"_Killed_ her! By the gods--"
Ulrika sprang before him. "Shame!" she cried sternly. "She is dying!"
"Too slowly for me!" exclaimed the _bonde_ furiously.
"Peace--peace!" implored Ulrika. "Let her speak!"
"Strike, Olaf Gueldmar!" said Lovisa, in a deep voice, harsh, but all
untremulous--"Strike, pagan, with whom the law of blood is
supreme--strike to the very center of my heart--I do not fear you! I
killed her, I say--and therein I, the servant of the Lord, was
justified! Think you that the Most High hath not commanded His elect to
utterly destroy and trample underfoot their enemies?--and is not
vengeance mine as well as thine, accursed slave of Odin?"
A spasm of pain here interrupted her--she struggled violently for
breath--and Ulrika supported her. Gueldmar stood motionless, white with
restrained fury, his eyes blazing. Recovering by slow degrees, Lovisa
once more spoke--her voice was weaker, and sounded a long way off.
"Yea, the Lord hath been on my side!" she said, and the hideous
blasphemy rattled in her throat as it was uttered.
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