Isinglass

“ It also has valuable agglutinating properties; by dissolving in two parts of pure alcohol it forms a diamond cement, the solution cooling to a white, opaque, hard solid; it also dissolves in strong acetic acid to form a powerful cement, which is especially useful for repairing glass, pottery and like substances. ”

“ Is not wisdom the entertainment of many men, and do not many men come here? Why should I, too, then, not have wisdom on draught just as likewise I have ginger-ale and lemonade?"
"You are both right," put in Otto the Shoemaker. "And as for me, what? This: the labor of the shoemaker is confining. I am kept at my bench all day. I must have exercise or I die; with my body busy at my trade, what can I exercise else? My wits—yah! That is, then, the cause of no surprise that I, too, am sagacious."
"We have never said anything more wise," said Eisenberg, proudly, and the others agreed with him. ”

“ Eisenberg was leaning out of his shop window, his long, white clay pipe unfilled in his hand, lovingly discoursing to Otto the Shoemaker, who, clad in his leather apron, hung upon his every word as though each were a pearl of thought, and to Jurgurson the Innkeeper, who sat opposite him with a look upon his face which indicated how much he marvelled at the wisdom which bubbled out of Eisenberg's lips like water from a geyser.
"It is as I tell you," Eisenberg was saying; [Pg 212] "thought is the key to every mystery ”

“ That night there was great feasting in the palace, though the hearts of the people of Isenland were heavy at the thought of losing their queen. She herself strove to appear happy and proud at becoming the wife of a hero whose strength surpassed her own; yet while she seemed to honour her liege lord, her heart longed for Siegfried, and she rued the day that had brought the Burgundians to Isenland. ”

“ Ere half a year is out, you will be all men's fable; people will stop and gaze after you on the high roads; 'twill be: "Look, look; there rides Sir Nils Lykke, that fared north to Ostrat to trap Inger Gyldenlove, and was caught in his own nets."—Nay nay, why so impatient, Sir Knight! 'Tis not that I think so; I do but forecast the thought of the malicious and evil-minded; and of them, alas! there are many.—Ay, 'tis shame; but so it is—you will reap nought but mockery—mockery, because a woman was craftier than you. "Like a cunning fox," men will say, "he crept into Ostrat ”

“ NILS STENSSON. Where are the Swedes?
OLAF SKAKTAVL. At our heels. They are breaking open the gate——
NILS STENSSON. Oh, Jesus! No, no! I cannot—I will not
die.
OLAF SKAKTAVL. A hiding-place, Lady Inger! Is there no corner
where we can hide him?
LADY INGER. But if they search the castle——?
NILS STENSSON. Ay, ay; they will find me! And then to be dragged to prison, or strung up——! Oh no, Inger Gyldenlove,— I know full well,—you will never suffer that to be!
OLAF SKAKTAVL (listening) . There burst the lock.
LADY INGER (at the window) . Many men rush in at the gateway. ”

“ OLAF SKAKTAVL. I know what you would say. Why have they bent to the yoke, and not defied the tyrants to the last? 'Tis but too true; there is base metal enough in our noble houses nowadays. But had they held together—who knows what might have been? And you could have held them together, for before you all had bowed.
LADY INGER. My answer were easy enough, but it would scarce content you. So let us leave speaking of what cannot be changed. Tell me rather what has brought you to Ostrat. Do you need harbour? Well, I will try to hide you. If you would have aught else, speak out ”

“ Helga.—You spoke of the love between me and Thorolf Bjarnason. I shall not deny it. Thorolf summoned your husband before the judgment of God before he was put to death. Now he is dead I can do nothing more pleasing to him than to see to it that Brand Kolbeinsson follow the summons in due time.
Jorun.—You are a devil, Helga! You dare to treat thus a chieftain as beloved as Brand Kolbeinsson?
Helga.—Loud you exclaim now, my lady! Yet I am better than you think me. If Brand is as beloved a chieftain as you make him out to be, somebody will surely be ready to die in his place ”

