Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-08-28

who he now believed had personated the
thief.
Nothing came of it.
At last, he was just about to give
it up, when one morning as he awoke
a great noise and shouting reached his
ears, coming from the direction of the
public square.
His servants raped hurriedly upon
his door, and, pc he opened it, they
screamed out together "My lord,
my lord, do you know what has hap
pened ?"
"No; but if you will hold your
tongues long enough, / am going to ask.
What is it ?"
GA miracle p
"Really
eyes the criminal-he is there
on the gallows, with your armor, and
dead 70
"Dead?"
"Quite dead Only"
"Well."
did he have spurs on when he was
hung? Steel spurs, my lord?"
"No."
men, their eyes rolling wildly with
fright and then they gasped out in
awful whispers, "And his helmet, my
lord His helmet is not on his head.
He has taken it Off He has placed it
carefully on the ground, and he hangs
bare-headed !"
The lord of the castle turned pale.
There was nothing like it In "Sqeeky I"
not even a pumpkin ghost or paste
board bogy to be scared at. 1t was con-
trary to nature for dead man to come
back and hang himself contrary
to nature In every sense and IN those
medieval ages there were no foxes to
say and geese to believe that spirits
came back. It must be the Monarch of
Evil himself But the Baron himself
had never been afraid of man, or the
potentate just mentioned, and he was
not going to begin now so with deep
returning flush ON his face, the express
sion of which grew frmer every moment,
he dressed himself quickly and ran
down to the square.
1t was even so. The thief hung bare
headed, the spurs on his feet, the he'll
met on the ground beneath him and
everybody shouting, "a miracle
miracle !"
=" He has repented, cried some, "and
come back and rehung himself T.
I" He has always been here" cried
the others, "only his sorcery concealed
him p
"But why those spurs? He must
hoU
ished business. What fool to come
back at all 70
AS for the Baron, surer than ever of
the inestimable, life-preserving tails
man which he who wore the armor
would possess, he carried off his prop
erty triumphantly. He took the spurs,
too, which was practical justice, per-
haps, but not exactly pointof honor.
The Saturday Review" of those me-
dieval days gave three versions of this
strange story.
The wise man of ancient Gotham de-
clared, through the pages Of the Be-
view," that if at the last moment the
sufferer had will enough, he might alb
sorb his body into his aOiU, and, as the
will is invisible, the body would be in
visible likewise but the body reap
peared at the end of a month because
his will suddenly "caved in, so to say.
This was capital theory, and might be
essayed by all the poor dear murderers,
if they could see that it led to anything
at all satisfactory in the end, which it
don't.
The next version was offered by DIR.
Phthisgig, who was then delivering
lectures in the Center of Creation,
called "The Hub" The
Review had just reported remarka-
BILE one, in which the learned Doctor
proved inductively, deductively, pro-
and seductively, that spiders
carried their ears on their legs. This
profound philosopher maintained that
the animal on the gallows escaped, but
being pursued by an awful phantom
called Remorse, he could not endure his
life lenger than month, and had come
back to be pious and good, and to do
justice on himself. Dear old Phthisig
/ honor him for believing that there is
something divine in the worst natures.
True, when his wife puts her boots on
of a morning, she finds little snakes
squirming up, which the good man has
tucked up in the boots to keep safe and
warm over night. But never mind, his
heart is all right, and he is the simplest,
kindliest old Dominic
Sampson of philosopher in the Hub
which is saying octave volumes, where
so many good, and pious, and learned
philosophers do congregate.
But thirdly, and finally, a medieval
who had interviewed" every
body upon whom he could lay hands,
declared that those country fellows go
ing home at night passed the gallows on
their way.
A long and pitifnl groan sounded in
their startled ears.
" Jevelins !" exclaimed the father.
!" what's that?"
The son tumbled upside down off
the donkey, and yelled with all his
might.
"O-h r. groaned the man on the
gallows; have mercy help me
down I"
With quaking knees the father mount
ed the ladder, and found that the rope
had caught round the helmet instead of
the neck of the thief, who was as alive
- l.