At the age of fifteen, Schinderhannes commenced his career of crime by
spending a louis, with which he had been entrusted, in a tavern. Afraid
to return home, he wandered about the fields till hunger compelled him
to steal a horse, which he sold. Sheep stealing was his next vocation,
but in this he was caught and transferred to prison. He made his escape,
however, the first night, and returned in a very business-like manner to
receive two crowns which were due to him on account of the sheep he had
stolen. After being associated with the band as their chief, he went to
buy a piece of linen, but thinking, from the situation of the premises,
that it might be obtained without any exchange of coin on his part, he
returned the same evening, and stealing a ladder in the neighbourhood,
placed it at a window of the warehouse, and got in. A man was writing in
the interior, but the robber looked at him steadily, and shouldering his
booty, withdrew. He was taken a second time, but escaped as before on
the same night.

His third escape was from a dark and damp vault in the prison of
Schneppenbach, where, having succeeded in penetrating to the kitchen,
he tore an iron bar from the window by main force, and leaped out at
hazard. He broke his leg in the fall, but finding a stick, managed
to drag himself along, in the course of three nights, to Birkenmuhl,
without a morsel of food, but on the contrary, having left some ounces
of skin and flesh of his own on the road.

Marianne Schoeffer was the first avowed mistress of Schinderhannes.
She was a young girl of fourteen, of ravishing beauty, and always
"se mettait avec une élégance extreme." Blacken Klos, one of the band,
an unsuccessful suitor of the lady, one day, after meeting with a
repulse, out of revenge carried off her clothes. When the outrage was