“ Were I to choose, I would rest me at Ostrat at least the winter through; I have seldom led aught but a soldier's life—— (Interrupts himself suddenly, fills a goblet, and drinks.) Your health, Sir!
NILS LYKKE. A soldier's life? Hm!
NILS STENSSON. Nay, what I would have said is this: I have been eager to see Lady Inger Gyldenlove, whose fame has spread so wide. She must be a queenly woman,—is't not so?—The one thing I like not in her, is that she shrinks so cursedly from open action. ”

“ So, in the pictures of the romance of Renard Fox, have I seen Isengrim the wolf in the friar’s hood.
“Felon and traitor!” I cried, and drawing my sword, was about to run him through the body, when my hand was stunned by a stroke, and the sword dropped from it. I turned, in great anger, and saw the Maid, her sword in her hand, wherewith she had smitten me flatlings, and not with the edge.
“Knave of a Scot,” she cried, “wouldst thou strike a holy man and my prisoner? Verily they say well that the Scots are all savages. Begone home, till I speak with the captains about thy case! ”

“ For the last few years when they are speaking of anyone with fine rings they say: 'She had beautiful rings on her fingers like Lady ———,' a visitor to the island.
I have been down sitting on the pier till it was quite dark. I am only beginning to understand the nights of Inishmaan and the influence they have had in giving distinction to these men, who do most of their work after nightfall.
I could hear nothing but a few curlews and other wild-fowl whistling and shrieking in the seaweed, and the low rustling of the waves. ”

“ Whenever I come down the mountain side there arises tumult in the valleys; wherever I remain all day great battles are fought. The Norns have decreed all that. But now men say that the White God is about to come from the south, with great splendor, and that he will bring with him peace. I ween it will prove a lie.
Thorolf.—Decreed by the Norns! You must be an old man?
Jarngrim.—I was Ingolf's the First Settler's pilot on his journey to Iceland.
Thorolf.—I am not a book-learned man; yet must you, then, be exceedingly old and yet are not gray-haired. ”

“ ACT SECOND. (The room at Ostrat, as in the first Act.)
(LADY INGER GYLDENLOVE is seated at the table on the right, by the window. OLAF SKAKTAVL is standing a little way from her. Their faces show that they have been engaged in an animated discussion.)
OLAF SKAKTAVL. For the last time, Inger Gyldenlove—you are not to be moved from your purpose?
LADY INGER. I can do nought else. And my counsel to you is: do as I do. If it be heaven's will that Norway perish utterly, perish it must, for all we may do to save it. ”

“ It matters not to me, henceforth, who reigns in Denmark, be it Duke Valdemar or a Jew, a Saracen or a heathen, or--the devil himself, if only King Eric and his wretched brother may never be obeyed here as kings and lieges."
"Will you also defend what you now say, before the highest judgment seat? venerable brother!" asked Isarnus, with unruffled calmness, and with an almost imperceptible smile. "Your bodily weakness is, however, reasonable excuse for your not being always master of your mind and tongue. ”

“ And the sea looked lovely.
“I'm glad to find you here, whatever be the cause,” said Islington, with his old directness. “To-day, as you know, is my last day in Greyport, and it is much pleasanter to say good by under this blue sky than even beneath your father's wonderful frescos yonder. I want to remember you, too, as part of this pleasant prospect which belongs to us all, rather than recall you in anybody's particular setting.”
“I know,” said Blanche, with equal directness, “that houses are one of the defects of our civilization ”

“ I caught a glimpse of the men on the lower-yards as they were blotted from view and as the Elsinore heeled over and down. There were fifteen men of them to each yard, and the gaskets were well passed ere we were struck. How they regained the deck I do not know, I never saw; for the Elsinore, under only upper- and lower-topsails, lay down on her side, her port-rail buried in the sea, and did not rise. ”

“ It is spread abroad that the young Count Sture has been at Ostrat,—that a Danish envoy has had audience of Lady Inger—that thereupon the young Count Nils has been snapped up by King Gustav's men-at-arms a mile from the castle—— —— Let Inger Gyldenlove's name among the people stand never so high—it will scarce recover from such a blow. ”

“ King Inge took the vessels, and sailed with them outside of the isles to Viken. King Eystein had then got east as far as Fold, and had with him 1200 men; but when they saw King Inge's force, they did not think themselves sufficiently strong to oppose him, and they retired to the forest. Every one fled his own way, so that the king was left with but one man. King Inge and his men observed King Eystein's flight, and also that he had but few people with him, and they went immediately to search for him. Simon Skalp met the king just as he was coming out of a willow bush. Simon saluted him. ”

