Year: 1870

idence of Larsen and the dairymaiC
who say that they saw me in tn


garden in the night, it is either


foul lie or it is a hellish delusior


Miserable man that am 1 have n,


one on earth to speak in my defenc


that 1 see clearly; if He in heave


likewise remains silent, have onl,


to submit to his inscrutable will


When, some weeks later, the tria


came on, two more fresh witnesse
were produced. They declared tina


on the oft-mentioned night the,


were proceeding along the roal


which runs from the pastors gardel


to the wood, when they met a maj


carrying q sack on his back, VIII,


passed them and walked on in tn


direction of the garden. His fac,


they could not see, inasmuch as i


was concealed by the overhangin,


sack2 but as the moon was shinins
on his back, they could plainly des


cry that he was clad in a pale greer


coat and a white nightcap. He dis


appeared near the pastors garder


hedge. No sooner did the pastol


hear the evidence of the witness tt


this effect than his face turned of al


ashy hue, and he cried out in F.;
faltering voice, 81 am fainting!" anC


was so prostrated in body that ht
had to be taken back to prison.
There, after a period of severe suf
fering, to the intense astonishmen'
of every one, he made, to his friend


the district magistrate who had first
arrested him, the following strange
confessiOn:-"From my childhood
as far back as l can remember, ]
have ever been passionate, quarrel
some and proud-impatient of con
tradiction, and ever ready with 6
blow. Yet have I seldom let the
sun go down on my wrath, nor have
1 borne ill-Will to any one. When
but lad I slew in anger a dos
which one day ate my dinner, which
1 had left in his way. When as
student, l went on foreign travel,
entered, on a slight provocation, in.
to broil with a German youth in
Leipsic, callenged him, and gave him
wound that endangered his life
For that deed I feel it, 1 merited
that which has now come upon me
after long years; but the punishment
falls upon my sinful head with ten
fold weight now that l am broken
down with age, a clergyman, and a
father. Oh, Father in heaven! it is
here that the wound is sorestp'


After a pause of anguish, he con
tinued:-"I will now confess the
crime which no doubt l have COM
mitted, but of which l am, neverthe-
less, not fully conscious. That
Struck the unhappy man with the
spade I know full well, and have al
ready confessed; whether it were
with the fat side or with the sharp
edge l could not in my passion dis
cern; that he then fell down, and
afterwards again rose up and ran
away-that is all that 1 know to a
surety. What followsS-heaven help
me!-four witnesses have seen;
namely, that 1 fetched the corpse
from the wood and buried it; and
that this must be substantially true
l am obliged to believe, and l will
tell you wherefore. Three or four
times in my life, that 1 know of hap
pened to me to walk in my sleep.
The last time about nine years ago },
l was next day to preach a funeral
sermon over the remains Of a man
who had unexpectedly met with a
dreadful death. l was at a loss for
a text, when the words of wise man
among the ancient Greeks suddenly
occurred to me, Call no man happy
until he is in his grave To use the
words of a heather for the text of a
Christian discourse, was not me-
thought, seemly; but then I remem-
bered that the same thought, ex-
pressed in Well-nigh the same terms,
was to be met with somewhere in
the Apocrypha. I sought, and
sought, but could not find the pas
sage. 1t was late, 1 was wearied by
much previous labor; I therefore
went to bed, and soon fell asleep.
Greatly did I marvel the next morn
ing when, on arising and seating
myself at my writing desk, 1 saw be-
fore me, written in large letters on
a piece of paper, Let no man be
deemed happy before his end cometh
(Syrach xt. BAY But not this
alone; 1 found likewise funeral dis
course-short, but as well written as
any I had ever composed-and all
in my own handwriting. In the
chamber none other than I could
have been. I knew, therefore, who
it was that had written the discourse; ;
and that it was no other than my
self. Not more than half q year
previous, I had in the same marvel
lous state, gone in the night time in
to the church, and fetched away a
handkerchief which I had left in the
chair behind the altar. Mark now
the two witnesses this morn
ing delivered their evidence before
the court, then my previous sleep
walkings suddenly flashed across me;
and have likewise called to my
mind that in the morning after the
night during which the corpse must
have been buried, I had been sur
prised to see my dressing-gow ly-
ing on the floor just inside the door,
whereas it was always my custom to
hang it on a chair by my side. The
victim of my unbridled pas
sion must, in all Likelihood, have fall
len down dead in the wood; and 1
must in my sleep-walking have fol
lowed him thither. Yes-the Lord
have mercy!-so it was, so it must
have been"


On the following day sentence of
death was passed upon the prisoner
"a sentence which many felt TO be
too severe; and which led to friend
ly conspiracy on his behalf; and had
it not been for his own refusal to be
a party to anything unlawful, he
might have escaped. The gaoler
was gained over, and a fisherman
had his boat in readiness for a fight
to the Swedish coast, where he would
have been beyond the reach of dan
ger. But Soren Qvist refused to
flee. He longed, he said, for death,


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