Nils Lykke.
First your oath! The holiest, the most inviolable you can swear.
Nils Stensson.
That you shall have. Yonder on the wall hangs the picture of the Holy Virgin
Nils Lykke.
The Holy Virgin has grown infirm of late. Know you not what the monk of Wittenberg maintains?
Nils Stensson.
Fie! how can you heed the monk of Wittenberg? Peter Kanzler says he is a heretic.
Nils Lykke.
Well, let us not dispute the matter. Here can I show you a saint will serve full well to make oath by.
[Points to a picture hanging on one of the panels.
Come hither,—swear that you will be silent till I myself release your tongue—silent, as you hope for Heaven's salvation for yourself and for the man whose picture hangs there.
Nils Stensson.
[Approaching the picture.] I swear it—so help me God's holy word!
[Falls back a step in amazement.
But—Christ save me!
