vampire

Chapter 20 The Laughter Under the Gallows (2)
In fact, these thieves are not stupid. When they found out that their new accomplice had disappeared suddenly, they were a little alert.After careful investigation, they already knew that danger was about to befall them.During the day, they are afraid of being followed, so they dare not run away, so as not to be caught by the net.At night, if everyone scattered and fled, someone would be arrested in the morning.Finally, they decided to take the advice of one of them: to resist the king's army together.He said that if people's hearts don't break, then they will surely succeed.He was well liked among the gang, for he had always been the braver.When it was getting dark, they began to set up hidden weapons in the jungle in full swing.The leader rushed to the front, watched around with everyone, and set up an ambush.He called on all the thieves to act and fight to defend themselves, and everyone's morale was quickly boosted.At night, King Landseer and his soldiers quickly approached the lair of the thieves. At that time, the king thought that the thieves would still be in the same place, and wanted to beat them to death in the cave.The king underestimated the enemy, how did he know that the thieves were already in ambush.When the king's army entered the thieves' ambush, they heard a whistle, and all the thieves rushed out from the jungle and knocked the king down from his horse.

The king fled in panic, so the leader of the thieves chased after him, and shouted at him: "So you are a Rajput, let me see where you are fleeing." Landsil stopped immediately when he heard this. After walking, the two began to stare at each other for a long time, and then each other took out their weapons, ready to fight.

Both kings and bandit chiefs are very cunning.They began a life-and-death struggle, each glaring at each other, brow furrowed, teeth clenched on lip.In an instant, the swords of both sides were unsheathed at the same time, as long as one side was a little slack, then he might be killed.Long riding boots, accompanied by square steps, you defend and attack, jump forward as agile as a frog, and retreat as agile as a monkey.

If you continue to fight like this, you will definitely lose both sides.Suddenly, King Landseer yelled, the leader of the thieves was a little negligent, and saw the king's sword piercing his leg, who knew that the thief jumped into the air, and the blade of the sword was mercilessly facing the king.Immediately afterwards, the thief's sword kept circling rapidly over the king's head, stabbing at the king's shoulder several times.

Back and forth, they attacked each other again and again. During the evasion and counterattack, both sides were already exhausted, and the hands holding the swords began to tremble.They were both exhausted, but neither of them would let it go.Of course, their courage, wisdom and determination are really commendable.At last, the thief tripped over a stone, slipped his foot accidentally, and fell under the king.Therefore, the king was easily captured.The other thieves also died and fled.So the king happily returned to the palace with his spoils.

King Landseer gave an order to bathe and change the thief leader, put him on a camel, and take him in a parade around the city, followed by a herald who kept calling loudly: "Listen everyone! This is the The thief who once robbed the city of Chedrodaya. Tonight, all the people in the city are invited to gather outside the city gate to denounce and expose his crimes. Everyone must learn from them.”

The people gathered outside the city gate and began to scold the thief. They strongly demanded that he be crucified (a punishment that can often be seen among Buddhists in the modern Burmese kingdom. In India, impalement is more Common. According to F. Cary, there are two ways of this punishment. The first one is that the criminal is crucified alive; The legs and feet began to swell and eventually died of necrosis. Generally speaking, a man could live for two weeks in this state, and finally passed away due to fatigue and partial muscle necrosis), and then he was tortured to death slowly.

The King decided to execute the criminal in the evening, when the execution procession passed the gate of a wealthy landowner.This landowner has a daughter named Shubo Hanni, who is young, beautiful, and very cute, and he loves her very much.She has been locked up in a secret place by adults since she was a child, and no one can see her. She has never stepped out of the garden.All this is because of her nanny—a very smart woman. When she was dying, she told her parents that everyone in the city envied her daughter, but she was so beautiful, and she would die for her husband in the future. Self-immolation to become a widow (There is a proverb in India: "No one will understand the way a woman goes; she will kill her husband and make herself a widow.").Later, her father regarded her as the apple of his eye, but it was a pearl locked in a jewelry box.He swore that he would never let his daughter fall into this disaster.

Immediately, fate began to turn around, a greedy elf slipped into the world with the clouds in the sky, and entered the heart of the earth with the worms - can a mortal person escape this catastrophe?The leader of the thieves was strapped to his camel, and just as the procession came to the crossing under the landlord's window, a fire burst from the room of Schuberhany.

From the street came a loud voice: "This is the thief who has stolen the whole city, and the hanging is not enough for his crime. Let him tremble now!"

In the city of Chedrataya, the bravery and strength of this bandit leader was unmatched.At this moment, although he faced the procession against his shameful behavior, he was richly dressed and well-groomed, and he did not look like a man about to go to the gallows.Standing under the gallows, he felt nothing in his heart, no emotion, and no expression on his face. He didn't listen to people's sarcasm at all; facing the anger of the whole city against him, he was able to calm down calm.However, when he heard the word "shuddering", the corners of his mouth began to twitch, his eyes seemed to be on fire, and his brows frowned.

Shubo Hanni was very curious, and stood by the window looking at the road.When she saw the thief's handsome appearance and tall and straight figure, she screamed from behind the casement.Suddenly, the floodgates of her emotions opened to this handsome young man, and tears welled up in her eyes.So she hurried to see her father, and said with tears in her eyes:

"Father, go and save that thief!"

The landlord looked at her suspiciously and said, "That thief did all kinds of evil. He almost stole and robbed the whole city, and then was completely defeated under the attack of the king's elite troops. Do you think I can let our most noble King Landseer let him go?"

"Take all your wealth and jewels to save him, and the king will let him go. Do it now. If I haven't seen him come to me, then I will die before you!" To threaten her father with her own life.

