ught you to speak like that?

Constable. Experience--that which you lack!

Olof. Can I have lived and fought for a lie? Must I now declare my whole
youth and the best part of my manhood lost, useless, wasted? Oh, let me
rather die together with my mistake!

Constable. You should have broken loose from your dreams earlier. But
calm yourself! Your life is still ahead of you. The past has been a
school--hard, to be sure, but all the more wholesome. Hitherto you have
given your life to whims and follies. Now you have some inkling of what
reality demands of you. Outside that door your creditors are waiting
with their claims. Here are their bills. The clergy of the young Church
demand that you live to finish what you have begun so splendidly. The
City Corporation demands its secretary for the Council. The congregation
demands its shepherd. The children of the confirmation class demand
their teacher. Those are your legal creditors. But there is one more
waiting outside, to whom perhaps you owe more than all the rest, and who
yet demands nothing at all--your young wife. You have torn her from her
father's side and set her adrift in the storm. You have broken down her
childhood faith and filled her mind with restlessness. Your reckless
deeds have goaded the brutal mob into driving her out of her own
home. Yet she does not even demand your love: all she asks of you is
permission to spend a life of suffering by your side.--Now you can see
that we, too, give a little consideration to other people, although you
call us selfish.--Let me open this door, which will lead you back into
the world. Discipline your heart before it hardens, and thank God for
granting you more time to work for mankind.

Olof (breaking into tears). I am lost!

(Constable gives a sign to the Headsman, who removes the fetters and the
garb of penitence from Olof; then the Constable opens the door to the
sacristy, and delegates from the lords, the clergy, and the city guilds
enter.)

Constable. Olof Pedersson, formerly pastor of the city church at
Stockholm, do you hereby repent of your misdeeds and retract what you
have said beyond and against the King's order? Do you declare your
willingness to keep your oath to the sovereign of this realm, and to
serve him faithfully?

(Olof remains silent. Lars Pedersson and Christine approach him, while
many of those present make pleading gestures.)

Olof (in a cold and determined voice). Yes!

Constable. In the na