Charvát.—Back, women, and behave quietly. (To the Earl.) Here is my authority from the district government of His Majesty, the Emperor, empowering me to instant performance of justice in mutinous villages. (Hands it to The Earl.) In the name of the government I announce that all who have rebelled against their overlords are under penalty of death. (Great agitation among the people beyond the circle of soldiers, weeping and lamentation.)
The Women and People.—God in Heaven! Woe! Woe! Mercy! Grace!
Výrava.—O shameless race! For you I went into the struggle and you beg for mercy for us and for yourself? Who is such a wretch that he would plead for his life?
Dvořák.—Kill, murder us! . . .
Charvát.—Silence, I command. Through the mercy of our most gracious Emperor who is the father of his people, the government remits the heaviest penalty even to the greatest sinners and orders thus:
Cries.—Hear! Hear!
Charvát.—The subjection of the people is this day and this moment wholly abolished on the basis of the imperial patent and feudalism is modified until the time when it shall be wholly annulled.
Cries.—Glory to the Emperor! Glory to the Emperor!
Výrava.—Thanks to God and the Emperor! Oh, take all in sacrifice—now I shall gladly lose my life!
Charvát.—However, as a punishment for the spilling of blood and for incendiarism, I announce in the name of the district government: From each insurrectionist estate and land-holding, one mature man must be enrolled in the army. The plotters of the rebellion will, it is true, have their life, estate and liberty assured them, but as a fine and as a humiliation as well and a punishment for their crime they shall be publicly flogged here in the presence of their lords and of their people whom they stirred up to rebel. To each one a hundred blows running a gauntlet[1] of soldiers and that without forbearance or mercy. (The soldiers begin to untie the bonds of the captives.)
Jeroným (Aside).—Everlasting God!- ↑ Gauntlet, from “gantlope” or “gatlope” (Swedish) made up of gata, a street, and lopp, a course. A military punishment which consisted in making the culprit, naked to the waist, pass repeatedly through a lane formed of two rows of soldiers, each of whom gave him a stroke as he passed, with a short stick or other similar weapon.
