Windrank. It's no more a chapel since it has become a royal storehouse.
Abbess. That's why the godless one gave us his permission!
[The door of the chapel is thrown open and the conspirators appear; among them Olof, Lars Andersson, Gert, the German, the Dane, the Man from Smaland, and others.]
Olof (much excited). What kind of buffoonery is this?
Mårten. Make way for the handmaidens of St. Clara!
Olof. Do you think your idols can keep away the plague that God has sent you as a punishment? Do you think the Lord will find those pieces of bone you carry in the box there so pleasant that He forgives all your dreadful sins? Take away that abomination! (He takes the reliquary from the Abbess and throws it into one of the open graves.) From dust you have come, and to dust you shall return, even if your name was Sancta Clara da Spoleto and you ate only three ounces of bread a day and slept among the swine at night! (The nuns scream.)
Mårten. If you fear not what is holy, fear at least your temporal ruler. Look here! He has still so much respect left for divine things that he dreads the wrath of the saint. (He shows a document to Olof.)
Olof. Do you know what the Lord did with the king of the Assyrians when he permitted the worship of idols? He smote him and all his people. Thus the righteous is made to suffer with the unrighteous. In the name of the one omnipotent God, I declare this worship of Baal abolished, even if all the kings of the earth give their permit. The Pope wanted to sell my soul to Satan, but I tore the contract to pieces—you remember? Should I then fear a King who wants to sell his people to the Baalim? (He tears the document to pieces.)
Mårten (to his followers). You are my witnesses that he has defamed the King.
Olof (to his followers). And you are my witnesses before God that I have led the people of a godless King away from him!