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Hark! it had swayed till the clapper had touched the bell. The sound was but a tiny one, but the bell was only beginning to sway, and it would increase.
At the sound the Judge, who had been keeping his eyes fixed on Malcolmson, looked up, and a scowl of diabolical anger overspread his face. His eyes fairly glowed like hot coals, and he stamped his foot with a sound that seemed to make the house shake. A dreadful peal of thunder broke overhead as he raised the rope again, whilst the rats kept running up and down the rope as though working against time. This time, instead of throwing it, he drew close to his victim, and held open the noose as he approached. As he came closer there seemed something paralyzing in his very presence, and Malcolmson stood rigid as a corpse. He felt the Judge’s icy fingers touch his throat as he adjusted the rope. The noose tightened – tightened. Then the Judge, taking the rigid form of the student in his arms, carried him over and placed him standing in the oak chair, and stepping up beside him, put his hand up and caught the end of the swaying rope of the alarm-bell. As he raised his hand the rats fled squeaking and disappeared through the hole in the ceiling. Taking the end of the noose which was round Malcolmson’s neck he tied it to the hanging bell-rope, and then descending pulled away the chair.
When the alarm-bell of the Judge’s House began to sound a crowd soon assembled. Lights and torches of various kinds appeared, and soon a silent crowd was hurrying to the spot. They knocked loudly at the door, but there was no reply. Then they burst in the door, and poured into the great dining-room, the doctor at the head.
There at the end of the rope of the great alarm-bell hung the body of the student, and on the face of the Judge in the picture was a malignant smile.
Примечания
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Bradshaw’s Guide – a series of railway timetables and travelers’ guide books
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the Honfoglalas – Hungarian conquest or land-taking, resulting in the settlement of the Hungarian people in Central Europe (9–10th centuries)
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shame of Cassova – he means the Turkish victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, fought between the Serbian Principality and the invading Ottoman Empire.
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the Crescent – the symbol of Islam and the Ottoman Empire
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battle of Mohács (1526) – the battle fought between the forces of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, and the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary, resulting in the Ottoman victory
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Omnia Romae venalia sunt – Everything in Rome is for sale. (
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‘Marmion’ – a poem by Walter Scott (1771–1832) about the Battle of Flodden Field (1513)
