"My mother's old servant, do you say?"
"I am the last survivor of all those who formerly inhabited this fertile region, which is now a wilderness. It was I who said to Aron Bertila, when my master's house was destroyed in blood and ashes: 'Save my young mistress.' And Bertila did it; cursed is he and blessed at the same time! He carried my lovely young mistress out of the flames, and she, a noble maiden, became the haughty peasant's humble wife."
"But are you mad, old man? If you are, as you say, my mother's old servant, why did you shut me up in that damned hole? You must admit that your friendship is of a strange kind."
"Kill me, sir. I am ninety years of age. Kill me, I am a Catholic!"
"You! Well, by my sword now I begin to understand you."
"I am the last Catholic in this country. I belong to King John's and King Sigismund's time. I am one of the four who buried the last nun in Nadendal's cloister. For twenty years I have not heard mass, or been sprinkled with holy water. But all the saints be praised, an hour before your arrival, I had eaten of the holy wafer."
"A monk has been in your hut?"
"Yes, sir, one of ours."
"And with him a young girl and her old waiting-maid? Answer."
"Yes, sir, they were in his company."