"You know that I do."
"Look at her golden robe. She has lost a part of it during the night. It is a bad omen, and indicates her anger. Do you love me also, my daughter?"
"I revere you more than anyone else, my father."
"Then look at this mutilated head."
The Jesuit removed his black leather cap, and exposed the horrible stumps of two severed ears.
"Thus have the blasphemous king's Finns treated your confessor and friend. Do you still hesitate to avenge the mother of God and myself?"
"What must I do, my father?"
"Listen! The heretic king wears on his right forefinger a ring of copper; this is a talisman against death and injury. You must gain possession of this ring by some artifice, and then if your arm is too weak to deal the blow, call upon me. We will reach his heart, even if it was guarded by a dragon's scales."
"If it is the will of the saints ... so be it."
"Place two fingers on this crucifix, and repeat this oath. I swear by this cross, and by all the saints, to accomplish what I now vow before the image of the Holy Virgin. If I ever break this oath, may a curse rest upon me and my posterity to the seventh generation.