thout any ulterior design at first; but presently
it occurred to him that it might be well to talk in the same strain
before the judge. He therefore spoke at great length,--for lies are
easier when you have practised them than when they appear as first
efforts.

Not more than fifty florins had been found in Florian's possession; and
these, he said, he had won at play at the Horb fair. Besides the
perforated dollar, an important circumstance going to show his guilt
was the wedding-cake found in the yard: several of the girls had seen
the bride give him the present. Florian denied every thing. He had
heard somewhere that "denial was lawful in Wurtemberg;" and this maxim
comprised his entire knowledge of jurisprudence.

Many of the villagers, who previously would never have allowed
themselves to suspect any evil of Florian, now boasted loudly that they
had said ten years ago that Florian would come to no good, and revived
the memory of all the forgotten, pranks of his boyhood.

Florian meditated a flight. One night he pulled down the tile stove
which stood at the wall of his cell and formed a part of it, and
escaped by the hole thus made in the wall. His escape was just like the
crime. This brought him to the corridor, but no farther. It was locked;
and to jump out of the window was as much as his life was worth. His
eye fell on a broom which stood in a corner. Without hesitation, he
opened the window, pressed the end of the broom into the corner formed
by the junction of the tower with the side-building, balanced himself
on the handle, and slid down to the ground.

The watchman had seen him; but he crossed himself three times and ran
up the nearest alley,--for he had beheld the devil himself riding
through the air on a broomstick.

Thus Florian was free, Running up the street, he crept into a covered
sewer, tore up the earth with his hands, found the money, and ran off
through the woods.

During his imprisonment, Crescence's mother had died, and the Red
Tailor, forced to yield to one of those general bursts of neighborly
feeling which are the relieving features of village life, had allowed
his daughter to return to his house.

In the night of Florian's escape she awoke from her sleep in terror.
She had dreamed that Florian had called her out to dance, and, do what
she would, she could not get her stocking on her foot. Weeping, she sat
up in her bed and spoke the prayer for the poor souls in purgatory.
Hearing the