-70_Eric-Act Four-Scene-1.htm

Swegn's fastness in the hills.
Swegn, Hardicnut, Ragnar, with soldiers.

SWEGN

Fight on, fight always, till the gods are tired.
In all this dwindling remnant of the past
Desires one man to rest from virtue, cease
From desperate freedom?

HARDICNUT

No man wavers here.

SWEGN

Let him depart unhurt who so desires.

HARDICNUT

Why should he go and whither? To Eric's sword
That never pardons ? If our hearts were vile,
Unworthily impatient of defeat,
Serving not harassed right but chance and gain,
Eric himself would keep them true.

SWEGN

Not thine,
My second soul. Yet could I pardon him
Who followed. For the blow transcends! And were
King Eric not in Yara where he dwells,
I would have seen his hand in this defeat,
Whose stroke is like the lightning's, silent, straight,
Not to be parried.

Page – 538

HARDICNUT

Sigurd smote, perhaps,
But Eric's brain was master of his stroke.

SWEGN

The traitor Sigurd! For young Eric's part'

In Olaf's death, he did a warrior's act

Avenging Yarislaf and Hacon slain,

And Fate, not Eric slew. But he who, trusted, lured

Into death's ambush, when the rebel seas

Rejoicing trampled down the royal head

They once obeyed, him I will some day have

At my sword's mercy.

(to Ragnar who enters)

Ragnar, does it come,
The last assault, death's trumpets ?

RAGNAR

Rather peace,
If thou prefer it, Swegn. An envoy comes
From Eric's army.

SWEGN

Ragnar, bring him in.

Ragnar goes out.
He treats victorious? When his kingdom shook,
His party faltered, then he did not treat
Nor used another envoy than his sword.

(to Gunthar who enters, escorted by Ragnar)

Earl Gunthar, welcome, — welcome more wert thou
When loyal.

GUNTHAR

Ragnar, Swegn and Hardicnut,
Revolting earls, I come from Norway's King
With peace, not menace.

Page – 539

SWEGN

Where then all these days
Behind you lurked the Northerner ?

GUNTHAR

Thou art
In his dread shadow and in your mountain lair
Eric surrounds you.

SWEGN (scornfully)

I will hear his words.

GUNTHAR

Eric, the King, the son of Yarislaf,

To Swegn, the Earl of Trondhjem. "I have known

The causes and the griefs that raise thee still

Against my monarchy. Thou knowest mine

That raised me against thy father, — Hacon's death,

My mother's brother butchered shamefully

And Yarislaf by secret sentence slain.

Elected by our peers I seized his throne.

But thou, against thy country's ancient laws

Rebelling, hast preferred for judge the sword.

Respect then the tribunal of thy choice

And its decision. Why electest thou

In thy drear fastness on the wintry hills

To perish? Trondhjem's earldom shall be thine,

And honours, wealth and state if thou accept

The offer of thy lenient gods. Consider,

O Swegn, thy country's wounds, perceive at last

Thy good and ours, prolong thy father's house."

I expect thy answer.

SWEGN

I return to him
His proffered mercy. Let him keep it safe
For his own later use.

Page – 540

GUNTHAR

Thou speakest high.
What help hast thou ? what hope ? what god concealed ?

SWEGN

I have the snow for friend and, if it fails,

The arms of death are broad enough for Swegn,

But not subjection.

GUNTHAR

For their sake thou lov'st,

Thy wife's and sister's, yield.

RAGNAR

Thou art not wise.
This was much better left unsaid.

SWEGN

But why
Am I astonished if triumphant mud
Conceives that the pure heavens are of its stuff
And nature?...

Still there are men who hope to purchase¹ Swegn's
Allegiance, to intimidate with death
And bribe with safety Olaf's son. It seems
Your pastime to insult the seed of Kings.
Think'st thou that to the upstart I shall yield,
The fortune-fed adventurer, the boy
Favoured by the ironic gods ? Since fell
By Sigurd's treachery and Eric's fate
In resonant battle on the narrow seas
Olaf, his children had convinced the world,
I thought, of their great origin. Men have said,
"Their very women have souls too great to cry
For mercy even from the gods." His fates
Are strong indeed when they compel our race

¹ask for

Page – 541

To hear such terms from his! Go, tell thy King,
Swegn of the ancient house rejects his boons.
Not terms between us stand, but wrath, but blood.
I would have flayed him on a golden cross
And kept his women for my household thralls,
Had I prevailed. Can he not do as much
That he must chaffer and market Norway's crown ?
These are the ways of Kings, strong, terrible
And arrogant; full of sovereignty and right.
Force in a King's his warrant from the gods.
By force and not by bribes and managements
Empires are founded! But your chief was born
Of huckstering earls who lived by prudent gains.
How should he imitate a royal flight
Or learn the leap of Kings upon their prey ?

GUNTHAR

Swegn Olafson, thou speakest fatal words.
Where lodge thy wife and sister? Dost thou know?

HARDICNUT

Too far for Eric's reach.

GUNTHAR

Earl, art thou sure ?

SWEGN

What means this question ?

GUNTHAR

That the gods are strong
Whom thou in vain despisest, that they have dragged
From Sweden into Eric's dangerous hands
Hertha and Aslaug, that the evil thou speak'st
Was fatally by hostile Powers inspired.

Page – 542

SWEGN

Thou liest — they are safe and with the Swede.

GUNTHAR

I pardon thy alarm the violent word.

Earl Swegn, canst thou not see the dreadful gods

Have chosen earth's mightiest man to do their will?

What is that will but Norway's unity

And Norway's greatness ? Canst thou do the work ?

Look round on Norway by a boy subdued,

The steed that even Olaf could not tame

See turn obedient to an unripe hand.

Behold him with a single petty pace

Possessing Sweden. Sweden once subdued,

Think'st thou the ships that crowd the Northern seas

Will stay there? Shall not Britain shake, Erin

Pray loudly that the tempest rather choose

The fields of Gaul ? Scythia shall own our yoke,

The Volga's frozen waves endure our march,

Unless the young god's fancy rose-ensnared

To Italian joys attracted amorously

Should long for sunnier realms or lead his high

Exultant mind to lord in eastern Rome.

What art thou but a pebble in his march ?

Consider then and change thy fierce response.

HARDICNUT

Deceives the lie they tell, thy reason, Swegn ?
Earl Gunther may believe, who even can think
That Yarislaf begot a god!

SWEGN

Gunthar,
I have my fortune, thou thy answer. Go.

GUNTHAR

I pity, Swegn, thy rash and obstinate soul.

Page – 543

He goes out.

SWEGN

Aslaug would scorn me yielding, even now
And even for her. He has unnerved my will,
The subtle tyrant! O, if this be true,
My Fate has wandered into Eric's camp,
My soul is made his prisoner. Friends, prepare
Resistance; he is the thunderbolt that strikes
And threatens only afterwards. It is
Our ultimate battle.

HARDICNUT

On the difficult rocks
We will oppose King Eric and his gods.

Page – 544