Part III: The Searchers
Meiningen, Friday, September 8, 1634
Guenter Bettin lay on the floor of his cell waiting for the warder to come with his supper, a bowl of whatever leftover was available from the nearest Meiningen inn. He looked up to the narrow window set high in the cell’s wall. Too narrow for an escape route, he concluded. Bettin didn’t think it was wide enough to pass a hand, much less his entire body. The window was just wide enough to let in sufficient sunlight light to dispel the gloom.
I have to escape! He knew he’d get short shrift from the magistrate; a local against a stranger. Regardless of innocence; the stranger was always guilty. He may be a pickpocket and a thief, but he was no murderer. The locals, however, wouldn’t see it that way. The warder told him they would take him to Suhl for trial, followed by the gallows.
Bettin admitted to himself that he was cheating at bones. Unfortunately, he had been caught. When his opponent objected and attacked Bettin, it wasn’t his fault he’d hit his head on the flagstone of the fireplace. He admitted that he’d ducked the man’s swing—and helped him along as he stumbled by, but it wasn’t his fault he’d fallen, hit his head and died. It was an accident!
As the light through the window waned, he heard the warder walking heavily toward the cell, the young one, he realized. The older warder who brought him breakfast was cautious and suspicious. He would have no chance against him. The young one, now…Bettin searched the cell for something to use…something…the chamber pot.
The chamber pot wasn’t pottery, just an old wooden bucket that served the purpose. When the old warder came, he made Bettin place the bucket by the door where it could be reached. Bettin was forced to sit against the far wall of the cell, out of reach, or he wouldn’t eat. The warder moved the bucket outside and replaced it was a bowl and a mug of cheap beer. The bucket was returned when he retrieved the bowl and mug. Occasionally, he’d bring a second warder for safety.
The young one, however, wasn’t as strict. He didn’t make Bettin move to the far wall. When he set the bowl and mug on the floor in the doorway after opening the door, he would be vulnerable—and he was always alone.