NILS STENSSON. [_Rushes in, unarmed, and with his clothes torn, and shouts with a laugh of desperation._] Well met again, Inger Gyldenlöve! LADY INGER. What have you lost? NILS STENSSON. My kingdom and my life! LADY INGER. And the peasants? My servants?—where are they? NILS STENSSON. You will find the carcasses along the highway. Who has the rest, I cannot tell you. OLAF SKAKTAVL. [_Outside on the right._] Count Sture! Where are you? NILS STENSSON. Here, here! [OLAF SKAKTAVL _comes in with his right hand wrapped in a clout._ LADY INGER. Alas, Olaf Skaktavl, you too——! OLAF SKAKTAVL. ’Twas impossible to break through. LADY INGER. You are wounded, I see! OLAF SKAKTAVL. A finger the less; that is all. NILS STENSSON. Where are the Swedes? OLAF SKAKTAVL. At our heels. They are breaking open the gate—— NILS STENSSON. Oh, God! No, no! I _cannot_—I _will_ not die. OLAF SKAKTAVL. A hiding-place, Lady Inger! Is there no corner where we can hide him? LADY INGER. But if they search the castle——? NILS STENSSON. Ay, ay; they will find me! And then to be dragged away to prison, or be strung up——! No, no, Inger Gyldenlöve,—I know full well,—you will never suffer that to be! OLAF SKAKTAVL. [_Listening._] There burst the lock. LADY INGER. [_At the window._] Many men rush in at the gateway. NILS STENSSON. And to lose my life _now_! Now, when my true life was but beginning! Now, when I have so lately learnt that I have aught to live for. No, no, no!—Think not I am a coward, Inger Gyldenlöve! Might I but have time to show—— LADY INGER. I hear them now in the hall below. [_Firmly to_ OLAF SKAKTAVL. He _must_ be saved—cost what it will! NILS STENSSON. [_Seizes her hand._] Oh, I knew it;—you are noble and good! OLAF SKAKTAVL. But how? Since we cannot hide him—— NILS STENSSON. Ah, I have it! I have it! The secret——!