SCENE VI
[LADY KIRSTEN, ARNE of Guldvik, WEDDING GUESTS, PEASANTS and SERVANTS from the right.]
LADY KIRSTEN. See, here will we begin the hunt. Our people must spread about and search all around the tarn;—she shall come forth and then—woe upon her! no mercy or pity is there in my soul.
ARNE. What will you do then?
LADY KIRSTEN. Hold judgment upon her—right on the spot where she is found! All the damage she has done on my dominions I have power and authority to punish in accordance with reason and justice.
ARNE. Yes, but what good is that? What is lost can not thereby be won back again.
LADY KIRSTEN. No, but I shall get revenge, and that is no little gain. Revenge,—revenge I must have, if I am to bear and live down my loss and all the shame she has brought upon me. The storm last night ruined the whole of my year’s crop; not a single uninjured straw is left in my fields; and in here, where she herself has said she has her home, here everything thrives and blossoms more luxuriantly than I have ever seen! Is not that the operation of secret arts? Olaf she has snared so securely in her devilish net that he fled out of the village in the wildest storm to follow her. My house she burned clear to the ground; all the openings and doors she barred on the outside;—it was a miracle of God that the servants brought their timely help!
ARNE. Alas, alas; I am afraid if has cost two lives that I thought much of,—Ingeborg and my man Hemming!
LADY KIRSTEN. Come, come, Lord Arne! You must not completely despair of them yet. Ingeborg may have escaped after all; the rest of us came out of it untouched in spite of the cunning of the cursed witch;—Ingeborg has been bewildered with fright and has sought refuge somewhere.
ARNE. Yes, yes, that may be the case with Ingeborg; but Hemming is past all hope,—of that I am sure!
LADY KIRSTEN. How so?
ARNE. O, he had become such a sly and contriving devil of late! He has let himself be shut in and burnt merely to get revenge over me; he knows I can’t get along for a single day without him. O, I know him!
LADY KIRSTEN. Well, however it is, Alfhild we must capture; she shall be tried, condemned, and punished; I have misdeeds a plenty to charge her with.
ARNE. And I can mention a few in case it is necessary; she has stolen my dapple-gray horse from the stable; this morning it was gone with saddle and bridle.
LADY KIRSTEN. [Aside.] Ingeborg and Hemming gone, and his horse likewise; were I in his place I should know what to think.
LADY KIRSTEN. [Aloud.] Now let us divide and go about in small groups; he who first gets his eye on Alfhild shall blow the trumpet or horn; let the rest listen and follow the sound till we are assembled again.
[They go out at different sides.]
ARNE. [Who alone has remained.] And I, who am not acquainted here,—how am I to find my way.
ARNE. [Calls.] Hemming! Hemming!
[Stops.]
ARNE. I forgot,—he is—
ARNE. [Shaking his head.] Hm! It was a shameful trick he played.
[He goes out to the right.]