Fantasy fiction; Ghost stories; Horror tales; Paranormal fiction; Short stories; Storytelling -- Fiction
"'Then you know each other,' said I to my friend the second friar, and I
sought to bring them together, but my friend, after eyeing the former
from head to foot, denied all knowledge of him. The first friar then
somewhat confusedly stammered an excuse, saying that he had spoken
without thinking, but that he had intended to say St. Mary's, another
Capuchin convent, six miles further off. Then my friend the second friar
said that he knew all the friars at St. Mary's, but still denied that he
knew this one.
"The former began to mumble that he had only lately arrived, and began
to turn the conversation. My friend whispered to me that he didn't
believe he was a friar at all, but someone in disguise. After my friend
had left, the former friar called for more beer (I never saw a friar
drink so much beer as this one), and being curious to discover who the
man was I tried to draw him out. At first he answered cautiously, but
after drinking deeper he became less cautious and more confidential, but
his utterance was now thick and unintelligible. He drew his chair closer
to mine, and seemed about to let me into some secret, when some other
customers of mine at the next table began to talk about the murder.
"I noticed that the would-be friar started, and instead of continuing
his conversation with me, got up suddenly and muttered some excuse for
taking his departure. He paid me hurriedly by lying down a Reichsgulden,
saying that whatever change there might be I might keep for myself. He
had hardly left my house when certain of the guard who had been on the
track of the murderer stopped to question him, and finding he could give
no satisfactory account of himself, took him into custody."
Other witnesses were then examined in their turn, among which were
certain members of the family of the murdered count, and a certain
Fraulein von Berlichingen, his affianced bride, all of whom recognised
the body to be that of the missing Graf von Waffenburg. The silken purse
with silver beads picked up by the first witness was also recognised by
Fraulein von Berlichingen as having been knitted by herself and
presented by her to her lover.
The remains of the murdered count were decently interred. The melancholy
event caused no small commotion in the neighbourhood. The funeral was
followed by a large crowd of relatives and intimate friends, among which
were our two heroes Fritz and Ludwig. The grief of Fraulein von
Berlichingen was too great to allow her to appear at the funeral. She
was inconsolable, and shortly afterwards entered a convent.
But to return to the trial.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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