the count could not help laughing, then he said, "for once thou hast succeeded, but things won’t go so well the second time, and i warn thee that if thou comest before me as a thief, i will handle thee as i would a thief." when the countess went to bed that night, she closed her hand with the wedding-ring tightly together, and the count said, "all the doors are locked and bolted, i will keep awake and wait for the thief, but if he gets in by the window, i will shoot him." the master-thief, however, went in the dark to the gallows, cut a poor sinner who was hanging there down from the halter, and carried him on his back to the castle. then he set a ladder up to the bedroom, put the dead body on his shoulders, and began to climb up. when he had got so high that the head of the dead man showed at the window, the count, who was watching in his bed, fired a pistol at him, and immediately the master let the poor sinner fall down, and hid himself in one corner. the night was sufficiently lighted by the moon, for the master to see distinctly how the count got out of the window on to the ladder, came down, carried the dead body into the garden, and began to dig a hole in which to lay it. "now," thought the thief, "the favourable moment has come," stole nimbly out of his corner, and climbed up the ladder straight into the countess’s bedroom. "dear wife," he began in the count’s voice, "the thief is dead, but, after all, he is my godson, and has been more of a scape-grace than a villain. i will not put him to open shame; besides, i am sorry for the parents. i will bury him myself before daybreak, in the garden that the thing may not be known, so give me the sheet, i will wrap up the body in it, and bury him as a dog burries things by scratching." the countess gave him the sheet. "i tell you what,"