One day, around Christmas
time, Tony and his friends
were making fun of Henry
again. This time they had a
terrible plan to torture him.
They knew that Henry was
afraid of spiders. The boys
caught some spiders and went
to Henry. Tony shouted: ”Eat
the insects or you will be in
trouble.“ Henry was scared to
death. His face went white
and he answered: “Please,
please, I don’t want to eat
insects“, but Henry didn’t
stop. The bullied boy didn’t
know what else to do and he
took a knife and spoke: “If
you don’t stop, I will kill
you!“
Tony was laughing at Henry
and didn’t take the boy
seriously. But Henry had
enough: He stabbed Tony and
killed him in the abbey of
the monastery. Tony’s friends
were so afraid that they
didn’t help the injured boy
and ran away. It was
terrible, there was blood
everywhere.
But the judge took pity on
Henry: His judgement was that
the offender had to leave the
territory, but nothing more.
Tony’s father had loved his
only son very much. So, he
was furious: He tried to give
the judge money if he would
sentence Henry to death, but
without success. He also
tried to catch and kill
Henry, but he also didn’t
manage to do that.
At last he had a plaque made
for his son in the abbey of
the monastery: It says: “I
hope the killer will also
die!“
The plaque can still be seen
in the monastery.
Henry didn’t become a
magistrate as he had dreamed
to be. He had to leave his
family and later became a
baker in another town. He
always felt very badly about
what he had done to Tony. So
Tony’s bullying had also
destroyed his
life.
Henry was arrested and had to
go to court in Nuremberg.
32