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Frederick lay down again. "I'll see if I can sleep," he said. Margaret was sitting by the hearth. She was spinning and thinking of rather unpleasant things. The village clock struck half-past eleven; the door opened and the court-clerk, Kapp, came in. "Good day, Mrs. Mergel," he said. "Can you give me a drink of milk? I'm on my way from M." When Mrs.
It was said that this was the first time that Mergel had struck her, although she never let such an admission pass her lips. The second year of this unhappy marriage was marked by the coming of a son one cannot say gladdened, for Margaret is reported to have wept bitterly when the child was handed to her.
His Uncle Simon seldom spoke of him, and then ill. The Jew's wife finally consoled herself and took another husband. Only poor Margaret remained without consolation. About half a year afterward the lord of the estate read in the presence of the court clerk some letters just received. "Remarkable, remarkable!" he exclaimed. "Just think, Kapp, perhaps Mergel is innocent of the murder.
It is even known that one of them, commonly called "Joel the Usurer," offered one of his customers, who owed him many hundreds and whom he considered an especially sly fellow, remission of the entire sum if he could help him to arrest Mergel; for the belief was general among the Jews that the murderer could not have escaped without efficient assistance, and was probably still in the vicinity.
The young folks, to be sure, did not remember him, but the old could still recognize his features perfectly, wretchedly disfigured though he was. "John, John, how gray you've grown!" said an old woman; "and where did you get your wry neck?" "From carrying wood and water in slavery," he replied. "And what has become of Mergel? You ran away together, didn't you?"
Mergel was and remained a distressed and finally rather pitiable widower, until all of a sudden he again appeared as a bridegroom. If the event itself was unexpected, the personality of the bride added still more to the general astonishment.
Frederick's father, old Herman Mergel, was, in his bachelor days, a so-called orderly drinker that is, one who lay in the gutter on Sundays and holidays, but during the week was as well behaved as any one, and so he had had no difficulty in wooing and winning a right pretty and wealthy girl. There was great merrymaking at the wedding.
The man who had returned home was recognized as John Nobody, and he himself avowed that it was he who had once fled with Frederick Mergel. The next day the village was full of the adventures of the man who had so long been forgotten. Everybody wanted to see the man from Turkey, and they were almost surprised that he should still look like other people.
"Mistress Mergel," asked the clerk earnestly, "are you sure that Frederick came home at four and did not go away again?" She stared in his face. "Ask any child on the street. And go away? I wish to God he could!" "Didn't he tell you anything about Brandes?" "In the name of God, yes that Brandes had reviled him in the woods and reproached him with our poverty, the rascal!
I often find this out in my profession, and now I have a new proof of it. Do you know that it is possible that your dear trusty Frederick Mergel killed the Jew no more than you or I? Unfortunately proofs are lacking, but the probability is great. "Unfortunately the examination was interrupted by the noon recess and, while we were at lunch, the dog of a Jew hanged himself with a garter.
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