love!
[Takes a ring from his finger and holds it up.

SVANHILD [in breathless suspense].
You mean that?

FALK.
Yes, by us the world will see,
Love has an everlasting energy,
That suffers not its splendour to take hurt
From the day's dust, the common highway's dirt.
Last night I showed you the ideal aflame,
Beaconing from a dizzy mountain's brow.
You shuddered, for you were a woman,--now
I sho