Year: 1874

a delusion. Miserable man that I am
have no one on earth to speak in my
defense that ! see clearly. II He in
heaven likewise remains silent, have
only to submit to His inscrutable will. "


When, some weeks later, the trial
came on, two more fresh witnesses were
produced. They declared that on the
aforementioned night they were proceed
ing along the road which runs from the
pastors garden to the wood, when they
met man carrying a sack on his back,
who passed them and walked on in the
direction Of the garden. His facs they
could not see, inasmuch as it was con
cealed hy the overhanging sack but as
the moon was shining on his back, they
could plainly descry that he was clad in
a pale green coat, and white night-cap.
he disappeared near the parsons hedge.


NO sooner did the pastor hear the ev-
ldence of the witness to this effect than
his face turned an ashy hue, and he
cried out in faltering voice, 81 am
fainting y and was SO prostrated in body
that lie had to be taken back to prison.
There, after period of severe suffer
ing, to the intense astonishment OF ev-
cry one, he made to his friend, the dis
trict magistrate who had first arrested
him, the following strange confession


From nv childhood, as far back as
can remember, have been passionate,
quarrelsome, and proud impatient OF
contradiction, and ever ready for a
blow. Yet have / seldom let the sun
go down on my wrath. nor have I borne
lll-will to any one. When but lad
slew i'll anger dog which one day ate
my dinner, which l had left in his way.
When as a student | went on foreign
travel, entered on slight provocation,
into a broil with German youth in
Leipsie, challenged him, and gave him
wound that endangered his life.
For that deed, I feel it, I merited that
which has now come upon me after
long years but the punishment falls
upon my sinful head with tenfold
weight now that am broken down with
age, clergyman and father. Oh, ia.
ther in heaven it is here that the
wound is sorest."


After pause of anguish he contin-
ued 81 will now confess the crime
which no doubt have committed, but
Of which am, nevertheless, not fully
conscious. That struck the unhappy
man with the spade / know full we'll,
and have already confessed; whether it
we're with the flat side or the sharp edge
could not in my passion discern; that
he then fell down, and afterwards rose
again and ran away-that is all know
to a surety. What follows-Heaven
help me -four witnesses have seen,
namely, that I fetched the body from
the wood and buried it and that this
must be substantially true / am obliged |
to believe, and / will tell you where. |
fore. Three or four times in my life !
that know of it has happened to me
to walk in my sleep. The last time
Cabout nine years ago., was next day |
to preach funeral sermon over the re-
mains of man who had unexpectedly .
met with dreadful death. was at
loss for text, when the words of a wise
man among the ancient Greeks sudden
ly occurred to me Call no man happy /
until he be in his grave To use the |
words of heather for text of chris
tian discourse was not, methought, /
seemly; but / then remembered that |.
the same thought, expressed the same,
was in Apocrypha. sought, and |
sought, but could not find the passage. |
1t was late; I was wearied by much .
previous labor I therefore went to bed /.
and soon fell asleep. Greatly did ] |
marvel the next morning when, on
arising and seating myself at my writing
desk, | saw before me, written in large |
letters upon a sheet of paper, Let no
man be deemed happy before his end +.
cometh" (Sirach. xi. 34 Blt not this
alone. I found likewise a funeral dis
course-short, but as well written as
any I had ever composed-and all in my
own hand writing. In the chamber no
other than could have been; | knew !
therefore who it was that had written |
the discourse, and that it was no other .
than myself. No more than half year
previous l had, in the same marvellous /
state, gone in the night time into the ,
church and fetched away a handkerchief /
which | left in the chair behind the .
altar. Mark now-when the two wit |
nesses this morning delivered their
evidence before the court, then nv pre- |
vious sleep,walking suddenly flashed |
across me and likewise called to |
mind that iG the morning after the /.
night during which the corpse must |
have been buried, | had been surprised |
to see my dressing-gown lying on the |
floor just beside the door, whereas it /
was always my custom TO hang it on a
chair by my bedside. The unhappy
victim of my uubridled passion must,
in all likelihood, have fallen down dead
in the wood and must in my sleep
walking have followed him thither. Yes
the Lord have mercy $50 it was, so
it must have been."


The pastor was removed to the goal
at Genau the same night, and on the
following day came the Judicial exami-
nation. The witnesses confirmed
their former statements on OATH There
now appeared three additional Witness
es, viz the pastors two farm servants,
and the 1airy-maid. The two former
explained how on the day of the MUIR
der they had been sitting near the
open window in the servants room,
and heard distinctly how the pastor and
the man Neils were quarreling. and
how the former had cried out, az will
slay thee, dog thou shalt lay dead at
my feet I" They added that they had
twice before heard the parson threaten
Neils with his life. The dairy-maid
deposed that on the night Lawson saw
the pastor in the garden she was lying
awake in bed, and heard the door lead
ing from the passage into the garden
creak, and that when she rose and
pecped out, she saw the pastor in his
dressing gown and night.cap. 60 out into
the garden. What he did there she saw
not but about an hour afterwards she
again heard the breaking of the door.


On the following day sentence of
death was passed upon the prisoner-a
sentence which many telt to be severe,
and which led to a friendly conspiracy
on his behalf, and had it not been for
his refusal to be party to anything un-
lawful, he might have escaped. The