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005 Condemned to the Noose
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land · Charles M. SkinnerO besedilu
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- Vir
- Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
- Avtor
- Charles M. Skinner
- Jezik branja
- Slovenščina
- Jezik izvirnika
- English
- Čas branja
- 3 min branja
- Obseg
- 3 strani
- Naslov izvirnika
- 005 Condemned to the Noose
O izvirniku
Myths and Legends of Our Own Land
Obsežna zgodovinska zbirka ameriških legend, ki jih je Skinner zbral in avtorsko rekonstruiral. Bralni jezik je Slovenščina, izvirnik pa prihaja iz vira Myths and Legends of Our Own Land v jeziku English.
Besedilo
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Ralph Sutherland, ki je na začetku prejšnjega stoletja živel v kamniti hiši miljo od Leedsa v gorovju Catskills, je bil čemeren in nasilen človek. Njegova služabnica, škotsko dekle, je bila tako rekoč sužnja, saj je morala zanj delati brez plačila, dokler mu ne bi povrnila denarja, ki ga je zanjo odštel za pot v to deželo. Naveličana suženjstva in gospodarjevih izbruhov je deklica pobegnila. Mož se je besen pognal za njo in ni prišla daleč, ko jo je Sutherland dohitel, ji zapestja privezal h konjevemu repu in se odpravil proti domu. Pozneje je prisegal, da se je deklica spotaknila ob konjeve noge in žival tako prestrašila, da je podivjano planila naprej, ga vrgla iz sedla in služabnico do smrti potolkla ob skale in drevesa. Toda sosedje, ki so vedeli, kako zlobno je znal pobesneti, so prej verjeli, da je sam pognal konja v galop, da bi deklico za kazen nekaj časa vlekel za seboj, nato pa ga ustavil, še preden bi ji prizadejal hujše poškodbe. Na podlagi te domneve so ga prijeli, mu sodili in ga obsodili na smrt na vislicah.
Zaradi nezanesljivosti posrednih dokazov in prošenj obsojenčevih vplivnih sorodnikov je sodišče odložilo izvršitev kazni do njegovega devetindevetdesetega leta. Vendar mu je naložilo, da mora, dokler je na prostosti na podlagi lastnega zagotovila, okoli vratu nositi obešalsko zanko in se vsako leto enkrat zglasiti pred sodniki v Catskillu, da bi dokazal, da nosi svoje znamenje sramote in ne pozablja na svoj zločin. To sodbo je spoštoval in še nedavno so živeli ljudje, ki so trdili, da se ga spominjajo, kako je hodil naokrog s svileno vrvico, zavozlano okoli vratu. Vedno je bil sam, le redko je spregovoril, njegova osornost in oblastnost pa sta izginili. Le kadar so ga otroci vprašali, čemu ima vrv okoli vratu, so mu ustnice zadrhtele, nato pa je odhitel proč. Po mraku so se ljudje njegove hiše izogibali, kajti opravljivci so pripovedovali, da vsako noč mimo nje hodi vreščeča ženska, privezana k repu velikanskega konja z ognjenimi očmi in kadečimi se nozdrvmi; da so tam našli okostnjak v mrtvaškem prtu; da so na njegovem vrtnem zidu videvali nenavadno bitje, nekoliko podobno ženski, ki so mu iz konic prstov sijale luči in se je smejalo z nezemeljskim smehom; in da mu domače živali z ječanjem in tuljenjem pod njegovimi okni očitajo njegov zločin.
Za te vraže je vedel, a ko so mu jih omenjali, ni kazal ne žalosti ne prezira in ni odgovarjal. Leta so minevala. Z vsakim letom je postajal še bolj zadržan in osamljen in nekateri so začeli šepetati, da si bo sam izbral pot s tega sveta, drugi pa so odgovarjali, da se človek, ki mu je usojeno viseti, ne bo nikoli utopil. Toda nastala je nova republika; sprejeli so nove zakone; na sodniške stole so sedli novi sodniki, da bi jih izvajali. Tako na devetindevetdeseti rojstni dan Ralpha Sutherlanda ni bilo nikogar, ki bi ga obtožil ali izvršil sodbo. Živel je še eno leto in umrl leta 1801. Toda ali vrvice ni nikoli snel iz navade ali pa zato, da bi se kaznoval in kesal? Ko je namreč izdihnil, čeprav v lastni hiši, mu je vrat še vedno obdajala obešalska vrv.
Izvirnik
005 Condemned to the Noose
Naslednje strani prikazujejo izvirno besedilo za primerjavo.
Ralph Sutherland, who, early in the last century, occupied a stone house a mile from Leeds, in the Catskills, was a man of morose and violent disposition, whose servant, a Scotch girl, was virtually a slave, inasmuch as she was bound to work for him without pay until she had refunded to him her passage-money to this country. Becoming weary of bondage and of the tempers of her master, the girl ran away. The man set off in a raging chase, and she had not gone far before Sutherland overtook her, tied her by the wrists to his horse's tail, and began the homeward journey. Afterward, he swore that the girl stumbled against the horse's legs, so frightening the animal that it rushed off madly, pitching him out of the saddle and dashing the servant to death on rocks and trees; yet, knowing how ugly-tempered he could be, his neighbors were better inclined to believe that he had driven the horse into a gallop, intending to drag the girl for a short distance, as a punishment, and to rein up before he had done serious mischief. On this supposition he was arrested, tried, and sentenced to die on the scaffold.
The tricks of circumstantial evidence, together with pleas advanced by influential relatives of the prisoner, induced the court to delay sentence until the culprit should be ninety-nine years old, but it was ordered that, while released on his own recognizance, in the interim, he should keep a hangman's noose about his neck and show himself before the judges in Catskill once every year, to prove that he wore his badge of infamy and kept his crime in mind. This sentence he obeyed, and there were people living recently who claimed to remember him as he went about with a silken cord knotted at his throat. He was always alone, he seldom spoke, his rough, imperious manner had departed. Only when children asked him what the rope was for were his lips seen to quiver, and then he would hurry away. After dark his house was avoided, for gossips said that a shrieking woman passed it nightly, tied at the tail of a giant horse with fiery eyes and smoking nostrils; that a skeleton in a winding sheet had been found there; that a curious thing, somewhat like a woman, had been known to sit on his garden wall, with lights shining from her finger-tips, uttering unearthly laughter; and that domestic animals reproached the man by groaning and howling beneath his windows.
These beliefs he knew, yet he neither grieved, nor scorned, nor answered when he was told of them. Years sped on. Every year deepened his reserve and loneliness, and some began to whisper that he would take his own way out of the world, though others answered that men who were born to be hanged would never be drowned; but a new republic was created; new laws were made; new judges sat to minister them; so, on Ralph Sutherland's ninety-ninth birthday anniversary, there were none who would accuse him or execute sentence. He lived yet another year, dying in 1801. But was it from habit, or was it in self-punishment and remorse, that he never took off the cord? for, when he drew his last breath, though it was in his own house, his throat was still encircled by the hangman's rope.
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