Page:Select Popular Tales from the German of Musaeus.djvu/168

154 “Hast thou not murderously attacked this Jew in the wood; beaten, bound him, and robbed him of his purse?”

“I have never seen this Jew with my eyes,” answered the tailor; “neither have I beaten him, bound him, or robbed him of his purse: I belong to an honest guild, and ran no highwayman.”

“How canst thou prove thy respectability?”

“By my passport, and the testimony of my good conscience.”

“Bring forth thy passport.”

Benedix cheerfully opened the wallet, well knowing that it contained nothing but what he had honestly earned. But as he emptied it, alas! underneath the trifles which fell out was heard the rattling of gold. The policemen quickly laid hold of it, and drew forth the heavy purse, which the Jew, with great delight, claimed as his own, “deductis deducendis;” that is, with the exception of what was to go into the pockets of the magistrate and other officials.

Poor Benedix stood as if thunderstruck, almost sinking with horror; his face became pale, his lips quivered, his knees shook; to speak was impossible. The judge’s brow darkened; his threatening countenance foreboded a severe sentence.

“How now, criminal,” thundered the high-bailiff; “art thou still daring enough to deny the robbery?”

“Be merciful, dread judge!” whined the unhappy culprit on his knees, and with up-raised hands. “I take all the Saints to witness that I am innocent of the robbery; neither do I know how the purse of the Jew came into my wallet. Heaven only knows.”

“Thou art convicted,” resumed the judge; “the purse is sufficient proof; and now, in honour to God and to justice, confess openly the truth, before the torturer comes to wring it from your lips.”

The terrified Benedix could do nothing except insist that he was innocent; but he preached to deaf ears. He was thought a hardened thief, who denied his crime in order to save his neck. Master Hammerling, the stern investigator of truth, was called in, to induce our poor tailor, by the eloquence of his iron argument, to confess, for the honour of God and the law, that he deserved death. The joyful support of a good conscience now entirely forsook the unfortunate youth, and he trembled before the torments which awaited him. As the torturer was on the point of applying the thumb-screw, he reflected that this operation would for ever incapacitate him from handling his needle with honour; and rather than be a mere quack in his trade all his life, he thought it would be as well to be done with it at once; and thus he confessed himself guilty of a horrible crime, of which his heart knew nothing. The trial was immediately brought to an end; the culprit condemned to be hanged; and the sentence to be