LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1490, 25 November 1878, Page 3

LITERATURE.

A PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEM.

By the Author of ” ASt range Witness,” “ Hands and Hearts,” &c.

( Continued .)

Fliezer Tschanderle had a hard and bad time of it. He was subjected some fifty times at least to the mortal torture of an interrogatory, based altogether upon the most absolute assumption of his guilt. All his asseverations of his innocence were of course received with withering scorn, when they did not biing down upon his devoted head the fierce auger of his righteously indignant judges. Inquiries had naturally been set on foot in Lemberg, to test the truth of his assertion that the money found upon him was his own. The result of these inquiries indisputably established the fact of his notorious comparative poverty for many years past. No one in Lemberg had ever givm him credit for the possesson of even as much as five hundred thalers in cash. How, then, could ten or eleven thousand thalers ever have found their way into his pockets ?

Of course, no rational mind could be expected to give the least heed to his brazen assertion that he had amassed this large sum by s ow stages in the course of many years, and that his natural secretiveness had kept the fact jealously from the ken of all men. Still the accused persisted in the declaration of his abs lute innocence of all and any of the murders charged against him. With impressive solemnity he called od to witness that he was speaking the truth in this, and had it been a simple question of sincerity of look and manner, his statements mast have carried conviction to the mind of the magistrates ; but unhappily for the man, it was entirely a question of facts, and these are stubborn things which cannot be brazened out of existence by the mere force of obstinate denials.

However, there was at least one of the judges, Councillor von Criegern, who did not remain altogether unimpressed by the prisoner’s passionate pleadings to place belief in his declarations, and who was indeed struck by the logical consistency of his story throughout, and by the fact that he had not once contradicted himself in even the least important detail. But the impression was net sufficiently deep and sustained to give rise to really grave doubts in Criegern’s mind. So the councillor went along with his colleagues.

Tauber stuck to his coTts. He boldly kept up his advocacy of the Jew’s innocence, and obstinately continued to light the hopeless battle against lixed public opiniou. There was yet another citizen of Leipzig who manfully stood up for Ischanderle’s innocence. This was the music master of the Thomas School, Christian Theodor Weinlich (Richard Wagner s teacher, by the bye), who had known the Galician for many years, and believed him absolutely incapable of perpetrating the truly demoniacal crimes which were laid to his change. These two earnest men succeeded in time, as earnest men almost invariably will succeed, in miking their own canvictmns pass into the minds of a few of the calmer and Jess biased of their fellow citizens ; but these seceders from universal public opinion rein lined, after ail, only a very srar.il and uniniluent.ial minority. # # # All things must and will come to an end at last. In Jane, 1825, judgment was pronounced, and sentence of death passed upon Eliezer Ischanderle of Lemberg, for that ho had, in the malignity of his heart, and insT rated thereto by the devil, at the dates and places In rcinafter duly set forth, wilfully and culpably slain, killed, and murdered the undernamed, to wit, &c., &c.

A few months later, in September, the judgment was finally confirmed by the High Court of Appeal, and the death warrant duly signed and despatched. The Jews form only a very small fraction of the population of Saxony. In 1825 there wore no more than twelve hundred Israelites to be found in the whole kingdom Their influence would not have much weight, therefore, even had they st iven to exert it in favour of their unhappy co religionist, which they, however, abstained from doing, contenting themselves with sending the rabbi of the synagogue in Leipzig to the condemned man, to give him all spiritual consolation and guidance in his power, and prepare him for death. Ischanderle, whilst declaring himself fully resigned to his fate, persisted still in the most earnest and solemn asseveration of his innocence.

Friday, the 23rd of September, 1825, was the day fixed for the execution.

On the evening of Wednesday, the 21st of the month, Mr Frege accidentally met his old friend Tauber coming from the Pleisenburg, where he had been to pay a visit of consolation to the unhappy man under sentence of death, on whom the sun would not rise again ou the third morrow after. The professor had been in a state of the wildest excitement for a week past; however, not so much on account of the approaching execution of an innocent man, as he firmly believed Ischanderle to be, but that there was a magnificent collection of books and manuscripts in the market, and he could not make up sufficient money within some two thousand thale. sto become the happy purchaser of it. Mr Frege was going to be married to one of the pre tiest and sweetest girls in Leipzig, wnom he loved dearly, and who returned his affection with equal warmth. He was correspondingly elated, and being a thoroughly good-hearted fellow, wished every one to share in his joy, more particularly his dear old friend Tauber, whom he therefore now proceeded at once to buttonhole securely, ‘ Professor,’ he cried, ‘ I have caught you, and from me you do not get away till the small hours of the morning. There is a glorious supper laid out for a dozen in the Stadt Wien, and you must make one of us. Come, come 1’ as tire professor was evidently trying to decline the invitation; ‘ come, I’ll take no denial.’

