Helgi.—­No!  I dreamed this dream three times, and awoke each time and never became aware of the fire.  The end of the dream was most terrible and always the same.

Sigurd.—­And what was the end of it?

Helgi.—­Meseemed Thorolf Bjarnason drowned me in blood, and then I awoke and thought I was in hell.

Sigurd.—­Put no faith in that hellish dream.  You dreamed about the end of the world.

Helgi.—­Yes, my world is at an end.  The eyes of Lady Helga marked me for death, when I dried the blade of my axe on the fringes of her veil.

Sigurd.—­That was indeed a most unfortunate act!

Helgi.—­Thorolf had been her lover for many years.

Sigurd.—­I do not know about that.  I am not her father confessor.

Sigurd.—­No.  She has the father devil as father confessor, but not you.

Sigurd.—­You speak ill of so great a lady.

Helgi.—­And I shall have to sell my life and salvation as dearly as I ever may. (Sobs.) Help me, deacon, I sink, I sink!

Sigurd (taking his ring off his arm).—­Take this ring!  And ride at once to Flugumyr and give it to Lady Helga, with this last message from Thorolf Bjarnason that you shall have peace for life and limb, although you have slain him.

Helgi.—­That ring?  That is the ring of Einar the Rich!

Sigurd.—­Ah, the wretch stole the right ring, and now he has ridden away!  Holy Mother of God, then I know not what to do for you!

Helgi (close to him, as before).—­I shall not live more than three days, and then I shall awake in the place I dreamed of.  Deacon, as sure as you want to be saved yourself, read masses for my soul when I am dead.

Sigurd.—­I shall, depend on it.  It may be your dream signifies the fall of that chieftain whom you shall harm most.  I dreamed (BRAND and JORUN appear behind them), that night when I lodged at Sauda—­I dreamed three times in succession that Brand Kolbeinsson stood at my bedside and said, ‘Domine Jesu Christe, accipe spiritum meum!’

Helgi.—­And what mean these words?

Sigurd.—­My Lord Jesus Christ, receive thou my soul!

Jorun (throwing her arms about BRAND).—­Never let such dreams trouble you, my dear husband. (The others are startled by her words.)

Brand.—­Thorolf prophesied to me that I would not have a priest near me when I was put to death.

Jorun.—­That prophecy shall not come true, in case you really should suffer a sudden death now.  Come into the church, deacon, and shrive me and my husband.

Sigurd.—­Come along with us into the church, Helgi Skaftason!  For it is the last refuge of every man.

Helgi.—­I want to have my food, and no consecrated host!  And when I am done eating it is better I should see how the watches are kept.  Never forget those masses, deacon!