The Fremont weekly journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County, Ohio) 1867-1877, 1870-11-04
FREMONT SANDUSKY COUNTY, OHIO; FRIDAY NOVEMBER 1870
to the executioner's sword.

w Iue 6AGCubiOuST SWOIu.
! One-and-twenty years after tn
pastor, Soren Qvist, of Neilby, haC
been accused, tried, condemned, anC
executed for the murder of his sery
ing-man, an old beggarman applied
for aims to the people of AalsOe
the parish appointing to Veilby. Sus
piclons were aroused by the exac
likeness the beggar bore to MorteI
Bruins, of Ingvorstrup, who had late
| ly died, and also by the curious anC
anxious inquiries the man made con
cerning events long past. The pas
tor of Aalsoe, who had buried Nor
ten Bruins, took the vagabond to his
parsonage, and there the fellow, al
unconscious Of the portentiOus ma
tature of the admission, acknOWl
edged that he was Niels Bruins, the
very man for whose supposed mur-
der the pastor had suffered the
shameful death of criminal. Had
his brother Morten survived him, il
is pretty certain the truth, concealed
so long, had never been known, as
Niels had only returned to the dis
trict in the hope of profting by
Morten's death, the news of which
had accidentally reached him. He
professed-and, indeed plainly exper-
ienced-the utmost horror on hear
ing the dreadful history of the pas
tors cruel fate. It was all Morten's
doing, he said; but he was so over
come by the terrible narrative, that
he could scarcely gather strength to
reply to the questions put to him.
The result of his examination and
confession may be summed up very
briefly. Morten had conceived a
mortal hatred of Soren Qvist from
the time that he refused him his
daughter, and had determined on re-
venge. 1t was he who compelled
Niels to take service with the pas
tor; he had spurred him on to the
repeated offences, in the expectation
that violence would result, owing to
the pastors hasty temper; and he
had carefully nursed the feud which
soon arose between master and man.
Niels told him daily all that took
place On leaving the garden on
that fatal day, he had run over to
Ingvorstrup to acquaint his brother
with what had happened. Morten
shut him up in a private room that
no one might see him. Shortly af-
ter midnight when the whole village
was asleep, the two brothers went
to place where the roads cross each
other, and where two days previously
a suicide had been buried-a young
man of about Niels' age and stature.
In spite of Niels' reluctance and re-
monstrances they then dug up the
corpse and took it into Morten's
house. Niels' was made to strip
and don a suit Of Morten's, and the
corpse was clad, piece by piece, in
Niels' cast-off clothes, even to the
very earring. Then Morten bat
tered the dead face with a spade, and
hid itin a sack until the next night,
when they carried it to the wood by
Veilby parsonage. Niels asked what
all these preparations meant. Nor
ten told him to mind his own bust
ness, and to go and fetch the parsons
green dressing gown and cap. This
Niels refused to do, wRereupon Nor
ten went and fetched them himself. y
"And noW," he said to his brother,
"you go your way, Here is a purse
with a hundred dollars-make for
the frontier where no one knows
thee; pass thyself under another
name, and never set thy foot on Dan
ish soil again as thou wouldst an
swer it with thy life" Niels did as
he was commanded, and parted from
Morten forever. He had enlisted for
a soldier, had suffered great hard
ships, had lost a limb, and had re-
turned to his native place a mere
wreck.
Thus, after an interval of twenty
one years, was made plain the inno-
cence of the unfortunate Soren Qvist,
who had fallen victim to the foulest
malignity, the precipitation and
of his judges, and also to
his own credulous imagination. In
the church-yard of Aalsoe the pas
tors grave is still to be seen, and is
almost within gunshot of Raven Hill
Oh Aalsoe Common, where he inno-
Gently suffered death.
#It was not the custom in Jutland, in those days
it is hardly the custom now-to lock up the