for, after all, it's hard to die on an empty stomach, said the executioner.

[Pg 167]

This greatly amused the robber, who laughed; and then the others began to laugh, so that their laughter could be heard all over the forest.

"Have you never had a good feed, poor wretches?" he asked. "Well, I'll be extravagant for once in my life. So come along, and you shall have as much as you can put into your carcases. But to tell the truth, nobody who falls in with me, need trouble much about food for the rest of their life," he said; and so he laughed, and then the other robbers laughed till the forest trembled.

They then set out for the robbers' cave, and there they lifted up the trap-door, and slid down under the ground one after the other, and the two tramps as well.

There was a large room down there, and a long table in the middle, which stood ready laid. The woman with the sooty face carried in the food on silver dishes to the robbers, who sat side by side on the bench along the wall. They feasted and drank burnt brandy out of large chalices, and talked and bragged about all their valiant deeds, while they were having their fill.

When the robbers had had enough both of food and drink, the tramps were allowed to sit down to the table, but on the opposite side to the robbers.

The woman put both beef and pork before them, and each of them got his cup filled with brandy.[Pg 168] But no sooner had she placed the food on the table than matters took quite a different turn. They planted their feet firmly on the ground, and pushed the table with such force against the robbers, that they were fixed against the wall as if they were nailed to it. Then they threw the brandy into the robbers' eyes, and the king drew forth his sword and the executioner his axe, and before the robbers could rub the brandy out of their eyes they were all killed.

This was a big capture, and no mistake; and the king was greatly pleased with it. All that was found in the robbers' cave he wanted to give to the executioner; but "no thank you," he answered, "there was something else he would like to have."

"Well, what might that be?" asked the king.

"Well, your majesty," he said, "if an executioner becomes ever so rich he's always looked upon as a butcher; and the people spit after him just as if he were a knacker or Old Nick himself, and he is hardly ever allowed to mix with respectable people, however honest he may be. I would therefore most humbly ask your majesty to ordain it so that an executioner shall be respected like other people," he said.

"Yes, that is fair and reasonable," said the king; "and so it shall be."

The king accordingly issued an edict that no one must dare to spit after the executioner, for his calling was just as respectable as any other; and in[Pg 169] order that no one should be ashamed to be in his company he was to have the title of Assessor, and wear a three-cornered hat when he was in full dress. Such was the edict, and so it is to this day.

But as the executioner would not accept what the robbers had hoarded, the king gave it to the woman who had served with them; and when she had combed the hair away from her eyes and washed the soot off her face she turned out to be quite a handsome woman. The executioner then thought that as the king had been so generous to him he would not be behindhand either, and so he made her the Lady Assessor; and thus after all he became possessor of all that the robbers had hoarded up.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-31