of the two? (Goes towards
the table.)

Gran. I was not thinking of that--but of what your life would be
afterwards. I know you.

Flink (opening the pistol-case). You need not be anxious! My life
afterwards will not be a long one. What you have done has robbed me of
anything to live for in this generation, and I don't aspire to live till
the next. So it is all over and done with! (Takes up the pistols.)

Gran. Do you mean _here_--?

Flink. Why not? We are alone here.

Gran. The King is asleep in the next room. (Points to the door near his
desk.)

Flink. The King here?

Gran. He came here to-night.

Flink. Well, it will wake him up; he will have to wake up some time, any
way.

Gran. It would be horrible! No!

Flink. Indeed? It is for his sake you have betrayed me. You did that as
soon as ever you met him again. He has bewitched you. Let him hear and
see what he has done! (Holds out the pistols.) Here!

Gran. Wait. What you have just said brings a doubt into my mind. Is not
revenge, after all, the motive for what you are doing?

Flink. Revenge?

Gran. Yes. Don't misunderstand me; I am not trying to shuffle out of
it. If I were free to choose, I would choose death rather than anything
else. The King knows that, too. But I ask because there ought to be some
serious reason for anything that may happen. I am not going to stand up
and face a sentiment of revenge that is so ill-grounded.

Flink (laying the pistols down). I hate the man who has led you
astray--that is true. When I was giving you the reasons why I took upon
myself the task of calling you to account, perhaps I forgot that. I hate
him. But the instrument that carries out a sentence is one thing; the
sentence itself is quite another. You arc sentenced to death because you
have betrayed our cause--and because you say that you were right to do
so. The world shall learn what that costs. It costs a man's life.

Gran. So be it!

Flink. The pistols are loaded. I loaded them myself. I imagine that you
still have trust in my honour?

Gran (with a smile). Indeed I have.

Flink. One of them has a blank cartridge in it; the other is fully
loaded. Choose!

Gran. But what do you mean? Suppose I were to--?

Flink. Don't be afraid! Heaven will decide! _You_ will not choose the
fully loaded one!--We shall stand face to face.

Gran. You are settling everything--the sentence, the challenge, the
choice of weapons, the regulations for the duel--!

Flink.