again? Have I not
made free confession----

NILS LYKKE. You mistake me. What you said in the Dales was the
truth.

NILS STENSSON. The truth? What mean you by that? Tell me but----!

NILS LYKKE. First your oath! The holiest, the most inviolable
you can swear.

NILS STENSSON. That you shall have. Yonder on the wall hangs
the picture of the Holy Virgin----

NILS LYKKE. The Holy Virgin has grown impotent of late. Know
you not what the monk of Wittenberg maintains?

NILS STENSSON. Fie! how can you heed the monk of Wittenberg?
Peter Kanzler says he is a heretic.

NILS LYKKE. Nay, let us not wrangle concerning him. Here can
I show you a saint will serve full well to make oath to.
(Points to a picture hanging on one of the panels.)
Come hither,--swear that you will be silent till I myself release
your tongue--silent, as you hope for Heaven's salvation for yourself
and for the man whose picture hangs there.

NILS STENSSON (approaching the picture). I swear it--so help
me God's holy word!
(Falls back a step in amazement.)
But--Christ save me----!

NILS LYKKE. What now?

NILS STENSSON. The picture----! Sure 'tis myself!

NILS LYKKE. 'Tis old Sten Sture, even as he lived and moved in
his youthful years.

NILS STENSSON. Sten Sture!--And the likeness----? And--said
you not I spoke the truth, when I called myself a Count's son?
Was't not so?

NILS LYKKE. So it was.

NILS STENSSON. Ah, I have it, I have it! I am----

NILS LYKKE. You are Sten Sture's son, good Sir.

NILS STENSSON (with the quiet of amazement). _I_ Sten Sture's son!

NILS LYKKE. On the mother's side too your blood is noble. Peter
Kanzler spoke not the truth, if he said that a poor peasant woman
was your mother.

NILS STENSSON. Oh strange, oh marvellous!--But can I believe----?

NILS LYKKE. You may believe all I tell you. But remember, all
this will be merely your ruin, if you should forget what you swore
to me by your father's salvation.

NILS STENSSON. Forget it? Nay, that you may be sure I never
shall.--But you to whom I have given my word,--tell me--who are
you?

NILS LYKKE. My name is Nils Lykke.

NILS STENSSON (surprised). Nils Lykke? Surely not the Danish
Councillor?

NILS LYKKE. Even so.

NILS STENSSON. And it was you----? 'Tis strange. How come you----?

NILS LYKKE. ----To be receiving missives from Peter Kanzler?
You marvel a