NILS STENSSON. Well well; I am grave enough.
NILS LYKKE. In the Dales you called yourself a Count's son;—
is't not so?
NILS STENSSON. Nay—begin you now on that again? Have I not
made free confession——
NILS LYKKE. You mistake me. What you said in the Dales was the
truth.
NILS STENSSON. The truth? What mean you by that? Tell me but——!
NILS LYKKE. First your oath! The holiest, the most inviolable
you can swear.
NILS STENSSON. That you shall have. Yonder on the wall hangs
the picture of the Holy Virgin——
NILS LYKKE. The Holy Virgin has grown impotent of late. Know
you not what the monk of Wittenberg maintains?
NILS STENSSON. Fie! how can you heed the monk of Wittenberg?
Peter Kanzler says he is a heretic.
NILS LYKKE. Nay, let us not wrangle concerning him. Here can I show you a saint will serve full well to make oath to. (Points to a picture hanging on one of the panels.) Come hither,—swear that you will be silent till I myself release your tongue—silent, as you hope for Heaven's salvation for yourself and for the man whose picture hangs there.