Year: 1874

ldence OF the witness to this effect thar


ms face turned an ashy hue, and be


cried out in a faltering voice. al An


taInting ]" and was so prostrated in BODY


that he had to be taken back to prison.


Ihere, after period of severe suffer


ing, to the intense astOnishment of ev-


cry one, he made to his friend, the dis.


trlet magistrate who had first arrested


him, the following strange confession


From my childhood, as far back as


can remember, have been passionate.


quarrelsome, and proud-impatient OF


contradiction, and ever ready for a


blow. Yet have I seldom let the sun


go down on my wrath. nor have I borne


lIl-will to any one. When but a lad I


slew IN anger a dog which one day ate


my diHner, which had left IN his way,


When as a student I went on foreign


travel, 1 entered On slight provocation.


into broil with a German youth in


Leipsie, challenged him, and gave him


wound that endangered his life


For that deed, I feel it, 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, a clergyman and father. On, ia
ther in heaven it is here that the
wound is sorest."


After a pause of anguish he contin-
ued al will now confess the crime
which no doubt have commit ted, but
Of which I am, nevertheless, not fully
conscious. That struck the unhappy
man with the spade I know full well,
and have already confessed; whether il
were with the fiat side or the sharp edge
1 could not in my passion discern that
he then fell down, and afterwards rose
again and ran away-that is all I know
to a surety. What folIows-Heaven
help me -four witnesses have seen.
namely, that fetched the body from
the wood and buried it and that this
must be substantially trne 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
(about nine years ago), / was next day
to preach a funeral sermon over the re-
mains of a man who had unexpectedly
met with a dreadful death. was at a
loss for q text, when the words of a wise
man among the ancient Greeks sudden.
ly occurred to me Gall no man happy
until he be in his grave To use the
words of a heather for a text of a chris
tian discourse was not, methought,
seemly but I then remembered that
the same thought, expressed the same,
was in Apocrypha. 1 sought, and
sought, but could not find the passage.
It was late; l was wearied by much
previous labor therefore went to bed
and soon fell asleep. Greatly did 1
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. But not this
alone. I found likewise funeral dis
course-shOrt, but as well written as
any 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 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 my pre-
yious sleep-wRlking suddenly flashed
across me and I likewise called to
mind that in the morning after the
ulkub uuIluB WnAJu buo COIDSd AuSb
have been buried, I 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
chair by my bedside. The unhappy
victim of my unbridled 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 dairy-maid. The two former
explained how on the day of the MUIR
der they had been s:5ting 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, {" I 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
peeped out, she saw the pastor in his
dressing gown and night cap. go out into
the garden. What he did there she saw
not but about an hour afterwards she
again heard the creaking of the door.


On the following day sentence of
.,-,, ,,agaaI r,,,Oy, fha
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 I'M
lawful, he might have escaped. The
jailor was gained over, and a fisherman
had his boat in readiness for. fight to
the Swedish coast, where he would
have been beyond the reach of danger.
But Soren Ouist refused to fee. He
longed, he said, for death; and he would
not add n new stain to his reputation by
a furtive flight. He maintained his
strength of mind to the last, and from
the scaffoId he addressed the bystanders
a discourse of much power, which he
had composed in prison during his last
days. It treated of anger and its dire
full consequences, with touching allu-
sions to himself and the dreadful crime
of which his anger misled him. There
after, he doffed his coat, bound with his
own hands the napkin before his eyes,
and submitted his neck to the execu-
toner's sword.


One-and-twenty years after the pas
tor, Soren Quist of Vellby, had been
accused, tried, condemned and execu-
ted for the murder of his serving-man,
an old beggar applied for aims TO the
people of Aalsoe, the parish adjoining
to Vellby. Suspicious we're aroused by
the exact likeness the beggar bore TO
Morten Burns of Ingvorstrup, who had
lately died, and also by the curious and
anxious inquiries the man made con-
cerninR events long past. The pastor
of AalsOe, who had buried Morten
Burns, took the vagabond to his par
sonage, and there the fellow, all uncon-
scious of the pOrtentous nature of the
admission, acknowledged that he wss
Niels B rms, the very man for whose
supposed murder the pastor had suffered
the shameful death of a criminal. Had
his brother Morten survived him it is
pretty certain the truth, concealed so


Il