"There was a silence. After a moment the sergeant said:
'Get a hold of our old woman.'
'Listen, old woman,' said the sergeant to Pejzlerka, looking her sternly in the eye. 'go and collect a crucifix on a stand from somewhere and bring it here.'
'Pejzlerka's questioning look produced an explosion on the part of the sergeant: 'You'd better make sharp!'
The sergeant took out of the table drawer two candles on which there were traces of the sealing wax he used to seal official documents, and when in fear and trembling Pejzlerka finally came in with the crucifix the sergeant put the cross between both candles on the edge of the table, lit the candles and said in a solemn voice: 'sit down, old woman.'
The terror-stricken Pejzlerka sank down on the sofa and looked wild-eyed at the sergeant, the candles and the crucifix. Panic seized her and as she had her hands on her apron you could see they were trembling with her knees.
The sergeant walked gravely round here and stopping a second time in front of her announced in a solemn voice: 'Yesterday evening you witnessed a great event old woman. It may well be your feeble mind cannot grasp it. That soldier is an intelligence officer, a spy, old woman.'
'Jesus Mary,' shrieked Pejzlerka. 'Dear Holy Virgin from Skocice!'
'Quiet old woman! In order to get something out of him we had to say various things to him. You heard what strange things we said, didn't you?'
'Yes, sir, I did,' Pejzlerka whispered with a quaking voice.
'But everything we said, old woman, was only designed to make him confess, to make him trust us. And we succeeded. We got everything out of him we wanted. We trapped him.
The sergeant interrupted his address for a moment to adjust the wick on the candles and then he continued gravely, looking severely at Pejzlerka: 'You were present and you are initiated into the whole secret. This secret is an official one. And you must not say a single word about it to anyone. Not even on your deathbed, otherwise the wouldn't be allowed to bury you in the churchyard.'
'Jesus, Mary, Joseph,' whined Pejzlerka, 'why was I so unfortunate ever to set foot here!'
'Don't howl, old woman. Get up. Approach the crucifix. Put up the two fingers of your right hand. You will take an oath. Speak after me!'
Pejzlerka staggered to the table incessantly moaning: 'Virgin Mary of Skocise, why did I ever set here.'
And the careworn face of Christ looked down on her from the cross, the candles smoked and appeared dreadful and unearthly to Pejzlerka. She was completely lost, her knees knocked and her hands trembled.
She raised the two fingers of her hand and the sergeant solemnly and emphatically recited for her to repeat: 'I swear before God Almighty and you, sergeant, that I shall never to the day of my death mention a word of what I have heard and seen here, even if I were asked about it . So help me God.
'And now kiss the crucifix too, old woman,' the sergeant ordered, when Pejzlerka had taken the oath to the accompaniment of terrible sobbing and had crossed herself devoutly.
'And now you can take the crucifix back to where you borrowed it from and tell them I needed it for a cross examination!'
The shattered Pejzlerka went out of the room on tip-toe with the crucifix and from the window she could be seen continually looking back at the gendarmerie station, as though she wanted to convince herself that this was not merely a dream, but that just a moment ago she head really lived through the most ghastly experience of her whole life."
(The Good Soldier Svek - Jaroslav Hasek - Page 271)
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