Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 2).djvu/350

 ere daybreak shall the King-child be in our hands.

To be slain, most like. See you not that it is a sin

Nay, it cannot be a sin; for my father doomed the child in Oslo. Sooner or later it must die, for it blocks my father's path;—my father has a great king's-thought to carry through; it matters not who or how many fall for its sake.

Hapless for you was the day you came to know that you were King Skule's son. [Listening.] Hist!—cast you flat to the ground; there come people this way.

[''All throw themselves down behind stones and stumps; a troop of people, some riding, some on foot, can be seen indistinctly through the mist and between the trees; they come from the left, and pass on to the right.''

'Tis the Queen!

Ay; she is talking with Dagfinn the Peasant. Hush!

They are making for Elgesæter. The King-child is with them!

And the Queen's ladies.