Year: 1874

THE UNFORTUNATE PASTOR.


Soren was the pastor of the little vii
Iage of Veillby, situated a few miles
from Grenace, in the Jutland peninsula.
He was man Of excellent moral char
acter, generous, hospitable and dilieent
in the performance of his sacred duties;
but he was also man of constitutions
ally violent temper.


At Ingvorstrnp, a village not far
f'om Veillby, dwelt cattle farmer,
one Morten Burns, who by means any
thing but honest and honorable, had ac
quired considerable property, and who
was i'll i'll repute as a reckless self
seeker and oppressor of the poor. This
man Morten thought fit to pay court to
the pastors daughter, but the suit was
rejected by both parent and child, and
either the refusal or the manner of it,
so irritated the sujtor that he swore
secretly to be avenged on both.


Some months later, when the short
lived suit had been forgotten, the pas
tor, being in want of farm servant,
engaged Niels Burns, a poor brother of
the rich Morten, the discarded lover.
Niels soon showed himself to be an ut
terly worthless fellow, lazy, impudent
and overbearing and the result was a
constant recurrence quarrels and
mutual recriminations between him and
his master. Soren, on more than one
occasion, gave the fellow a thrashing,
which did not at all tend to improve
the relations, however, destined to come
to speedy close. The pastor had set
Niels to dig piece of ground in the
garden, bnt on coming out he found
him not digging, but leisurely resting
on his spade and cracking nuts which
he had picked, his work being left I'M
done. The pastor scolded him angrily;
the man retorted that it was no bust
ness of his to dig in the garden; at
which Soren struck him twice in the
face, ana the fellow, throwing down his
spade, retaliated with a volley of abuse.
Thereupon the old man lost all sci con-
troll, and seizing the spade, he dealt the
fellow several blows with it. Niels fell
to the earth like one dead, but when
his master in great alarm raised him up,
he broke away, leaped through the
hedge, and made off into the neighbor-
ing wood. From that time he was seen
no more, and all inquiries after him
proved vain. The above was the pas
tors account of the fact.


Ere long strange rumors began to cir
culate in the neighborhood, and as
matter of course they reached the pas
tors ears. Morten Burns was known to
have said that che would make the par
son produce his brother, even if he had
to dig him out of the earth" Soren
was intensely panied at the calumny
implied, and instituted at his own ex-
pense a quiet search after the missing
man--a search which failed altogether.
Even before that failure was known,
Morten Burns, in fulfllment of his
threats, applied to the district magis-
trate. taking with him AS witnesses one
Larsen, cottag r, and laborer's
widow and daughte, on the strength
of whose testimony he declared his
suspicion thatsthe past " had ,Sl&p-bis
brother. The magistrate represented
to him the risk he ran in making so
serious a charge Ggainst the clergyman,
and advised him TO weigh the matter
we'll before it was too late. But Nor
ten persisted in his design, and the
statements of the witnesses were taken
down.


When the witness had deposed, Nor
ten demanded that the parson should
he arrested. Wishing TO avoid scandal
if possible, the magistrate, who was a
friend of Soren's, proposed that they
should go together TO the parsonage,
where they would probably receive a
satisfactory explanation of the facts de-
posed to. Morten then consented to
this, and the party set out. On ap.
preaching the house they saw Soren
coming to meet them-when Morten
ran forward, and bluntly accused him
of numbering his brother, adding that
he was come to make search for the
body. The pastor made him no reply,
but courteously greeting the magistrate,
gave directions to the farm servants,
who gathered round, to aid by all the
means in their power the search to be
made. Morten led the way to the gar
den, and after looking round for some
tint pointed to certain spot, and
then called upon the men to dig there.


They had not dug long when enc of
them cried ont "Heaven protect us !"
and as all present crowded to look, the
crown of hat was visible above the
earth. "That is Niels' hat" cried
Morten 81 know it we'll here is a
security we shall find him Dig away I"
he shouted with fierce energy, and was
almost as eagerly obeyed. Soon an
arm appeared, and in few minutes the
entire corpse was disinterred. There
could be no doubt that it was the miss
ing man. The face could not be recog-
nized for decomposition had commenced
and the features had been injured
by blows, but his clothes, even unto his
shirt with his name on it, were identi.
fed by his fellow servants even a
leaden ring in the left ear of the corpse
was recognized as one which Niels had
worn for years.


There was no alternative but to arrest
the pastor on thu spot-indeed he will
iugly surrendered himself, merely pro-
testing his innocence. appearances
are against me, he said "surely this
must be the work of satan and his min
istry but He still lives who will at
pleasure make my innocence manifest.
Take me to prison in solitude and in
chains l will await what he in his wis
dom shall dscree.


When asked what he had to say in
his defense, the pastor replied, solemn
ly, $50 help me, God, 1 will say moth
ing but the truth. l struck deceased
with q spade but not otherwise than
he was able to run away from me, and
out of the garden what became of him
afterwards, or how he came to be buried
in my garden, know not. AS for the
evidence of Lawson aud the dairy
maid, who say that they saw me IN tie