KING. Which I am looking after! I am looking after the whole country. And if you must know, I have just settled that very question, so that your advice is a little belated. The Convent of Vreta will be closed before you have time to write another sermon. Do you realise now that I have a right to be angry with your needless and unsolicited questions?
OLAVUS. I stand corrected!
KING. I have got you on account of my sins, and I suppose I must take your faults with your merits, which are great. Now we are done with that I Go back and roar in your pulpit now. Here I do the roaring!
MASTER OLAVUS goes out by the door at the right.
KING. [Standing in front of that door with folded hands and speaking in a barely audible voice] Eternal Lord, who rules the destinies of princes and of peoples, illumine my mind and strengthen my will, so that I may not judge unrighteously! [He makes the sign of the cross and mutters a brief prayer; then he opens the door] Bring in the prisoners!
The door remains open while the KING seats himself in the chair of state.
ANDERS PERSSON and MONS NILSSON are brought in. They look around the room uneasily at first; then they start toward the KING.
KING. Stay where you are! [Pause] Once I called you my friends, Anders Persson and Mons Nilsson. You know why. But that was long ago. I let you keep life and goods when you had forfeited both, and thus Providence rid me mercifully of the debt of gratitude I had come to owe you. Two years ago you withdrew your oath of loyalty and opened war on me for the sake of those bells. Being victorious, I had a right to your heads, but I let you go. That's how my debt was paid. Your ingratitude wiped out my gratitude, and so that bill was settled. Now the time has come for a new settlement, and this time the balance is against you. To find out just where you stood, I invited you to my capital, and you might have guessed that I would keep my eyes on you. My ears have been open, too, and I have learned that you have begun plotting all over again. Do you know John Andersson?
ANDERS and MONS. No!
KING. [Rising and approaching them angrily] Do you know Dacke?
ANDERS and MONS. [Falling on their knees] Mercy!