Scene
A Farm-house Near the Convent
A Chamber furnished with writing materials. HUGO, ERIC, and THURSTON on one side; on the other OSRIC, RUDOLPH, and DAGOBERT.
Osric:We have granted too much, ye ask for more;I am not skill’d in your clerkly lore,I scorn your logic; I had rather dieThan live like Hugo of Normandy:I am a Norseman, frank and plain;Ye must read the parchment over again.
Eric:Jarl Osric, twice we have read this scroll.
Osric:Thou hast read a part.
Eric: I have read the whole.
Osric:Aye, since I attached my signature!
Eric:Before and since!
Rudolph: Nay, of this be sure,Thou hast signed; in fairness now let it rest.
Osric:I had rather have sign’d upon Hugo’s crest;He has argued the question mouth to mouthWith the wordy lore of the subtle south;Let him or any one of his bandCome and argue the question hand to hand.With the aid of my battle-axe I will showThat a score of words are not worth one blow.
Thurston:To the devil with thee and thy battle-axe;I would send the pair of ye back in your tracks,With an answer that even to thy boorish brainWould scarce need repetition again.
Osric:Thou Saxon slave to a milksop knight,I will give thy body to raven and kite.
Thurston:Thou liest; I am a freeborn man,And thy huge carcase—in cubit and spanLike the giant’s of Gath—’neath Saxon steel,Shall furnish the kites with a fatter meal.
Osric:Now, by Odin!
Rudolph: Jarl Osric, curb thy wrath;Our names are sign’d, our words have gone forth.
Hugo:I blame thee, Thurston.
Thurston: And I, too, blameMyself, since I follow a knight so tame![Thurston goes out.]
Osric:The Saxon hound, he said I lied!
Rudolph:I pray thee, good Viking, be pacified.
Osric:Why do we grant the terms they ask?To crush them all were an easy task.
Dagobert:That know’st thou not; if it come to war,They are stronger, perhaps, than we bargain for.
Eric:Jarl Osric, thou may’st recall thy words—Should we meet again.
Osric: Should we meet with swords,Thou, too, may’st recall them to thy sorrow.
Hugo:Eric! we dally. Sir Count, good-morrow.