KNUT. Oh, the King’s decree! You know as well as I that the King’s decree is but little heeded here in the uplands. Were the King’s decree to be enforced, many a stout fellow among us would have to pay dear both for bride-rape and for man-slaying. Come this way, I would fain know where Signë—? [_They go out to the right._ [GUDMUND _and_ SIGNË _come down the footpath at the back._ SIGNË. Oh, speak! Say on! For sweeter far Such words than sweetest music are. GUDMUND. Signë, my flower, my lily fair! SIGNË. [_In subdued, but happy wonderment._] I am dear to him—I! GUDMUND. As none other I swear. SIGNË. And is it I that can bind your will! And is it I that your heart can fill! Oh, dare I believe you? GUDMUND. Indeed you may. List to me, Signë! The years sped away, But faithful was I in my thoughts to you, My fairest flowers, ye sisters two. My own heart I could not clearly read. When I left, my Signë was but a child, A fairy elf, like the creatures wild Who play, while we sleep, in wood and mead. But in Solhoug’s hall to-day, right loud My heart spake, and right clearly; It told me that Margit’s a lady proud, Whilst you’re the sweet maiden I love most dearly. SIGNË. [_Who has only half listened to his words._] I mind me, we sat in the hearth’s red glow, One winter evening—’tis long ago— And you sang to me of the maiden fair Whom the neckan had lured to his watery lair. There she forgot both father and mother, There she forgot both sister and brother; Heaven and earth and her Christian speech, And her God, she forgot them all and each. But close by the strand a stripling stood And he was heartsore and heavy of mood. He struck from his harpstrings notes of woe, That wide o’er the waters rang loud, rang low. The spell-bound maid in the tarn so deep, His strains awoke from her heavy sleep. The neckan must grant her release from his rule, She rose through the lilies afloat on the pool— Then looked she to heaven while on green earth she trod, And wakened once more to her faith and her God. GUDMUND. Signë, my fairest of flowers! SIGNË.