Mariet, if you sharpened my knife and said: 'Go and kill that man'-- it may be that I would not have cared to kill him.

'What is the use of cutting down a withered tree ?'--I would have said.

But now--farewell, Mariet! Well, bind me and take me to the city." He waits haughtily, but no one approaches him.

Mariet has lowered her head upon her hands, her shoulders are twitching.

The abbot is also absorbed in thought, his large head lowered.