Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 1).pdf/66



The people of the Dales?

Ay, so the tidings run, and they seem sure enough.

Well—if it were so—what have you to do with, the Dale-folk's rising?

We will join them! We will help. We will free ourselves!

[To herself.] Can the time be come?

From all our borderlands the peasants are pouring across to the Dales. Even outlaws that have wandered for years in the mountains are venturing down to the homesteads again, and drawing men together, and whetting their rusty swords.

[After a pause.] Tell me, men—have you thought well of this? Have you counted the cost, if King Gustav's men should win?

[Softly and imploringly to .] Count the cost to the Danes if King Gustav's men should lose.