Botolf.—­You will be welcome to use them, Broddi.

Brand.—­In still another matter give me assistance, sir bishop!  During the hostilities that have lasted all these years a certain man who was being led to execution summoned me before the tribunal of God.

Botolf.—­For that the Church knows no other help than a general indulgence and your living the rest of your natural life in peace.

Brand.—­In peace?  How is that possible now?

Botolf.—­Blessed peace! when will you descend upon this blood-stained earth?

Broddi (smiling).—­You must call out louder, my lord, to do some good!  The blessed peace has been stricken with deafness these times.

Botolf.—­Oh wicked mockery!

Broddi.—­Wicked indeed, if it were not true.

(The cleric HELGI enters quickly.)

Helgi.—­Kolbein the Young is riding toward Holar at this moment, with a hundred men.

Alf.—­Let us flee to the mountains.

Broddi.—­Let us wait for my brother-in-law Kolbein at this spot.

Alf.—­He will have us dragged out of the church and killed.

Broddi.—­I shall not flee with my shield on my back.

Brand.—­No, friend Broddi, we shall not part as yet. (Seizes hold of BRODDI, whom they drag out by force between them.)

Broddi.—­Why run away thus?  I care not when I die.

(BRAND and his eleven companions depart, together with KOLBEIN
KALDALJOS.)

Helgi.—­Now they will offer you violence, my lord.

Botolf.—­I expect no harm from Kolbein the Young, no wrong have I done in this land, but only what all may thank me for, and that is to reconcile the chieftains.

Helgi.—­But it was in your presence that Gizur betrayed Uraekja at the bridge over the White River.

Botolf.—­But Kolbein released Uraekja again!

Helgi.—­Much do you say in defence of Kolbein the Young; the enemy of our sainted Bishop Gudmund Arason, my father-brother.  Now the blessed bishop has revealed himself to me in a dream and announced that at this very hour he would make known his glory and power, right here in the church, through a miracle on Illugi, a wretched blind man.  I wish much that Kolbein should behold it, so that he might repent of his ill deeds against this holy man.  A miraculum magnum will come to pass!

Botolf.—­Nothing, indeed, would so much allay Kolbein’s violence as the holiness of Bishop Gudmund becoming apparent.  It would make him ready for reconciliation, should he behold that he used ill so great a saint.  But are you so very sure that the see of Holar really possessed such a holy man in Bishop Gudmund?

Helgi.—­Most certainly, indeed! (Exit.)

Botolf (alone).—­Bishop Gudmund a saint?  Notwithstanding all the slayings and destruction that followed in his wake?  Bishop Gudmund a saint, hm!  He who used to speak a blessing over mad dogs, with his hands uplifted!  Bishop Gudmund a saint, hm!  Well, then would the church indeed be victorious over Kolbein the Young and his men.