d gossip that is going
about in the district. Morten Bruus is reported to have said that "he
would force the rector to bring back his brother, if he had to dig him
out of the earth." The fellow may be in hiding somewhere, possibly at
Ingvorstrup. He has certainly disappeared completely, and no one seems
to know where he is. My poor betrothed is much grieved and worried.
She is alarmed by bad dreams and by presentiments of evil to come.

God have mercy on us all! I am so overcome by shock and horror that I
can scarcely hold the pen. It has all come in one terrible moment,
like a clap of thunder. I take no account of time, night and morning
are the same to me and the day is but a sudden flash of lightning
destroying the proud castle of my hopes and desires. A venerable man
of God--the father of my betrothed--is in prison! And as a suspected
murderer! There is still hope that he may be innocent. But this hope
is but as a straw to a drowning man. A terrible suspicion rests upon
him----And I, unhappy man that I am, must be his judge. And his
daughter is my betrothed bride! May the Saviour have pity on us!

It was yesterday that this horrible thing came. About half an hour
before sunrise Morten Bruus came to my house and had with him the
cotter Jens Larsen of Veilbye, and the widow and daughter of the
shepherd of that parish. Morten Bruus said to me that he had the
Rector of Veilbye under suspicion of having killed his brother Niels.
I answered that I had heard some such talk but had regarded it as idle
and malicious gossip, for the rector himself had assured me that the
fellow had run away. "If that was so," said Morten, "if Niels had
really intended to run away, he would surely at first come to me to
tell me of it. But it is not so, as these good people can prove to
you, and I demand that you shall hear them as an officer of the law."

"Think well of what you are doing," I said. "Think it over well,
Morten Bruus, and you, my good people. You are bringing a terrible
accusation against a respected and unspotted priest and man of God. If
you can prove nothing, as I strongly suspect, your accusations may
cost you dear."

"Priest or no priest," cried Bruus, "it is written, 'thou shalt not
kill!' And also is it written, that the authorities bear the sword of
justice for all men. We have law and order in the land, and the
murderer shall not escape his punishment, even if he have the district
judge for a son-in-law."

I prete