Then the young maiden lamented and said: "Do not send me upon this
errand! It is too heavy a charge to lay upon so tender a maid as
I."

"You shall assuredly go," said Herr Arne. "It is right that you
go, since you have most to revenge. None of us has been robbed of
so many years of life as you, who are the youngest among us."

"I desire not to be revenged on any man," said the maiden.

"You are to go at once," said Herr Arne. "And you will not be
alone. You know that there are two among the living who sat with
us here at table a week ago."

But when Torarin heard these words he thought they meant that Herr
Arne charged him to contend with malefactors and murderers, and he
cried out: "By the mercy of God I conjure you, Herr Arne--"

At that moment it seemed to Torarin that both Herr Arne and the
parsonage vanished in a mist, and he himself sank down as though
he had fallen from a giddy height, and with that he lost
consciousness.

When he came to himself again dawn was breaking and he saw that he
was lying on the ground in the yard of Solberga parsonage. His
horse stood beside him with the sledge, and Grim barked and howled
over him.

"It was all but a dream," said Torarin; "now I see that. The house