d from their
arrest. But this affair worked seriously in the head of the King's
judge; he took it to heart that he had been so ignominiously led astray
by his ideas, and feared that the upshot would bring him to eternal
ridicule. He paced up and down the room, murmuring to himself; at last
he said: 'Give me somewhat to eat.' When the table was spread, and
dinner served up by his maid-servant and children,--a dish of crab, a
piece of white bread and cheese and butter,--the worthy gentleman waxed
wrath, took first the good bread, then the tin butter-mould with the
butter, and threw them out of the window into the marketplace; he threw
the crab also all about the room, and seized upon the sausage which was
also on the table, which the children would gladly have had, being
hungry, as they had eaten nothing the whole day. Nay, he was so furious
that he ran out of the room, dashing down the dishes and saucepans, and
all that came to his hand, so that a great concourse of neighbours was
brought together. After that, he ran up to his room and went on calling
out and conducting himself as if it was full of people. The following
morning he rose betimes and stole away, having delivered over his
office to Dr. Melchior.

"That day the other gentlemen rested till towards evening; then the
priest sent for the beadle, and commanded him to summon in his name and
that of Dr. Melchior, as the vice King's judge, the wife of the
burgomaster and the frau Geneussin to come to him at the parsonage
early in the morning after mass. This the beadle did. The burgomaster's
wife answered: 'Yea, yea, I will come, but I will first tell my
lord.' But when the beadle came to Frau Geneussin, and announced the
same to her, her son-in-law was with her, Herr Krekler, who was
afterwards burgomaster, who thus answered for her: 'Are the priest
and Dr. Melchior your masters? Are they the masters of my honoured
mother-in-law? Reply that she will not come without the commands of the
burgomaster.' This the beadle told to the burgomaster, who reflected
thereupon, and at last said: 'For my part they may go, I am content, so
the blame cannot be laid upon me.'

"On Friday morning, at the appointed hour, the wife of the burgomaster
went to the priest and likewise the judge's wife, who however was not
summoned, together with Frau Geneussin. Then the priest began to speak
with them in the most friendly way; he begged them very politely to
conform and accept the only ho