Page:Legends of Rubezahl, and Other Tales (1845).djvu/130

 put up, and thus ascertained where to find him again when requisite, retraced his steps to the mountain, meditating divers plans of vengeance. On his way, he met a rich Jew proceeding to Hirschberg, and it instantly occurred to him that he might make this man an instrument of his revenge. He forthwith assumed the precise form and features, and dress of the traveller who had insulted him, and joining the Israelite, entered into friendly converse with him, and under pretence of a short cut, led him out of the road into a thicket, where, suddenly seizing him in the most ferocious manner by the beard, he shook him soundly, and then throwing him roughly on the ground, tied him neck and heels, and took from him his purse, which contained a large amount in gold and jewels. He then, by way of adieu, kicked and cuffed the unhappy Jew, until he well nigh became a jelly, after which satisfactory exercise the Gnome left his victim half dead among the bushes, and went his way.

As soon as the sufferer had recovered from his awful panic, and satisfied himself by pinching his poor bruised arms and legs that he was not dead, he set up a doleful howling, and bawled piteously for help, and well he might, for left there, in the depth of the forest, and unable to rise, what was to save him from dying of hunger where he lay? His cries brought to his assistance a grave, respectable-looking person, apparently a burgess of some neighbouring town,