Year: 1875

ready with blow. When but lad /
slew in anger a dog which one day ate
my dinner that had left in his way. As
student, in broil with German
youth, ] gave him wound that endan-
gered his life. / will now confess the
crime which, no doubt, have committed
but of which l am, nevertheless, not
fully conscious. Three or four times in
my life, that / know of, ii has happened
to me to walk in my sleep. The last
time, about nine years ago, / was the
next day to preach a funeral sermon
over the remains OF man who had sud-
denly met with dreadful death. / was
at loss for text, when the words of
wise man among the ancient Greeks sud-
denly occurred to me: Call 10 man
happy until he be in his grave;' and /
then remembered that the same thoughts
in we'll nigh the same terms, was to be
met with in the Apocrypha. sought and
sought, but could not find them, and being
tired, went to bed, and soon fell asleep.
Greatly did I marvel the next morning
to find on my writing-desk, written in
large letters on piece of paper: Let
no man be deemed happy before his end
cometh.' (Syrach XI, 34.) But not
this alone; found likewise funeral
sermon, all in my own handwriting,
which could have been composed by
no other than myself. Mark now-when
the witnesses testified this morning, my
sleep.walking suddenly flashed across
me, and / likewise called to mind that,
in the morning after that night, / had
been surprised to see my dressing-gown
lying on the floor, instead of hanging on
the chair by my bedside, where always
hang it. The unhappy victim of my
unbridled passion must have fallen down
dead in the wood, and must in my sleep
walking have followed him thither. Yes,
the Lord have mercy! so it was; so it
must have been."


The clergyman, upon his own confes-
sion, was condemned to death. Before
his decapitation, he warned the specta-
tors of the danger of yielding to anger,
and acknowledged the justice of the pen
atty he was about to suffer. Then he
took off his coat, bound his own eyes
with handkerchief, AMI knelt to receive
the blow. In another moment the sword
severed his head from his body.


Twenty-one years passed. Burns the
accuser was dead, as were most of those
who had taken part in the trial. An old
begyar applied for aims to the minister
of the next parish, who proved to be the
very man who was supposed to have
been murdered and buried by Soren
Qvist! Upon being questioned, he
stated that, after the quarrel with the
pastor, he had told his brother of what
had happened, and, after midnight, they
had disinterred a suicide buried where
the roads met, dressed him in clothes
worn by himself, battered his face with 6
spade, taken the pastors dressing-gowr
and cap from his room, and, while thus
clad, one of them had carried the body
into the pastors garden. That done
Burns had said to his brother:


"And now you go your way Here il
purse with q hundred dollars, make tol
the frontier, take another name, ant
never set foot on Danish soil again, as yol
would answer it with your life."


The man did as he was told enlisted
for soldier; lost limb; and returned
to his native parish, a wreck of his former
self. Ignorant of his brothers designs
and of all the subsequent proceeding
he related his own part in the transac
tion without reserve.


This is the only instance known, l be
lieve, in which evidence has convinced
an innocent prisoner that he was guilt!
of the crime of which he was accused.