"By such unexpected answers and heroic resolution, he drew tears from the eyes of all present. But when he was commanded to put his clothes on again, he soon dressed himself, and declared in strong words, which he oft repeated, that he withdrew from the Jews on account of their wicked course of life, and associated himself with Christians to secure his salvation, because he knew well it was impossible to be blessed without faith. But when he was asked who had taught him, that faith was necessary to gain eternal life, he answered seven or eight times: 'God, God, God alone,' therewith he oft sighed and smote his breast with both hands. Then he went first to one priest, then to another, kissed their hands, fell on his knees to them, exclaiming: 'Fathers, abandon me not; do not reject me, do not send me again among the Jews; instruct me quickly, quickly and' (as if he had a foreboding, and saw the impending evil floating before his eyes), 'baptize me quickly.' Now when Simon received the assurance that he would be reckoned among the scholars in the Christian faith, he clapped his hands, and jumped for joy. His whole discourse was as mature and discreet, as ready and free from hesitation, as if he had long beforehand reflected upon it in his mind, and learnt it by heart from his tablets, so that one of the four priests present turned with astonishment to another, and said in Latin: 'This boy has a miraculous understanding, which if not supernatural, is yet truly beyond his age.'
"Meanwhile, the darkness of night had come on. But as there was not convenient sleeping room at present for this new little Nicodemus, he was with much inward striving of my spirit, left again in that Christian house from whence he had been brought hither, in order to spend the night in peace with the newly baptized Jew, George Kawka. This one was called to the door of the college, and the boy was intrusted to him, with an express order to bring him again to the college at the earliest hour on the following morning, that they might provide him with a secure dwelling.
"In the interim, Lazarus became aware of the absence of his son. Not finding him either with his friends nor among other Jews, and being a person of sound judgment, it occurred to him that his son must have gone over to the Christians. Early on Sunday Lazarus betook himself to the Christian house of the glove-maker Hoffmann, whom he did not find at home. He concealed the loss of his son and his sorrow, and begged the glove-maker's wife Anna, instantly to call George Kawka there, because he had some weighty business to transact with him who was his debtor. After a long Hebrew conversation with Lazarus, George Kawka came in all haste to the college, but to my great sorrow, unaccompanied by the Christian disciple. He appeared painfully disquieted, but did not tell me a word of his conference with the father, but only said that Simon was not sufficiently secure in his dwelling, and that it was necessary to take good heed, or he would be entrapped by the crafty devices of the Jews. After a sharp reproof for not bringing the boy with him when in such danger, according to my strict orders, I commanded him to go to the house forthwith and bring the boy hither. This he promised but did not perform. Now when George Kawka returned home, he pretended that he wished to go to church, and Simon prayed of him, as though he foreboded some impending treachery, with many words and tears, not to leave him behind, as the Jews would without fail lie in wait for him that day, and seize him in the house; but that he would take him with him to church and so bring him to the college. Now when he with great sorrow of spirit perceived that George Kawka only answered with subterfuges, he withdrew himself again, after the departure of the same, into his hiding-place under the roof.
"Hardly had George crossed the threshold, when Katherina Kanderowa, a lodger, came from the country into her lodging-room, which was close to Simon's hiding-place, and saw the boy in his little Jewish coat, which he had again been obliged to put on. As therefore the said Katherina understood from the Jews who were standing round the house-door that they were seeking for the son of a Jew, who had fled from his father, and as she did not know that Simon was a disciple of the Christian faith, she drew him out of his corner, and dragged him down to the front part of the house. When the father saw his son, he presented to this woman thirty silver groschen, that she might thrust the boy, who was not strong enough to free himself from her hands, over the threshold. The boy called upon the Christians to support him against such violence, but in vain, for two robust Jews seized upon him each by an arm, and bore him along as if he floated through the air, to the Jew town and his father's house. But the father went craftily step by step slowly behind, in order to chat with the Christians, and make them believe that his son had only fled to the Christians, in order to escape lawful and deserved punishment. He easily persuaded the populace of this.
