"I know this treasury. On three sides is the solid rock, on the other a door of iron, and the man who guards us here is harder than either rock or metal. We shall never see Finland again! Never shall I see her more..."
"Listen to me, Bertel; you are a smart chap, but that does not prevent you from talking like a milksop occasionally. You are in love with the black-eyed lady; well, well, I will say nothing about that; love is a bandit, as Ovidius so truly says. But I cannot stand whimpering. If we live, there are other girls to kiss; if we die, then good-bye to them all. So you really fancy that they intend to roast us like picked woodcocks?"
"That entirely depends upon you yourselves," answered a voice in the darkness. All three prisoners started from fright.
"The evil one is here in the midst of us!" exclaimed Larsson.
Pekka began to say his prayers. Then a clear ray from a dark lantern shot through the darkness, and they all saw the Jesuit Hieronymus standing alone near them.
"It depends upon you," he repeated. "To escape is impossible. Your king is dead; your army defeated; the whole world acknowledges the power of the Church and the Emperor. The pile is ready, and your bodies shall burn in honour of the saints. But the holy Church in its clemency wishes to save you, and has sent me here to offer you mercy."
"Indeed!" exclaimed Larsson mockingly. "Come, worthy father, loosen my bonds and let me embrace you. I offer you my friendship, and of course you believe me. How, says Seneca, homo homini lupus, we wolves are all brothers."
"I offer you mercy," continued the Jesuit coldly, "on three conditions, which you will certainly accept. The first is, that you abjure your heretic faith and publicly join the only saving Church."
"Never!" exclaimed Bertel hastily.
"Be quiet!" said the captain. "Well, posito that we abjure the Lutheran faith?"