Under the cover of the veil, Shu Bohani fell into deep despair. She sat there foolishly, motionless, and her two tears were like broken pearls, which could not be contained no matter what.The father looked sad, sighed, and hurried to the king.He cried: "Oh! My great king, I would give all my property in exchange for the life of this thief. Please let him go!"

"You know his crimes. He stole all over the city. That's how much he caused me to lose my favorite general. Don't say any more. Even if you go bankrupt, I won't let him go." The king said firmly.

The landlord knew that the king was ruthless, and all his property could not be exchanged for the thief's life. It seemed that the fate of his child was too cruel, but in fact it was all expected.

With his heart torn, he came home slowly, and said to his daughter, "Son, I have really tried my best, but I can't impress the king at all. Now, he must die."

The execution team escorted the thief around the city. At this time, he had been taken outside the city and stood under the gallows, waiting to die.Immediately afterwards, the orderly who sent the death order from the palace arrived, and the executor began to crucify his limbs.He endured the severe pain without uttering a single groan.When he heard that the landowner's daughter was going to die for him, he yelled at the sky, protesting to the sky that his heart was broken.In the dark night, his voice shook into Yunfeng, and then, unbelievably, snow fell from the sky, everyone was shocked.Whenever the hot red branding iron pierced his body, he readily accepted it.

Schuber Hanny, married to him in spirit, now she keeps muttering to herself:
"My husband will live a free life in heaven, relaxed and happy. In hell, I will save my husband, and we will live happily together in the future. He is now in a painful situation, suffering The agony of hanging, consuming all the strength of one's body, because his crime must be so tortured and punished. How important a husband is to a good and faithful woman! After her husband's death, there is only the same heap Only by being buried in the fire can she express her deep love for him. In the constant cycle of life, a woman should always be a faithful wife. In the end, she will burn with her husband as a memorial to their love. "

Therefore, the beautiful and pure virgin wife Shubo Hanni has already made a decision in her heart that she will die for the thief, and if there is an afterlife, she must spend it with the thief.In order to show her determination, she even put her finger in the torch, and let the fire burn it to ashes.Of course, before that, she came to bathe in the stream not far from here.

She dug a hole on the ground first, piled a lot of fiber, resin, dry wood and clarified butter in it, and prepared to set herself on fire.She anointed her body with oil, cleansed herself, and then put on new clothes.Shubhani prayed that as long as she was still ruled by the fourteen Indra gods, her hair would never fall out after many years, and she would be able to live happily with her husband in heaven.She gave away her jewelry and small gifts to friends, cotton coils on her wrists, oil paint on her forehead, and two new combs.She tied the bottom of the dress in a knot and filled it with new rice and shells.She gave all of these to the onlookers.Around the funeral pyre, she circled seven times, each time she had to perform the pious ceremony of the believer.Then she climbed onto the woodpile, lay flat on it, and placed the thief's head in her lap.Nothing covered her body, not even a leaf.She had people light fires, and the people around them lit fires in several places, drumming barrels, beating, and yelling "Harry, Ball! Harry, Ball!" (Cheers, like our "ah" or "hoo" and "hooray") People then threw firewood on the hay, and the resin and butter started to run out from the heat.Shubhani was a Brahmin, so ascension to heaven was easy; after the fire was lit, she was not seen to move at all—in fact, she died before the flames touched her. .

After his daughter ascended to heaven, the old landlord committed suicide.He made himself a sharp half-moon with a razor-sharp edge, and he laid it flat on the back of his neck, keeping it steady and fastening the rope.He sat down with his eyes closed. Before that, he had purified himself with the pure mud from a distance of [-] miles from the Wanthirani River.He kept chanting incantations.Then, tying his feet to the ends of the rope, he jerked the rope and his head fell to the ground with a thud.What a joy to die!

Betal stopped talking here, as if he was meditating on something, as if he saw the old landlord gaining life again.

"Your Majesty, why does that thief keep laughing?" asked the little prince Dihavashi.

"Because of that very stupid girl, my son," replied the king softly.

"Your Majesty, I am grateful again for the favor you have given me." Betal said suddenly, "Because you liberated me from this very uncomfortable position, but king, you are wrong this time. Don't mislead your noble prince's pure mind, and before I go, I will tell you why the brave thief burst into tears and laughed."

When he thought that he could not repay her kindness and sincerity to her, but she would rather give up everything in this world to save his life, the sincerity of this emotion once made him cry, and this thought made him feel Deeply sad.

Then, this strange girl who had never met before fell in love with him resolutely in the last days of his life.Such feelings, such behaviors, and such a jaw-dropping thing happened to him, which made him feel as if God gave a huge wealth to a cheapskate who could not enjoy it, and gave a share of wisdom to him. A bad man who abused it, gave a beautiful wife to a fool who couldn't protect her, spilled manure on a barren and barren land.Thinking of this, the heroic thief laughed.

"Before I go back to the Hills Tree," continued the vampire, "I have to say something about your foolish answer, Your Majesty. I think that people in this world have opinions about everything in the world. What I feel is that maybe the death of a neighbor makes her (he) sad. Although she (he) also knows that this is the law of nature, she (he) will still feel sad. A smart person will not pay too much attention to his own death Yes. For me, of all things, I am amused, because laughter inspires me, strengthens my will, beautifies my appearance. Well... that's it, goodbye! King Wickram! "

The brave king was alerted early this time, and he held Betal's bag tightly between his arms, thinking that it would never escape this time.

However, this time, the vampire still sneaked back to the tree cunningly, leaving the empty bag to the king.

Within a few moments, the demon was tied up as usual.The voice came again behind Wickram, and the talkative fellow began again.

(End of this chapter)