– Have I really been guilty of a crime? he thought to himself. Did not I strap on my mind, though they teased me in that horrible way? They accused me of theft and mocked my foster father for his piety and even called him and my fleshly father of thieves … when I think about it, simmering it in me … I would like to strangle them, the wretches … on suspicion of theft! it is terrible! I could never endure the shame … And so will they arrest and convict me to spöpålen to in time and eternity disgrace me and let my foster parents die in grief and despair. But can the cartridge? It is he who sinned against me, and not me against him! Can a master with impunity insult and mistreat their servants and rob him of honor and glory? No, this can not be justice in our country to be, that would be wicked to just think about that!

But now remembered Sven, the cartridge and several masters of the same scrap and barley really with the law to help fallen innocent servant, whom Sven felt, in the same abyss that now opened before the young man himself. It was thus possible, as Sven in the longest wanted doubt. Yes, it was possible and even probable, that the sheriff and his henchmen would chase Sven as a beast, until they could arrest, imprison and take him to court, where after Sven’s conviction no justice for the accused servant was to be expected. Should he escape? Yes, he took a moment this decision, but when he came to think of his foster parents, whose old age support, he was, and against which he had sacred duties to fulfill. He thought also to Johanna, and in the bitter, despairing mood he was, he tormented himself with the suspicion that the girl might not would have no objection to the cartridge, instead of the poor blast farmhand. And what was even worse: Sven would be able to entertain the slightest desire for Johanna’s hand, then he has been suspected as a thief and an ignominious corporal punishment has been disgraced in their own and in everyone’s eyes?