Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE THIRD ACT The scene remains unchanged. There has been a broken music between Acts II. and III. A prevailing feature of it consists in a regular tap, tap, tap of the drum. Toward the end the music hesitates more and more, and finally becomes a drum tapping only, thus: Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap! Tap! [Upon this Herdisa speaks in the darkness.] Herdisa. Yea, it hath been a great darkness, all these years; but now ‘tis lifted. No more burden! There shall be peace to thee at last, O my soul! [The lights slowly go up again and reveal her still sitting in the ingle.] So, Bjorn Asmundsson! 'Tis fully paid between my soul and thine, in the ending! Ay, sure, all will be done by this. Perchance, even now, thy spirit… Yea, there is a haunting in the air about me! And out yonder … Ay, stiff and stark, so they lie, the silent dead! [She imagines the horror before her.] That will be a long sleeping for thee, Bjorn! That rest have I brought thee; 'tis a love-gift for thee. Mine. How found he the might to do it, my … thy slayer? Perchance some quick stealth, and then aloft, thus, with his hand, and so … [She gazes upon her own hand, fascinated, and wipes it with the other.] 'Tis like fire! That I should watch thee, sleeping, thus! Bedfellow was thy word. Well, I have made bed for thee, this once! How dost thou like thy bride, dead man ? Doth she daze thine eyes ? Thine … eyes … Ha! How thou wouldst redden at my speech and turn away thine eyes! I said so to thee long ago… . How strange and like twin stars they were! A king’s might have looked so! … Oh! Oh! Why doth Valbrand tarry ? 'Tis over now! All ended now! Why comes he not, red-handed from the slaughter, to do his vaunting ? A man might well brag of such! He hath don…