In the course of the protracted criminal proceedings which followed, the boy Carl Marschall was the first to confess his guilt. The Antoninis were obstinately reticent, but at last, after nineteen long examinations, Theresa, when confronted with her brother, also acknowledged her share in the deed. Antonini was persistent in his denial and sought continually to deceive the judge by a variety of lying statements, but even he yielded at last and made a disjointed but still self-incriminating confession. Husband and wife were both convicted and sentenced by the court at Nürnberg to death by the sword. Their boy accomplice, Carl Marschall, in consideration of his youth, was condemned to ten years’ imprisonment at hard labour. Antonini escaped the punishment he so well deserved by dying in prison; but his wife was not so fortunate and suffered the penalty of death upon the scaffold, hardened and unrepentant to the last. Perhaps no more brutal murder than this committed by the Antoninis has ever been recorded, though at that time, when the activities of the brigand and highway robber were not entirely suppressed, doubtless many atrocities were perpetrated, the true stories of which have remained forever in obscurity. CHAPTER V CLEVER IMPOSTORS AND SWINDLERS James Thalreuter or the “False Prince”--A notorious swindler--His early life and education--Adopted by the Stromwalters--Pledges their credit and robs their safe--Forges letter from a grand-duke--Squanders money thus obtained in wild dissipation--Makes full confession of his frauds--Sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment--“The Golden Princess,” Henrietta Wilke--Her luxurious mode of living and generosity to the poor--Curiosity as to her origin--Loans borrowed on false pretences--She is arrested--Startling revelations brought to light at her trial--Sentenced to twelve years’ penal servitude--“Prince Lahovary” or George Manolescu--Arrested in Paris at the age of nineteen charged with thirty-seven thefts--His criminal career--Campaign in America under the assumed title of “Prince Lahovary”--Imprisoned for personating the Russian general Kuropatkin--Leonhard Bollert, nicknamed the “attorney general”--A notorious criminal-adventurer who served many terms in different prisons.