(Withdrawing his hand.) No, Mr. Otto, excuse me. I have been digging up the ground and I should soil your white gloves.
The Burgomaster
I not only want to shake both your hands, though they be covered with earth, but I want to take you in my arms as I would a brother, my dear old Claus. (Clasps him in his arms.) And now let there be no more question of all this. What you propose to do is very beautiful and, coming from you, does not astonish me at all; but it is not practicable. To begin with, I have no right to accept your sacrifice. It is very fine of you to offer it, but it would be mean and hateful of me to accept it. Besides, if I did accept it, unless you formally declared yourself guilty, it is pretty nearly certain that the Major on his side would refuse it. What he wants, in order to make a striking example, is not your life, but mine, or the murderer’s.
Claus
I will say anything that I have to, so as to die in your place, Mr. Burgomaster.
Otto
(To the Burgomaster.) In that case, the Major will accept; I’ll answer for him. Leave it to me and look upon yourself as saved.
The Burgomaster
But don’t you see that it’s the same thing as before, that it means handing over an innocent man to execution and that, the more you try to obscure it, the clearer my duty becomes? If I will not permit Claus to die voluntarily in my stead while declaring himself innocent, still less can I allow him to do so by declaring himself guilty, when I know that he is not. That would be committing two mean actions instead of one.
Otto