Vilhelm. Before you die I want to thank you for all that you have done for us. It was I who gave you those flowers, which you haven't noticed.—They have been trampled on, I see. I wanted to bring you a reminder of the days when we were playing under the lindens in the convent close at Strängnäs. I thought it might do you good to hear that we have never thanked God, as you said we would, because you didn't return to us. We have never forgotten you, for it was you who relieved us of those cruel penances, and it was you who flung open the heavy convent doors and gave us back our freedom and the blue sky and the happiness of living. Why you must die, we do not know, butyoucould never do anything wrong. And if you die because you have rendered help to some of those that were oppressed, as they tell us, then you should not be sorry, although it hurts very, very much. Once you told us how Hus was burned because he had dared to tell the truth to those in power. You told us how he went to the stake and joyfully commended himself into the hands of God, and how he prophesied about the swan that should come singing new songs in praise of awakened freedom. That's the way I have thought that you would meet your death—with your head thrown back, and your eyes toward the sky, and the people crying: "So dies a witness!"(Olof leans against the pillory, his face showing how the words of Vilhelm strike home to him.)Gert (his voice heard from a distant part of the church.) Renegade!(Olof sinks down overwhelmed at the foot of the pillory.)
Vilhelm. Before you die I want to thank you for all that you have done for us. It was I who gave you those flowers, which you haven't noticed.—They have been trampled on, I see. I wanted to bring you a reminder of the days when we were playing under the lindens in the convent close at Strängnäs. I thought it might do you good to hear that we have never thanked God, as you said we would, because you didn't return to us. We have never forgotten you, for it was you who relieved us of those cruel penances, and it was you who flung open the heavy convent doors and gave us back our freedom and the blue sky and the happiness of living. Why you must die, we do not know, butyoucould never do anything wrong. And if you die because you have rendered help to some of those that were oppressed, as they tell us, then you should not be sorry, although it hurts very, very much. Once you told us how Hus was burned because he had dared to tell the truth to those in power. You told us how he went to the stake and joyfully commended himself into the hands of God, and how he prophesied about the swan that should come singing new songs in praise of awakened freedom. That's the way I have thought that you would meet your death—with your head thrown back, and your eyes toward the sky, and the people crying: "So dies a witness!"
(Olof leans against the pillory, his face showing how the words of Vilhelm strike home to him.)
Gert (his voice heard from a distant part of the church.) Renegade!
(Olof sinks down overwhelmed at the foot of the pillory.)