A MARTYR'S CROWN 83last time before the court. He was not unmindful of his oppor
tunity to play a dramatic role, and he closed his address with such
sentences as "I have celebrated my resurrection, now you hold
the last judgment," and "may the Holy Spirit enlighten you and
grant me a mild sentence." He was disappointed that the crowd
that filled the courtroom did not overflow into the streets outside.
Already his mind was full of weird and fantastic notions about
loyal followers who would break into the courtroom or the jail
and rescue the new Messiah and martyr of the working class. He
wept as he was led back to jail and discovered that no rescuers
were at hand. "Happy the unfortunate," he reflected, "who can
find some comfort in the most terrible moments of his life, from
the faithfulness of a dog, the love of a mother, or faith in God."
The court exonerated the defendant on the charge of seeking to
destroy religion and on practically all other counts, save the one
that he and his movement constituted a public nuisance. For that
offense he was given a ten-month jail sentence, the four months
already spent in confinement to be credited to his account. The
sentence also stipulated a five-year exile from Switzerland.
The Communist Chronicle of London promptly printed the
appropriate note of sympathy. "Our dear brother, Weitling...
is now a martyr. But what of that? The blood of the martyrs is
the seed of the church. The bruised geranium leaf smelleth more
sweetly.... Meanwhile, although not free in person, the
thoughts of Weitling are commingling with ours, and flying
abroad like down-winged seeds over our common earth of green
and gold."^11 "Since the French Revolution of 1792, we enumer
ate three illustrious communist martyrs," the article continued,
"Babeuf of France, Joshua Jacob of Ireland, and Wilhelm Weit
ling of Germany.... Blessings upon them, as far as they should
be blest." Such notoriety and expressions of sympathy provided
little comfort, however, for a prisoner who was deprived of news
papers and had no way to follow the course of events while in
jail. This British tribute to his martyrdom did not come to his at-
(^11) London Communist Chronicle, I, No. 11, p. 121.