YKKE. It was no dream, Lady Inger!

LADY INGER. And you know it! You,--you!-- Where is he then?
Where have you got him? What would you do with him? (Screams.)
Do not kill him, Nils Lykke! Give him back to me! Do not kill
my child!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. Ah, I begin to understand----

LADY INGER. And this fear----this torturing dread! Through
all these years it has been ever with me---- ---- and then all
fails at last, and I must bear this agony!--Oh Lord my God, is
it right of thee? Was it for this thou gavest him to me?
(Controls herself and says with forced composure:)
Nils Lykke--tell me _one_ thing. Where have you got him? Where
is he?

NILS LYKKE. With his foster-father.

LADY INGER. Still with his foster-father. Oh, that merciless
man----! For ever to deny my prayers.--But it _must_ not go on
thus! Help me, Olaf Skaktavl!

OLAF SKAKTAVL. I?

NILS LYKKE. There will be no need, if only you----

LADY INGER. Hearken, Sir Councillor! What you know you shall
know thoroughly. And you too, my old and faithful friend----!
Listen then. To-night you bade me call to mind that fatal day
when Knut Alfson was slain at Oslo. You bade me remember the
promise I made as I stood by his corpse amid the bravest men in
Norway. I was scarce full-grown then; but I felt God's strength
in me, and methought, as many have thought since, that the Lord
himself had set his mark on me and chosen me to fight in the
forefront for my country's cause.
Was it vanity? Or was it a calling from on high? That I have
never clearly known. But woe to him that has a great mission laid
upon him.
For seven years I fear not to say that I kept my promise
faithfully. I stood by my countrymen in all their miseries. All
my playmates were now wives and mothers. I alone could give ear
to no wooer--not to one. That you know best, Olaf Skaktavl!
Then I saw Sten Sture for the first time. Fairer man had never
met my sight.

NILS LYKKE. Ah, now it grows clear to me! Sten Sture was then
in Norway on a secret errand. We Danes were not to know that he
wished your friends well.

LADY INGER. Disguised as a mean serving-man he lived a whole
winter under one roof with me.
That winter I thought less and less of the country's weal----
----. So fair a man had I never seen, and I had lived well-nigh
five-and-twenty years.
Next autumn Sten Sture came once more; and when he departed
again he took