"But, why did you throw her cap on the sands?" questioned the frogs, the storm-birds, and the moles. "Had not I a right to do it? Hadn't I a right to prevent her from wearing the cap which disgraced her and me? Had not she brought dishonor on me once before? Was I to permit it a second time? By throwing the cap away I was only defending my honor and her virtue. I did not kill her—she alone is to blame for her death!"
"Ha, ha, ha!" sneered every animate creature. "Ha, ha, ha!" scoffed the breeze sweeping over the moor. No one—nothing in the wide world took sides with me. The elements were against me; every human being on the globe—large, small, white, black, olive-hued—all were against me. Cities, towns, villages; houses palaces, huts—all were my enemies; I must flee from every human habitation.
And yet, I am not guilty. All the world will say that I am. My wife will be missed; she was seen going away in my company; her cap will be found beside the dike. It will be said that I murdered her, and thrust her body into the quicksands.
I am not my wife's murderer. Did no one see her thrust me over the dike? Will no one testify for me?
A fluttering wing brushed my cheek:
"Ah, my white dove! Are you there? You will speak for me. You will tell all the world that I am innocent—that I did not murder my wife?"
Filled with hope and joy, I turned my eyes toward my shoulder. The white dove was not perched there, but a coal black raven, and he croaked:
"Thou didst it!"
"At last," exclaimed the mayor as he shook the ink from the pen with which he had authenticated the protocol. "At last we have a confession that cannot be rendered invalid by a pharasaical referrata mentalis! At last the executioner will get something to do! Uxoricidium aequale: quartering, praecedente: the right hand to be severed from the wrist."
"I don't agree with your honor," interposed the prince. "There is a law that was promulgated by Sanctus Ladislaus rex—he was a Hungarian king, to be sure, but he is a saint for all that; and because he was canonized his law is held sacred by all christendom; it reads something like this: 'If a man finds his wife guilty of infidelity, and takes her life, he is answerable to God alone for the deed—'"