"For the justice of your imprisonment I will answer to the Great Judge above," answered the king, raising his hand; "but the point in question is only whether you may justly and reasonably be released; to decide this I have summoned you hither. Know then, Archbishop Grand! although you were undoubtedly an accomplice in my father's murder--although I abhor you as my bitterest and deadliest foe, and as the greatest traitor in Denmark, I fear not, nevertheless, to loose your guilty hands when justice demands it; but _here_ ye shall neither raise hand nor voice against crowns and sovereigns; ere ye leave these walls ye shall swear by your salvation, in the sight of God and the chivalry of Denmark, to promise that which I here, as the protector of the crown and people, have required and demanded. When you have read the conditions of your release, and are willing to take the oath before my throne, in the hearing of all my knights, your imprisonment may end this very hour." At a signal from the king Thorkild Knudson reached the sheet of parchment to the archbishop, and placed one of the tapers closer to him. The hand of the proud captive trembled as he took the parchment, and it cost him evident effort to read it; but it seemed as if his strength and spirit increased as he proceeded; and when he had perused it to the end he laughed scornfully, and crumpled the parchment in his hand.--"Shall I leave my degradation unavenged?" he cried--"Shall I fetter my tongue myself that it may not announce to you eternal death and damnation?--Shall I part with my last earthly defence?--Shall I subject the holy church's right to the arbitration of a tyrant? No, King Eric Ericson! as yet I am an anointed and consecrated archbishop, with power to bless or curse the crown thou wearest. Even in these chains I have the power to push the crown from off thy head with a single word. Over my body, tyrant! thou may'st have power, but, by the Lord above, not over my free immortal spirit! Ere I will consent to one of these conditions thou and thy executioners may sever every limb from my body, as I now rend asunder, with this hellish compact, all bond and tie between me and the despots of this world." So saying, he rent the parchment before the king's eyes, threw the fragments on the floor, and stamped upon them until his chains rattled. "Madman!" cried the king, in great anger, "stay then in thy prison, and defy me there, until thy dying day! I release thee not until thou hast put thy seal to every word thou hast here trampled under foot, should I be a hundred times excommunicated by the pope in consequence," Eric hastily pulled the bell-string. The door of the knights' hall opened, and the master of the household appeared. "The guard," commanded the king--"the captive is to return to prison."