LISBED (rushing in). Oh, poor wretch that I am!
JERONIMUS. Don't raise a hubbub, daughter, you won't gain anything by that.
LISBED. Oh, father dear, if you were as much in love as I am, you wouldn't ask me to keep quiet.
JERONIMUS. Fie, fie, it is not proper for a girl to show her feelings like that. But there he is, I do believe. Look here, Rasmus Berg! What is going on?
MONTANUS. Oh, my dear Monsieur Jeronimus, I've become a soldier.
JERONIMUS. Yes, now you have something else to do, besides turning men into beasts and deacons into cocks.
MONTANUS. Oh, alas! I lament my former folly, but all too late.
JERONIMUS. Listen, my friend. If you will give up your former foolishness, and not fill the land with disagreements and disputations, I shall not fail to do everything in my power to get you off.
MONTANUS. Oh, I don't deserve anything better, after threatening my old parents with blows. But if you will have pity on me and work for my release, I swear to you, that hereafter I shall live a different life, devote myself to some business, and never bother any one with disputations any more.
JERONIMUS. Stay here for a moment; I will go and talk to the Lieutenant. (Enter the Lieutenant.) Oh, my dear Lieutenant, you have always been a friend of our house. The person who has enlisted as a soldier is engaged to my only daughter, who is much in love with him. Set him free again. I shall be glad to present you with a hundred rix-dollars, if you do. I admit that at first I was delighted myself that he had been punished in such a way, for his singular behavior had exasperated me, and all the good folk here in the village, against him. But when I saw him in this plight, and at the same time heard him lament his former folly and promise amendment, my heart was ready to burst with sympathy.