give you a pretty Rieke! I'll serve up a fat goose for you!"
Hugo continued to laugh while the bailiffs were placing the fetters on his hands and feet.
As if to complete the evidence against him, there came hissing at that moment a fire-pot from the French camp. When it was opened and the earthen plate removed it was found to contain two hundred Albert thalers!
CHAPTER II.
THE TRIAL.
The hand with the two lines under it signifies, in the court records (for the sake of brevity), that at this point in the trial, the chief of the tribunal gave the signal to the executioner for another turn of the wheel. When this had been done, the notary would take down the confession until the prisoner on the rack would cry out:
"Have mercy!—compassion!"
The prince was seated at a separate table, on a black-draped throne-like arm-chair with a canopy.
The mayor occupied the inquisitor's chair.
First question addressed to the accused:
"What is your name?"
"My name, in Podolia, is 'Jaroslav Tergusko;' in Zbarasz it is 'Zdenko Kohaninsky;' in Odessa it is 'Frater Hilarius;' in Hamburg, 'Elias Junker;' in Münster it is 'William Stramm;' in Amsterdam, 'Mynheer Tobias van der Bullen;' in Singapore, 'Maharajah Kong;' on the high seas, 'Captain Rouge;' in The Hague, it is 'Ritter Malchus;' in Lille, 'Chevalier de Mont Olympe;' in Pfalz, 'Doctor Sarepta;' here, I am called 'Hugo von Habernik.'
"Have you any more names?" inquired the chair.
At this question everybody began to laugh—the prince, the judges, the prisoner, even the skull on the table. The chair alone remained grim and dignified.
"I can't remember any more of my names," was the prisoner's reply.
SECOND QUESTION:
"What is your religion?"
"I was born an Augsburg Confession heretic. When I went to Cracow I became a Socinian; in the Ukraine I joined the Greek church; afterward I became an orthodox Catholic; later, a Rosicrucian; then a Quaker. I have also professed the faith of Brahma; and once I was a member of the community of Atheists and devil-worshipping Manichees, called also Cainists."
"A fine array, truly!" commented the chair, as the notary entered the list in the register.
THIRD QUESTION:
"What is your occupation, prisoner?"
"I have been ensign; prisoner; slave; robber-chief; parasite; ducal grand-steward; mendicant friar; recruiting sergeant; sacristan; knight; shell-fish dealer; stock-jobber; ship-captain; viceroy; pirate; teacher; knacker's assistant; conjuror; bocksritter; hangman; pikeman; quack-doctor; prophet; constable—"
"Stop! Stop!" interrupted the chair. "The notary cannot keep up with you."
Again the court-room resounded with laughter; the prisoner on the rack, as well as the skull on the table, again joined in the merriment. Everybody seemed in a good humor—that is, everybody but the mayor. He alone was grave.
After the signal to the executioner the fourth question followed:
"Of what crimes are you guilty?"
(For the purpose of greater perspicuity the chair dictated to the recording secretary the Latin nomenclature of the crimes confessed.)
Prisoners: "I was a member of a band of robbers and incendiaries."
"Primo, latrocinium," dictated the chair.
Prisoner: "I won the affections of my benefactor's wife."
Chair: "Secundo, adulterium."
Prisoner: "I robbed a church."
Chair: "Tertio, sacrilegium."
Prisoner: "I masqueraded as a nobleman under a false name."
Chair: "Quarto, larvatus."
Prisoner: "I committed a forgery."
Chair: "Quinto, falsorium."
Prisoner: "I killed my friend in a duel."
Chair: "Sexto, homicidium ex duello."
Prisoner: "I cheated my partners in business."
Chair: "Septimo, stellionatus."
Prisoner: "I betrayed state secrets confided to me."
Chair: "Octavo, felonia."
Prisoner: "I used for my own purpose money belonging to others."
Chair: "Nono, barattaria."
Prisoner: "I worshipped idols."
Chair: "Decimo, idololatria."
Prisoner: "I married a second wife while the first was still living."
Chair: "Undecimo, bigamia."
Prisoner: "I also took a third, fourth, fifth and sixth wife."
Chair: "Eodem numero trigamia, polygamia."
Prisoner: "I murdered a king."
Chair: "Decimo secundo, regicidium."
Prisoner: "I have been a pirate."
Chair: "Decimo tertia, pirateria."
Prisoner: "I killed my first wife."
Chair: "Decimo quarto, uxoricidium."
Prisoner: "I practiced conjuring."
Chair: "Decimo quinto, sorcellaria."
Prisoner: "I have been in league with Satan."
Chair: "Decimo sexto, pactum diabolicum implicitum."
Prisoner: "I have coined base money."
Chair: "Decimo septimo, adulterator monetarium."
Prisoner:
