Kåre! Örnulf has stood thy friend, forsooth, and there is peace between us; but I counsel thee not to seek thy home yet awhile; the man thou slewest has many avengers, and it well might befallSee, I have shown thee the danger; thou must e'en take what follows. Come, Gunnar, we must gird ourselves for the fight. A famous deed didst thou do in Iceland, but greater deeds must be done here, if thou wouldst not have thy—thy leman shrink with shame from thee and from herself!
Gunnar.
Curb thyself, Hiördis; it is unseemly to bear thee thus!
Dagny.
[Imploringly.] Stay, foster-sister—stay; I will appease my father. Hiördis. [Without listening to her.] Homewards, homewards! Who could have foretold me that I should wear out my life as a worthless leman? But if I am to bear this life of shame, ay, even for one day more, then must my husband do such a deed—such a deed as shall make his name more famous than all other names of men. [Goes out to the right.
Gunnar.
[Softly.] Sigurd, promise me this, that we shall have speech together ere thou leave the land. [Goes out with his men to the right.
[The storm has meanwhile ceased; the mid-*day sun is now visible, like a red disc, low upon the rim of the sea.
