place is far away in the wilds, the only living soul within reach is a man—­how could she send for a man at such a moment?  Any woman will tell you it is impossible—­not to be thought of.  And then—­it is alleged that she must have killed the child after.  But the child was born in the water—­the mother falls down in an icy stream, and the child is born.  What was she doing by the water?  She is a servant-girl, a slave, that is to say, and has her daily work to do; she is going to fetch juniper twigs for cleaning.  And crossing the stream, she slips and falls in.  And there she lies; the child is born, and is drowned in the water.”

Fru Heyerdahl stopped.  She could see from the look of the court and the spectators that she had spoken wonderfully well; there was a great silence in the place, only Barbro sat dabbing her eyes now and again for sheer emotion.  And Fru Heyerdahl closed with these words:  “We women have some heart, some feeling.  I have left my own children in the care of strangers to travel all this way and appear as a witness on behalf of the unfortunate girl sitting there.  Men’s laws cannot prevent women from thinking; and I think this, that the girl there has been punished sufficiently for no crime.  Acquit her, let her go free, and I will take charge of her myself.  She will make the best nurse I have ever had.”

And Fru Heyerdahl stepped down.

Says the justice then:  “But I think you said a moment ago that the best nurses were those who had killed their children?”

Oh, but the justice was not of a mind to go against Fru Heyerdahl, not in the least—­he was as humane as could be himself, a man as gentle as a priest.  When the advocate for the Crown put a few questions to the witness afterwards, the justice sat for the most part making notes on some papers.

The proceedings lasted only till a little over noon; there were few witnesses, and the case was clear enough.  Axel Stroem sat hoping for the best, then suddenly it seemed as if the advocate for the Crown and Fru Heyerdahl were joining forces to make things awkward for him, because he had buried the body instead of notifying the death.  He was cross-examined somewhat sharply on this point, and would likely enough have come out badly if he had not all at once caught sight of Geissler sitting in the court.  Ay, ’twas right enough, Geissler was there.  This gave Axel courage, he no longer felt himself alone against the Law that was determined to beat him down.  And Geissler nodded to him.

Ay, Geissler was come to town.  He had not asked to be called as a witness, but he was there.  He had also spent a couple of days before the case came on in going into the matter himself, and noting down what he remembered of Axel’s own account given him at Maaneland.  Most of the documents seemed to Geissler somewhat unsatisfactory; this Lensmand Heyerdahl was evidently a narrow-minded person, who had throughout endeavoured to prove complicity on Axel’s part.  Fool, idiot of a man—­what did he know of life in the wilds, when he could see that the child was just what Axel had counted on to keep the woman, his helpmeet, on the place!