“Eh! mine Got, did not Ich tell dee de troot, Mynheer Spears! I do know him to be a tafe. Ha, ha! Er wird be hanged, and Ich werde have all de trade Ich selbst!” cried the rival German armourer, with a joy which he could not contain.
“Silence, fellow, and respect the court,” cried Sang, in a [[320]]tone of authority. “Canst thou explain how thou hadst this leathern purse, Master Martellino?” continued he. “By St. Andrew, if thou canst not, it will go hard with thee.”
“Ah, si, signor,” replied Martellino, with a face of joy, “de page of dy vorship, de good Signor Lees, he happain to be vid me in my shop at de time after I did sell de great armour to de big gigante, and he did see him give to me de posse of gold dat is dere—van fifty broad piece of gold.”
“That is thy mother’s sum to a tittle,” said Sang, addressing Rory. “But how camest thou to receive so much money from the dastard knave for a suit of armour?” continued he, putting the question to the Italian.
“He did bribe me to give him van of mine vaine horses, dat do carry mine goods,” replied the Italian; “and he did give me de posse and de money and all.”
Archibald Lees vouched for the truth of all this; and some one in the crowd, who had been in Forres during the fire, had remarked the uncouth and gigantic figure as it glided into the old bedrid woman’s house; and having been struck with the strangeness of its appearance, had particularly remembered its passing speedily out again in great haste. Another remembered that the false knight and his two accomplices had lodged in a house of entertainment next door to Elspeth Spears’ house; and it was even supposed by many that they had aided the conflagration, after it was begun by the Wolfe of Badenoch and his party.
All was now clear, and the upright judge proceeded to pronounce his decision.
“Let the money be forthwith told over, and let it, and the bag that holds it, be restored to Master Roderick Spears, as custos thereof for his aged mother. Let the armour, the which hath been gathered piecemeal from the plain, be restored to the rightful owner, Signor Andria Martellino; and let him have our judgment-seat also, sith it doth of right belong to him. I do hereby absolve him from all coulpe. Albeit he is sharp enow in a bargain, verily I believe he would hardly steal. As for thee, Mynheer Eisenfelsenbroken, I shall only say that thy zeal to further justice was rather of the eagerest, and mought have been more creditable to thee had not the culprit, against whom thou wert so ready to witness, been thy rival in trade. Thy conduct will doubtless have its weight with all good men. And now I dissolve the court,” added he, jumping from the dray-horse, and proceeding to mount his own charger, which the page held for him. [[321]]
The German went grumbling away, disappointed wickedness giving a blacker hue to his swarthy face.
“Ah, Signor Sang,” exclaimed the Italian, coming up to him with tears of gratitude in his eyes; “dou hast been mine good friend; dou hast vin dine armour. Here is de money—here is de price thou deedst pay me. Take it back.”