Then you can learn
to know my sister.
KNUT.
So be it, Dame Margit; I thank you. Yet 'twas not to go to Mass
that I rode hither this morning. Your kinsman, Gudmund Alfson,
was the cause of my coming.
MARGIT.
[Starts.] He! My kinsman? Where would you seek him?
KNUT.
His homestead lies behind the headland, on the other side of
the fiord.
MARGIT.
But he himself is far away.
ERIK.
Be not so sure; he may be nearer than you think.
KNUT.
[Whispers.] Hold your peace!
MARGIT.
Nearer? What mean you?
KNUT.
Have you not heard, then, that Gudmund Alfson has come back to
Norway? He came with the Chancellor Audun of Hegranes, who was
sent to France to bring home our new Queen.
MARGIT.
True enough, but in these very days the King holds his wedding-
feast in full state at Bergen, and there is Gudmund Alfson a guest.
BENGT.
And there could we too have been guests had my wife so willed it.
ERIK.
[Aside to KNUT.] Then Dame Margit knows not that--?
KNUT.
[Aside.] So it would seem; but keep your counsel. [Aloud.]
Well, well, Dame Margit, I must go my way none the less, and see
what may betide. At nightfall I will be here again.
MARGIT.
And then you must show whether you have power to bridle your
unruly spirit.
BENGT.
Aye, mark you that.
MARGIT.
You must lay no hand on your axe--hear you, Knut Gesling?
BENGT.
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