And it was exactly a year that day since they had elected him as Sheriff and installed him in office in the churchyard. Wherefore the carpenters, with the waggon drawn by six horses and laden with a heap of fine hornbeams, again drew up in front of the churchyard, and there they made a pile of the wood and burnt Michael Dóronczius upon it, as they told him they would beforehand.
But, by way of a memorial of the sad treachery, they walled up the gate of the Green Springs, and drew a couple of trenches in front of it, with deep moats guarding them, so that none might get in that way again.
After this event Joseph Sándor settled again in the city of Caschau, and lived there for a long time till he became an old man, but he never married.
This also they said, at a later day, that one night Catharine's body was dug up from its grave beneath the gibbet and buried in a more godly place, which none wots of save he who buried it there.
Whether it were true or not, nobody could say for certain, for that which is under the earth is the secret of the dark earth known only to the Almighty, and may His gracious protection rest over our poor town and over our hundred-fold more unfortunate country!
IV
THE JUSTICE OF SOLIMAN—A TURKISH STORY
In the days of Sultan Soliman the Magnificent there lived at Stambul a rich merchant whose name was Muhzin, who traded in jewels and precious stones. This man had a dear consort—Eminha—whom he loved better than all his precious stones, whose red lips he prized beyond the brightness of his rubies, the sparkle of whose eyes excelled the brilliance of his diamonds, and the speech of whose lips was like a silver bell. He would not have bartered those eyes and those lips for all the treasures of the world.
But, alas! those sparkling eyes, those sweet lips were but corruptible treasures. The breath of a breeze from the Morea, which brought the pestilence along with it, robbed Muhzin of his treasure, and cast a cloud over those star-bright eyes, a dumbness upon those speaking lips. What Muhzin would not have given away for all this world's goods he gave to Death for nothing, and they buried his treasure in the ungrateful Earth, which gives back nothing, not even thanks for what you give her.
Worthy Muhzin wept sore because of this loss; he would neither eat nor drink, and sleep forsook him. Night after night he went on to the roof of his house, and wept and wept till dawn.