Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 5).djvu/264

228 should have drawn his last breath in such distant regions! Alas that, in spite of all my haste, I should not have had the sweet consolation of embracing my kinsman for the last time! A bitter lot for both of us!—

Where is the ship with the body?

There it comes.

That long boat?

Yes, most gracious Emperor.

My poor kinsman! So great in life; and now to have to content you with so low a roof! Now you will not strike your forehead against the coffin-lid, you who bowed your head in riding through the Arch of Constantine.

[To the Goldsmith .] How young he looks, our new Emperor!

But he has grown more stalwart. When I last saw him he was a lean stripling; that is now nine or ten years ago.

Ay, he has done great things in those years.

And all the dangers he has passed through, ever since his childhood!