《安徒生童话英文版》第18章

　　Her last thoughts onthe night before her execution had filled this place, and the magicthat tradition asserted to have been practised here, in SirSvanwedel's time, came into Jurgen's mind, and made him shudder; but asunbeam, a refreshing thought from without, penetrated his hearteven here- it was the remembrance of the flowering elder and the sweetsmelling lime-trees.

　　He was not left there long. They took him away to the town ofRingkjobing, where he was imprisoned with equal severity.

　　Those times were not like ours. The common people were treatedharshly; and it was just after the days when farms were converted intoknights' estates, when coachmen and servants were often mademagistrates, and had power to sentence a poor man, for a smalloffence, to lose his property and to corporeal punishment. Judges ofthis kind were still to be found; and in Jutland, so far from thecapital, and from the enlightened, well-meaning, head of theGovernment, the law was still very loosely administered sometimes- thesmallest grievance Jurgen could expect was that his case should bedelayed.

　　His dwelling was cold and comfortless; and how long would he beobliged to bear all this? It seemed his fate to suffer misfortuneand sorrow innocently. He now had plenty of time to reflect on thedifference of fortune on earth, and to wonder why this fate had beenallotted to him; yet he felt sure that all would be made clear inthe next life, the existence that awaits us when this life is over.His faith had grown strong in the poor fisherman's cottage; thelight which had never shone into his father's mind, in all therichness and sunshine of Spain, was sent to him to be his comfort inpoverty and distress, a sign of that mercy of God which never fails.

　　The spring storms began to blow. The rolling and moaning of theNorth Sea could be heard for miles inland when the wind was blowing,and then it sounded like the rushing of a thousand waggons over a hardroad with a mine underneath. Jurgen heard these sounds in hisprison, and it was a relief to him. No music could have touched hisheart as did these sounds of the sea- the rolling sea, the boundlesssea, on which a man can be borne across the world before the wind,carrying his own house with him wherever he goes, just as the snailcarries its home even into a strange country.

　　He listened eagerly to its deep murmur and then the thought arose-"Free! free! How happy to be free, even barefooted and in raggedclothes!" Sometimes, when such thoughts crossed his mind, the fierynature rose within him, and he beat the wall with his clenched fists.

　　Weeks, months, a whole year had gone by, when Niels the thief,called also a horse-dealer, was arrested; and now better times came,and it was seen that Jurgen had been wrongly accused.

　　On the afternoon before Jurgen's departure from home, and beforethe murder, Niels the thief, had met Martin at a beer-house in theneighbourhood of Ringkjobing. A few glasses were drank, not enoughto cloud the brain, but enough to loosen Martin's tongue. He beganto boast and to say that he had obtained a house and intended tomarry, and when Niels asked him where he was going to get the money,he slapped his pocket proudly and said:

　　"The money is here, where it ought to be."

　　This boast cost him his life; for when he went home Niels followedhim, and cut his throat, intending to rob the murdered man of thegold, which did not exist.

　　All this was circumstantially explained; but it is enough for usto know that Jurgen was set free. But what compensation did he get forhaving been imprisoned a whole year, and shut out from allcommunication with his fellow creatures?