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But since the day when he himself was young, and got the answer, "Yes!" from his bride, he had never been so happy as when Boel came to him one day and said that the young officer had wooed her, and she would throw herself into the sea straightway if she couldn't have him. In this way, he argued, his race would always sit in the seat of authority, and hold sway when he was gone.
His eyes sparkled so fiercely that none dare come near him. But at night he would pace up and down, and shriek and bellow at his daughter, and give her all sorts of vile names. Now one day he came in to Boel with a heavy gold crown full of the most precious stones. She should be the Queen of Finmark and Spitzbergen, said he, if her husband would do according to his will.
But Boel said that she had wedded a man who, to her mind, was no less a man than her own father; and it was his office, besides, to uphold the law and jurisdiction of the king. Young folks are easy to talk over, thought Bardun. One can do anything with them when one only makes them fancy they are having their own way.
He was glad, he said, that such a wise and stately ruler was there, ready to stand in his shoes against the day when he should grow old. And so he made himself small, and his voice quivered when he spoke, as if he were really a sick and broken-down man. But it didn't escape Boel how he slammed to the doors, and struck the stones with his stick till the sparks flew.
And now the young officer should find out how it fared with them who sat in his seat. Then Boel washed her hands of her father altogether, but she advised her husband to depart forthwith. And on the third day she had packed up all her bridal finery, and departed in the vessel with the young officer.
Boel was her name, and she shot up so handsome and comely that her beauty shone like the sun. No bridegroom was good enough for her, unless, perhaps, it were the king's son. Wooers came from afar, and came in vain. She was to have a dower, they said, such as no girl in the North had ever had before. One year quite a young officer came up thither with a letter from the king.
Next time the court met, Bardun was taxed to a full tenth of the value of all his property, according to the king's law and justice. Then only did he begin to foresee that it might fare with the magistrates now as it had done formerly. But all women like pomp and show, thought he, and Boel was in this respect no different to other people.
Then Bardun went to Boel, and bade her take her husband to task, and look sharp about it. He had never yet seen the man, said he, who couldn't be set right by his bride in the days when they did nothing but eat honey together.
By great good luck the Government commissariat stock, consisting of some thousands of sheep, and even some horses, had also been left behind. But we were not cheered. Among the many questions asked regarding this sad state of affairs was one put by an old burger: "Dat is nou die plan, want zooals zaken hier lyk, dan heeft die boel in wanhoop gevlug."
Then Bardun smote his head against the wall, and that night he laughed, so that it was heard far away, but he wept for his daughter. And now there arose such a storm that the sea was white for a whole week. And it was not long before the tidings came that the ship that Boel and her husband had sailed by had gone down, and the splinters lay and floated among the skerries.
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