Vom toten Leutnant

Vom toten Leutnant 

In Sorno waren im Dreißigjährigen Krieg mehrere Offiziere versammelt. Sie sprachen von diesem und jenem, zuletzt kamen sie zu einer Wette, wer von ihnen nachts zwölf Uhr auf den dortigen Friedhof zum Grab eines Freundes gehen würde. Ein blutjunger Leutnant erklärte sich bereit, das Grab des Freundes zu gegebener Zeit aufzusuchen. Da aber die Zeit verging und der Leutnant nicht zurückkehrte, so begab sich die Gesellschaft gemeinsam hin, um nach ihm auszuschauen. Aber, o Schreck, der Leutnant lag tot auf des Freundes Grab. Als man genauer hinblickte, sah man, daß er an einem Nagel hängengeblieben war. Der Leutnant glaubte, daß der Tote ihn festhielt, und war vor Schreck gestorben.

In the village of Sorno, during the Thirty Years' War, there were several officers gathered. After talking about this and that, they finally made a bet, a test of courage, about who of them would go at midnight to the local cemetery, to the grave of a late friend of theirs. A stripling of a lieutenant confessed that he was ready to seek out his friend's grave at the time they had given. However, as time went by and the lieutenant did not return, the others went together to the cemetery to look for him. But --what a dreadful sight!-- the young officer lay dead at his friend's grave! A closer look revealed that he had been left hanging flesh deep by a large nail. The lieutenant, believing that his deceased friend was holding him tight, died allegedly of the fright (a more plausible explanation would be that he got blood poisoning).