Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 2).djvu/338

 Then I broke open the church door; none dared to follow me. I sprang up to the high altar, gripped the handle, and pressed hard with my knees; 'twas as though an unseen power gave me more than human strength. The shrine came loose, I dragged it after me down the nave, while the ban moaned like a storm high up under the vaultings. I dragged it out of the church; all fled and shrank from me. When I came to the middle of the courtyard the handle broke; here it is!

[Holds it aloft.

[Quietly, appalled.] Church-robber.

For your sake; for the sake of your great king's-*thought! You will wipe out the sin; all that is evil you will wipe away. Light and peace will follow you; a glorious day will dawn over the land—what matter, then, if there went a storm-*night before it?

There was as 'twere a halo round your head when your mother brought you to me; now I see in its stead the lightnings of the ban.

Father, father, think not of me; be not afraid for my woe or weal. Is it not your will I have fulfilled?—how can it be accounted to me for a crime?

I hungered for your faith in me, and your faith has turned to sin.