in my breast.
[Looking at him.

Is't not so--when you wander on such a night
You hear, though but half to yourself confessed,
A stirring of secret life through the hush,
In tree and in leaf, in flower and in rush?
[With a sudden change of tone.

Can you guess what I wish?

GUDMUND.

Well?

MARGIT.

That I could be
The nixie that haunts yonder upland lea.
How cunningly I should weave my spell!
Trust me--!

GUDMUND.

Margit, what ails you? Tell!

MARGIT. [Paying no heed to him.]

How I should quaver my magic lay!
Quaver and croon it both night and day!
[With growing vehemence.

How I would lure the knight so bold
Through the greenwood glades to my mountain hold.
There were the world and its woes forgot
In the burning joys of our blissful lot.

GUDMUND.

Margit! Margit!

MARGIT. [Ever more wildly.]

At midnight's hour
Sweet were our sleep in my lonely bower;--
And if death should come with the dawn, I trow
'Twere sweet to die so;--what thinkest thou?

GUDMUND.

You are sick!

MARGIT. [Bursting into laughter.]

Ha, ha!--Let me laugh! 'Tis good
To laugh when the heart is in laughing mood!

GUDMUND.

I see that you still have the same wild soul
As of old--

MARGIT. [With sudden seriousness.]

Nay, let not that vex your mind,
'Tis only at midnight it mocks control;
By day I am timid as any hind.
How tame I have grown, you yourself must say,
When you think on the women in lands far away--
Of that fair Princess--ah, she was wild!
Beside her lamblike am I and mild.
She did not helplessly yearn and brood,
She would have acted; and that--

GUDMUND.

'Tis good
You remind me; Straightway I'll cast away
What to me is valueless after this day--

[Takes out the phial.

MARGIT.

The phial! You meant--?

GUDMUND.

I thought it might be
At need a friend that should set me free
Should the King's men chance to lay hands on me.
But from to-night it has lost its worth;
Now will I fight all the kings of earth,
Gather my kinsfolk and friends to the strife,
And battle right stoutly for freedom and life.

[Is about to throw the phial against a rock.

MARGIT. [Seizing his arm.]

Nay, hold! Let me have it--

GUDMUND.

First tell me why?