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?
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.
Flink. The pistols are loaded. I loaded them myself. I imagine that you still have trust in my honour?
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--!
Gran. By no means! You are quite welcome! We are to have no seconds? So be it. But the place?
Flink. Why? (Holds out the two pistols to him. The door to the left is opened softly. ANNA looks in, sees what is going on, and rushes with a pitiful attempt at a scream to GRAN, putting her arms round him protectingly, and caressing him with every sign of the utmost terror.)
Gran (bending down and kissing her). She is right! Why should I die for the sake of dull theories, when I can hold life in my arms as I do now? A man who is loved has something left, after all. I won't die!
Flink. If you were not loved, my friend, you might be allowed to live. A cry of sorrow will be heard throughout the land, from the King's palace to the meanest hovel, when you have been shot. And that is just why I must do it! The louder the cry of sorrow, the greater will be the silence afterwards. And in that silence is to be found the answer to the question "Why?" The people will not allow themselves to be cheated any longer.