“ At that time men went there a great deal for the fishing, and at all seasons there were a great many men there. Wise men set great store by people in outlying fishing-stations living peacefully together, and said that it would be unlucky for the fishing if there was any quarrelling; and most men gave good heed to this. It is told how one summer Hall, the brother of Ingjald, the Sheepisles' Priest, came to Bjorn isles for fishing. He took ship as one of the crew with a man called Thorolf. He was a Broadfirth man, and was well-nigh a penniless vagrant, and yet a brisk sort of a man. ”

“ He was anything but satisfied, however, with his own clothes, his own standing, his own prospects in life, or, for that{v.1-102} matter, with anything else about him, excepting with young Murdough Blake himself, who was clearly too exceptional a person to be wasted upon such a spot as Inishmaan.
A quarter of a century ago no golden political era for promising young Irishmen of his class had yet dawned, and, even if it had done so, the Aran isles are rather remote for recruits to be sought for there, especially recruits who are innocent of any tongue except their own fine, old useless one. ”

“ Amongst most tribes a person killed by lightning is looked on with great awe and as a rule no one will touch him. The Isanusi is called, and after many incantations and purifyings, a hole is dug near him and the body rolled into it. The spot is then “Isitshu,” sacred and enchanted. The whole kraal is then put in “Coventry” and no communication allowed with anyone, neighbours or visitors, for months. An isanuse is then engaged, paid a large fee and proceeds [90] to purify all the people in the kraal by means of ceremonies and incantations. ”

“ It was after a council with Margaret. She was sure, and I agreed with her, that the men for'ard are not blindly yielding to our bringing them in to be prisoners in Valparaiso. As we tried to forecast it, their plan is to desert the Elsinore in the boats as soon as we fetch up with the land. Also, considering some of the bitter lunatic spirits for'ard, there would be a large chance of their drilling the Elsinore's steel sides and scuttling her ere they took to the boats. For scuttling a ship is surely as ancient a practice as mutiny on the high seas. ”

“ Again, Inez, I solicit your love. Say that you will be mine, all but that which the idle ceremony of wedlock can make you, and there is not a pleasure which gold can purchase, or this world supply, which you shall not have at your command. We will hasten far from hence, and in a place where we are unknown, forget that there are others than ourselves in existence.’
Inez shuddered with horror at the coolness and effrontery with which the libertine uttered these expressions, and she could scarcely believe that she was standing in the presence of a human being. ”

“ Isenbras (Sir) , a hero of mediæval romance. Sir Isenbras was at first proud and presumptous, but adversity made him humble and pentitent. In this stage he carried two children of a poor wood-cutter across a ford on his horse.
I ́sengrin (Sir) or Sir Isengrim, the wolf, afterwards created the earl of Pitwood, in the beast-epic of Reynard the Fox. Sir Isengrin typifies the barons, and Reynard the Church. The gist of the tale is to show how Reynard over-reaches his uncle Wolf (1498) .
Ishah, the name of Eve before the Fall; so called because she was taken out of ish, i.e. “man” (Gen. ii. 23) ”

“ It was added, that their conference was to the effect that King Inge should have two or three farms, and as much income as would keep thirty men beside him, as he had not health to be a king. When King Inge and Gregorius heard this report, they came to Bergen with many followers. King Sigurd arrived there a little later, and was not nearly so strong in men. Sigurd and Inge had then been nineteen years kings of Norway (A.D. 1155) . King Eystein came later still from the south than the other two from the north. ”

“ LADY INGER. Till to-morrow, and longer still. No armed man shall go forth from Ostrat yet awhile.
(Signs of displeasure from the crowd.)
SOME OF THE PEASANTS. We will go all the same, Lady Inger!
THE CRY SPREADS. Yes, yes; we will go!
LADY INGER (advancing a step towards them) . Who dares to move? (A silence. After a moment's pause, she adds:) I have thought for you. What do you common folk know of the country's needs? How dare you judge of such things? You must even bear your oppressions and burdens yet awhile. ”