The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1874-05-22
NUMBER 40.

accused, tried, condemned and execu
| ted for the murder of his serving-man
an old beggar applied for aims to thu
people of AalsOe, the parish adjoinin;
to Vellby. Suspicious were aroused b7
the exact likeness the be2gar bore t.
| Morten Burns of Ingvorstrup, who haG
lately died, and also by the curious an,
| anxious inquiries the man made con
! cernine events long past. The pastor
of AalsOe, who had buried MorteT
Burns, took the vagabond to his par
| sonage, and there the fellow, all uncon
scious of the portentous nature of ths
admission, acknowledged that he was
Niels B rns, the very man for whose
supposed murder the pastor had suffered
the shameful death of a criminal. Had
his brother MOrten survived him 1t Is
pretty certain the truth, concealed sc
long, had never been known, as Nie1s
had only returned to the district in the
hope OF proiting by Morten's death,
the news of which had accidentally
reached him. he professed-and, in
deed, plainly xperiencad,- tho utmost
horror on hearing the dreadful history
of the pastors cruel fate. It was all
Morten's doing, he said; but he was
so overcome 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 NOR.
tai hatred of Soren Quist from the time
that he refused him his daughter, and
had determined on revenge. It was he
who compelled Niels TO take service
with the pastor, who he had spurred on
TO the repeated offenses, in the expecta-
ton that violence would result, owing
to the pastors hasty temper, and 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 private room
that no one might see him. Shortly
after midnight, when the whole village
was asleep, the two brothers went to a
place where the roads cross each other,
and where a few days previously a sui
eide had been buried-a young man of
about Nitl's age and stature. In spite
of NiePs reluctance and remonstrance
they dug up tie corpse and took it into
Morten's house. Nieis 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 battered the
dead face with a spade, and hid it in q
sack until the next night, when they
carried it into the wood by Vellby par
sonRge. Niels asked what all these pre-
paratiOns meant. Morten told him to
mind his own business and to go and
fetch the parsons green dressing gown
and cap. This Niels refused to do,
whereupon Morten went and fetched
them himself. "And now," he said to
his brother, "you go your way. Here
is purse with hundred dollars-make
for the frontier where no one knows
thee; and pass thyself under another
name, and never set thy foot on Danish
soil again as thou wOuldst answer it
with thy 1ifeP' NieIs did as he was
commanded and parted from Morten
forever. He had enlisted for a soldier,
had suffered great hardships, had lost a
limb, and had returned to his native
pl ce q mere wreck.