olbein_ (_rejoiced at first, but quickly controls himself_).--Is that
written in the archbishop's letter?

_Botolf_ (_taking out a scroll of parchment_).--Here you may read it!

_Kolbein_.--Leader of the Birchlegs![A] That is a goodly army! No,
for that my health suffices no more--they all are brisk men! Tell the
archbishop that even if I were always in good health I would think it a
nobler thing to do battle against the Birchlegs than with them.

[Footnote A: The name of the Norwegian king Sverre's hardy soldiers.]

_Botolf_.--You are the only Icelander who hates Norway and its king,
Kolbein!

_Kolbein_.--I remember too well that my father died in Norway an enemy
of the king and the archbishop. At that time I was thirteen years and
dull it seemed to me in Norway thereafter.

_Botolf_.--If such is the case, Gizur and Thord Kakali will stretch out
both their hands after the honors you now turn your back upon. Gizur has
already received honors from the king.

_Kolbein_.--I recall that Gizur has become his link-boy. It is strange
that he wanted to snuff candles for Kakon.

_Botolf_.--Gizur holds lands from the king and is his kinsman.

_Kolbein_.--Whatever the king may make of my kinsman Gizur, I know for
sure that he will never be able to give him the courage to take up arms
against me.

_Botolf_.--But he might go so far as to let Thord Kakali have his men,
and Thord would dare to fight with you.

_Kolbein_.--He does indeed! I shall have to kill Thord before
mid-summer!

_Botolf_.--True is the saying that no chieftain in Iceland lays himself
down to sleep any day without danger!

_Kolbein_.--We are mortal men, we chieftains.

_Botolf_.--Will Gizur also have to be made a head shorter before
mid-summer, Kolbein, should he come to Iceland?

_Kolbein_.--Who can know what the future will bring, sir bishop?

(ASBJORN _and_ HAF _enter in headlong haste_.)

_Asbjorn_.--There is prospect of tidings; Broddi Thorleifsson comes
riding down the valley with two hundred armed men.

_Kolbein_ (_wrathfully, to the_ BISHOP).--What seeks my cousin Broddi at
Holar with two hundred men?

_Botolf_.--The peace of the land seems insecure to him and he is coming
hither for defending himself in the fort.

_Kolbein_.--You encourage men to rebellion against me, you devil in a
bishop's guise! Is that the peace the king and the archbishop intend to
bring to the land?

_Botolf_.--What means this wrath in God's church?

_Haf_