Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 2).djvu/205



[Wringing his hands.] And is king-born!

[Rising.] Earl—if he were not so?

Has he not proved it? The ordeal

.

And if he were not—in spite of the ordeal?

Do you say that God lied in the issue of the ordeal?

What was it Inga of Varteig called upon God to witness?

That the child she bore in the eastland, in Borgasyssel, was the son of Håkon Sverresson.

[Nods, looks round, and says softly.] And if King Håkon were not that child?

[Starts a step backwards.] Great God! [Controls himself.] It is beyond belief.

Hearken to me, Earl Skule. I have lived seventy years and six; it begins to go sharply downhill with me now, and I dare not take this secret with me over yonder