Christine (takes the handkerchief, tears it into strips, and begins
to dress Olof's wounds while speaking). My faith? I don't understand
you.--Tell me, who is Luther?

Olof. I mustn't tell you.

Christine. Always the same answer! From my father, from your mother, and
from yourself. Are you timid about telling me the truth, or is the truth
really dangerous?

Olof. Truth is dangerous. Can't you see? (He points to his forehead.)

Christine. So you want me to be shut up in a convent cell to live a
lifeless life in ignorance? (Olof does not reply.) You want me to weep
away my life and my youth, and to keep on saying those endlessly long
prayers until my soul is put to sleep? No--I won't do it, for now I am
awake. All around me they are fighting, and suffering, and despairing.
I have seen it, but I was to have no share in it. I was not even to look
on, or to know the purpose of the fighting. You wanted me to be sunk in
bestial slumber. But don't you believe me possessed of a soul, then--a
soul that cannot be satisfied by bread or by dry prayers put into my
mouth by others? "Bind not the spirits," you said. Oh, if you could only
know how that word pierced me! Daylight came, and those wild cries out
there sounded like the singing of birds in the morning--

Olof. You are a woman, Christine, and not born to fight!

Christine. But in the name of God, let me suffer, then! Only not be
asleep! Don't you see that the Lord has awakened me in spite of all? You
have never dared to tell me who Antichrist was. You have never dared
to tell me who Luther was, and when your mother called you a Luther, I
blessed Luther. If he be a heretic or a believer, I don't know, and
I don't care; for no one--whether it be Luther, or the Pope, or
Antichrist-can satisfy my immortal soul when I have no faith in the
eternal God.

Olof. Will you follow me into the battle, Christine? For you can sustain
me, and you only!

Christine. Now I am able to answer you with a frank "yes," for I know
my own will--and I can do so without asking father first, for I am free.
Oh, I am free!

Olof. And do you know what is in store for you?

Christine. I know! You will not have to shatter my mocking dreams--they
are already gone. But you may be sure that I, too, have been dreaming of
a knight who was to lay a kingdom at my feet and talk to me of flowers
and love--Olof, I want to be your wife! Here is my hand! But this much
I must tell you: that you never have been