"But George Kawka betook himself after the end of this tragedy to me, and related the lamentable kidnapping of Simon with many light worthless excuses. But I spoke sharply to him, put clearly before his eyes, how evident it was that he had played with the Jews under the rose, and sternly charged him if he would not be made answerable before the tribunal, for the treacherous betrayal of Simon, to use all means without delay, and on the requisition of a Christian judge to recover him from the hand, of the Jews, and deliver him up to the college. And truly it appeared as if he obeyed the command faithfully and assiduously. Ha searched the whole Jew town many days, and examined almost all the houses, as was testified of him by the person who accompanied and was associated with him. He thereby turned almost all the suspicion of treachery from him; and as Simon was nowhere to be found, he confirmed the report that he had secretly been removed to Poland. At a later period, George Kawka himself was driven, by a bad conscience to take refuge in Poland, and has remained invisible to this day.
"But Simon was dragged with violence to his father's house, and after that day, was never seen outside the threshold. After their arrival at home, the father could no longer control his anger, and beat his son with a stick so savagely, that the Jews present began already to fear that he would kill him. They therefore locked up Simon in a room in which lived Sarah Bresin, afterwards a witness. But the father endeavoured to break open the door of the room by repeatedly running at it with violence, and at last angrily left the house. When his anger was a little allayed, the Jews gave up to him the severely-beaten boy, advising to tame him by fasting. So Simon was locked up in another room. There he passed seven painful months, in hunger and imprisonment, daily loaded with curses and oft threatened with death. But when the father saw that his son's spirit was inflexible, and that on the Saturday before Shrove Sunday, Simon again, before all the family, declared undauntedly, that he would be baptized; he determined to go to extremities. And that affection might not restrain his hand, he chose for assistant a Jew, Levi Kurtzhandl, a man of savage spirit and in the vigour of youth, who had already before advised him to poison the boy. Levi Kurtzhandl invited the boy into the room of his step-mother, and held converse with him out of the Talmud, in order to convert him. But when Simon persevered in his intentions, he was knocked down by Levi, and dragged by him and the father into the next room; there both fell upon him furiously, broke his neck, and drove his head violently against the corner of a wooden chest, whereby the glorious soldier of Christ received a last blow on the left side of the temple.
"Whilst this barbarity was going on, Lia, the stepmother of Simon, together with the journeyman Rebbe Liebmann, were occupied in the next room making gloves. On hearing the moaning of the boy, and the noise of the murderers, she hastened into the room. There she saw the dead body on the floor, and both the murderers on their knees by him. Thereupon the woman was so frightened, that she fainted, and had to be restored to her senses by Kurtzhandl pouring vinegar over her.
"After the deed, Hennele, Lazarus's cook, came back, who had been sent out of the house with the little children. These, when supper-time was approaching, inquired where Simon was. They were obliged to take an oath to keep the affair secret; whereupon, their father himself told them that he, with Levi Kurtzhandl, had deprived the boy of life as an apostate from the law of Moses, after the example of the patriarch Phineas.
"After that, Lazarus took counsel with Levi how to keep the crime secret, not only from the Christians, but also from the Jews, especially from the family of Burianer, who were very hostile to all that belonged to the Abeles. Levi offered while it was yet night, to carry the body of Simon to his own house, and bury it himself in the cellar. But Lazarus feared lest some of the Burian adherents should discover it. They therefore decided on having the corpse buried in the public burial-ground of the Jews. And truly, the neck of the body was discoloured with blood, but otherwise there was no open wound to be seen, with the exception of a blow on the left temple of about the size of a ducat; so Lazarus called his household together, instructed and made them swear, that they would say unanimously that Simon had become insane, and in that state had fallen against the corner of the chest, whereby he had been mortally wounded on the left temple.
"On the following morning early, this glorious soldier of Christ was buried in great secrecy by two Jews, Jerochem and Hirsches Kesserlas, the coroners.