"Stop, stop," cried the fellow, "O most learned sir, spare me. I know thou knowest all things. I confess my sins, and oh, I promise you I shall mend my ways. Stop, I pray."
"There is still one ray of hope for thee," said I, "but I cannot give my word that thou shalt ever gain it, for thou hast advanced too far in sin already. But yet thou mayest escape, and there is but one way to set about it—namely, to tell me of all thy wickedness. I adjure thee, by the sacred sign Tekel, which the Chaldaeans used of old; by Men, which was the sign of the Egyptians; by the Eikon of the Greeks; by the Lar of the Romans. I summon thee by the holy names of God, Tetragrammaton, Adonay, Algramay, Saday, Sabaoth, Planaboth, Pantbon, Craton, Neupmaton, Deus, Homo, Omnipotens; by Asmath, the name of the Evil One, who is lord over thee and my slave—I summon thee to tell me all thy deeds."
The man was frightened past all telling. He tried to crawl to my knees, and began a recital of all manner of crimes and peccadilloes, from his boyhood till the present hour. I listened without interest.
"Had any Scot a part with thee in this night's work?" I asked.
"No, there was none. There were but Bol and Delvaux beside myself, both Dutch born and bred."
My mind was lightened. I never really believed my cousin to have had any part in such a matter, but I was glad to know it for truth.
"You may go now," I said, "go and repent, and may God blast thee with all his fire if thou turnest thy hand to evil again. By the bye, thy name? I must have it from thy own lips."
"Jan Hamman, your lordship," said he.
"Well, God pity thee, Jan Hamman, if ever I lay my hand on thee again. Be off now."
He was off in a twinkling, running for his very life. Nicol and I remounted, and rode onward, coming to Leyden at the hour of one on the Sabbath morning—a thing which I much regretted.