Told by the death's head

Stay, Constable, I want to see what you put into that fire pot—open it
A ROMANTIC TALE
BY MAURUS JÓKAI
TRANSLATED BY S. E. BOGGS
Translator of Prof. Haeckel's India and Ceylon, Maurus Jokai's The Nameless Castle, etc.
ILLUSTRATED
Copyright, 1902, BY THE SAALFIELD PUBLISHING COMPANY
MADE BY THE WERNER COMPANY AKRON, OHIO
In Part II, Vol. 2, of the Rhenish Antiquarius , I once came across a skull that is said—see page 612—to swing, enclosed in a metal casket, from an iron bar in the foundry of Ehrenbreitstein fortress. Distinction of this order does not fall to an ordinary mortal. Yon empty shell of human wisdom once bore the burden of no less than twenty-one mortal sins—the seven originalia trebled. Each crime is noted. The criminal confessed to the entire three-times-seven, and yet the death sentence was not passed upon him because of the twenty-one crimes. His fate was decided by the transgression of a military regulation.
What if this skull could speak? What if it could defend itself?—relate, with all the grim humor of one on the rack, the many pranks played—the mad follies committed, from the banks of the Weichsel to the delta of the Ganges!
If my highly esteemed readers will promise to give me their credulous attention, I will relate what was told to me by the death's head.