FATHER BENEDICT-- You needn't apologize.
ABBOT--You, Benedict, not I, are needing grace.
You have assailed a child of God, and you
Know what our Lord said: "'Twere better a mill-stone
Were hanged about his neck and he were flung
Into the sea, than offend one of these."
You even seemed to take delight, to relish
Harrowing his soul up with the hunter's dream
And breaching it for horror to peep through.
FATHER BENEDICT--You wait.
(_He reaches down behind the chest_.)
ABBOT-- God will hold you responsible
If anything should happen to him.
FATHER BENEDICT-- You
Take care he does not visit you.
ABBOT-- Just now
You said yourself that it was you who urged
Jardin to seize the dwarf.
FATHER BENEDICT-- And so I did.
ABBOT--Whose fault is it if the dwarf killed him, then?
FATHER BENEDICT--We will let God decide whose fault--
Move this.
ABBOT-- (_Setting the lamp down upon the floor._)
You even said Oswald opposed it, and
For that just now you blamed him.
FATHER BENEDICT-- You think you
Understand everything. You _think_ you do.
(_They pull the chest from the wall._)
ABBOT--Then tell me.
FATHER BENEDICT-- (_Reaching down and getting his staff._)
The dwarf did not kill him.
ABBOT-- How?
Is he not dead?
FATHER BENEDICT--By this time, he may be.
ABBOT--I still don't see where Oswald's fault comes in.
(_He takes up the lamp._)
FATHER BENEDICT--We will let God decide whose fault it is.
(_He goes out._)
ABBOT--How did it happen?
FATHER BENEDICT--God was there; ask him.
(_Louis reappears._)