"Bind me fast, bind me fast, for pity's sake!"
The countryman seized his fiddle and struck up a merry tune, and at
the first note judge, clerks, and jailer were set agoing. All began
capering, and no one could hold the Jew. At the second note the
hangman let his prisoner go and danced also, and by the time the first
bar of the tune was played all were dancing together--judge, court,
Jew, and all the people who had followed to look on. At first the
thing went merrily and joyously enough, but when it had gone on a
while, and there seemed to be no end of either playing or dancing, all
began to cry out and beg the countryman to leave off. He stopped,
however, not a whit the more for their begging, till the judge not
only gave him his life, but paid him back the hundred crowns.