•My dear Frege,’ said the professor, ‘you must really permit me to go home first. I I will join you in an hour’s time at the Stadt Wien,’

‘ No. no, old man, you don’t. It is no go I know how you would give me the slip. No, you come along with me to the Bruhl. The fact is, I want to show you something.’ It was in vain for the professor to protest and struggle. He had to go along with his friend, who took him to his apartment in the Bruhl.

Frege led his guest into his reception room, and invited him to take a seat, ‘ I have given my servants a holiday till to-m rrow,’ he said, ‘ so we must wait upon ourselves, my dear professor. Here is a bottle of Tokay and a plate of biseuits, which will do very well to give us a zest for supper. And now Tauber,’ ha continued, after taking a glass of wine, ‘ I will snow you something precious, which I know will give you pleasure to see. Look here ’

He was rising from his chair, when he was s opped by the piofessor, who hastily exclaimed,

‘No, no, Frege, do not show me anything precious; for God’s sake do not! Ido not wish to see anything—l do not, indeed I’ ‘ Surely,’ cried the young banker, great y puzzled, ‘ I only want to show you my gift to my bride. I know you like to look at gems, and you are a judge of them, and ‘ Oh, gems !’ interrupted the professor, almost gaily. ‘ Gams! why, you may show them to me ; I do not mind looking at «ems. Tam all safe with gems—all sate, all safe. But make haste, I want my supper, and I do not like to be alone with people.’ Here the professor shuddered.

The banker was more puzzled He said nothing, however, but turned round to open an elegant Florentine cabinet. 'there was something which it evidently annoyed him to see there. ‘ Ay, ay, ay,’ he cried, with an air of vexation. ‘ I had forgotten to takethis down to the safe. Now I shall have to open all the doors again ’ And he took from the cabinet and placed on the table, an open ebony casket full of gold and notes ; then he turned round again to take out the gems which he wished the professor to see.

There were two silver chamielers on the table, each with eight branches, holding lighted wax cardies. On the left wall of the room there were three large pier-glasses, each of them flanked on both sides by chandeliers with lighted wax candles.

Just as the banker was about to bend over the cabinet to take out the casket with the gems, he quite accidentally cast his eyes sideways on one of the pier glasses, when he saw reflected in the mirror a horrible sight, which made the blood freeze in hia veins.

There stood the professor, just risen from his chair, with his face fearfully distorted, and the lurid fire of madness flaming in his eyes. It was a most dreadful transfiguration altogether. His right hand was placed beneath the skirts of his coat, which ho wore down to his heels. He rapidly drew it out. ’(here was a bright steel hammer in it, which he was swiftly raising on high moving a step forward, when the banker, with the roused instinct of self preservation, veered round with lightning speed to seize his would-be assailant by the throat, and hurl him back into the chair from which he had risen. ■ Great God! Tauber. Tauber ! What does this mean?’ exclaimed Frege, in the wildest excitement.

• Murder it means, ’ shouted the madman, * murder, I must have that gold. 1 must have that gold. I must have it for my books, and you must die. I must send you after Hoheneck, and the Bible woman, and the woolstapier, and the money lender—a goodly company, forsooth, ha, ha! Why did you show me the yellow fiend? ? I did not want to see your gold. I would not come here. I had sworn never again to be alone with a man, and you forced me. Take the consequences then. Only one of us must leave this place alive.’

Ho shouted these words with fiercest vehemence without ttopping. But all the while he was striving with superhuman strength to shake off the banker’s grip on his throat, aud to raise hi-' hammer. O ;ce or twice he was on the point of succeeding ; but Frege, a vigorous young man, who had now fully recovered his coolness, and was keenly alive to the fearful danger in which he stood, was gradually though slowly and doubtfully, getting the upper hand. He judiciously kept silent, reserving all his breath for the struggle, whilst the madman was rapidly expending his in wild shouts. Two of the banker’s invited guests had meanwhile entered the house, to see wtiether Frege was revdy to go along with them to the hotel where supper was awaiting them. When they were coming upstairs, the din of the combat and Tauber’s mad cries reached their ears. They rushed incontinently into the apartment.

(To hn Continued.')