Told by the Death's Head Part 2

Again the court-room resounded with laughter; the prisoner on the rack, as well as the skull on the table, again joined in the merriment. Everybody seemed in a good humor--that is, everybody but the mayor. He alone was grave.

After the signal to the executioner the fourth question followed:

"Of what crimes are you guilty?"

(For the purpose of greater perspicuity the chair dictated to the recording secretary the Latin nomenclature of the crimes confessed.)

Prisoners: "I was a member of a band of robbers and incendiaries."

"_Primo, latrocinium_," dictated the chair.

Prisoner: "I won the affections of my benefactor's wife."

Chair: "_Secundo, adulterium._"

Prisoner: "I robbed a church."

Chair: "_Tertio, sacrilegium._"

Prisoner: "I masqueraded as a n.o.bleman under a false name."

Chair: "_Quarto, larvatus._"

Prisoner: "I committed a forgery."

Chair: "_Quinto, falsorium._"

Prisoner: "I killed my friend in a duel."

Chair: "_s.e.xto, homicidium ex duello._"

Prisoner: "I cheated my partners in business."

Chair: "_Septimo, stellionatus._"

Prisoner: "I betrayed state secrets confided to me."

Chair: "_Octavo, felonia._"

Prisoner: "I used for my own purpose money belonging to others."

Chair: "_Nono, barattaria._"

Prisoner: "I wors.h.i.+pped idols."

Chair: "_Decimo, idololatria._"

Prisoner: "I married a second wife while the first was still living."

Chair: "_Undecimo, bigamia._"

Prisoner: "I also took a third, fourth, fifth and sixth wife."

Chair: "_Eodem numero trigamia, polygamia._"

Prisoner: "I murdered a king."

Chair: "_Decimo secundo, regicidium._"

Prisoner: "I have been a pirate."

Chair: "_Decimo tertia, pirateria._"

Prisoner: "I killed my first wife."

Chair: "_Decimo quarto, uxoricidium._"

Prisoner: "I practiced conjuring."

Chair: "_Decimo quinto, sorcellaria._"

Prisoner: "I have been in league with Satan."

Chair: "_Decimo s.e.xto, pactum diabolic.u.m implicitum._"

Prisoner: "I have coined base money."

Chair: "_Decimo septimo, adulterator monetarium._"

Prisoner: "I preached a new faith."

Chair: "_Decimo octavo, haeresis schisma._"

Prisoner: "I have been a quack doctor."

Chair: "_Decimo nono, veneficus._"

Prisoner: "I betrayed a fortress intrusted to my guardians.h.i.+p."

Chair: "_Vigesimo, crimen traditorum._"

Prisoner: "I have eaten human flesh."

Chair: "_Vigesimo primo, anthropophagia. Cannibalismus!_" cried the mayor in a loud tone, bringing his fist with considerable force down on the pandects lying before him on the table. The perspiration was rolling in great beads over his forehead.

The prisoner on the rack laughed heartily; but this time no one laughed with him. The executioner had mistaken the chief's wink for a signal to turn the wheel, which he did, and the sound which came from the victim's throat was a strange mixture of merriment and agony--as if he were being tickled and strangled at the same moment.

What the chief's dictation was really intended to signify was that the proceedings were concluded for the day; that the accused should be released from the rack and taken back to his dungeon.