"Meanwhile, on the 23rd of February, one Johel, a Jew, not evil-disposed towards the Christians, went into the Jew town through the Sommer-thor, where he met some children playing, who were relating to one another, how Simon Abeles had three days before been fresh and healthy, and had early yesterday been buried without any funeral pomp. Johel betook himself without delay to the burial-ground, and found a freshly-raised grave; reflected upon all the other circumstances and reports, and came to the sensible conclusion that Lazarus was the murderer of his son. This he confided forthwith to a writer of the royal government in great secresy. After I had received intelligence thereof, and had earnestly admonished the Jewish informer to give a faithful report; he wrote down the following day all the lamentable particulars, in order to deliver them to the most noble government. They commanded the body of Simon to be disinterred, and to be closely examined by a doctor appointed for the purpose; and finally to take into custody those who were suspected of the deed, as also their accomplices. All this was set on foot cautiously and without delay. The body was disinterred under an armed guard; the Jews who had collected, and the Jewish doctor who was called in, declared that a bad blow on the head, and lastly a fit of insanity, had killed the boy. But the medical gentlemen gave their opinion, that many indications, the broken neck and a small round wound on the temple, showed that the boy had died from a violent blow. "Thereupon Lazarus Abeles was brought to see the body of his son. He turned pale and trembled, and was so confused that he remained silent, and for a good while could not say anything intelligible, nor answer anything distinctly. At last as the Herr Commissary continued urging him to say whether he knew the body of the boy, he answered with bent head and weak voice that it was the body of his son Simon; and when it was further put to him what was the cause of the wound on the left temple, he gave a confused and contradictory answer. He was therefore again taken to prison, but the body of the boy was put into a Christian coffin, and placed meanwhile in the cellar of the council-house. The _Herren_ commissaries were unwearied in cross-questioning Christians and Jews. But in spite of all indications, Lazarus, and the women who were in special custody, Lia, his wife, and Hennele, his cook, were almost unanimous in their evidence: Simon had not taken flight from his father's house to become a Christian, but for a long time had been affected with a disease of the head, and therefore kept in the house; at last he had felt an extreme repugnance for food, had become subject to violent fits of insanity, and thus had met with his death. All means of extracting the truth were unavailing; Lazarus Abeles and the two only witnesses then known of, remained obstinate.