"Help! Out loud I cry for help--yet no one seems to hear me!"
The merchant is infected!
Great pains have betide him; he is being reft of sanity little by little, spreading his plague upon many a man anon--and soon he should be accused of profanity and deemed accursed thereunto.
Within days epidemics result. Injustice comes to throne in the whole nation; and for that this merchant had come from beyond the border and is claimed to have evoked a curse for his impiety, war is declared upon his motherland...
The invasion hits in hard. The king's troops soon advance upon the capital, regardless of the various offenses that should arise within their own ranks: Severe tragedies befall; quarrel is the order of the day. While soldiers strive hard to bear through their ordeals, a watchman has arisen to the upkeep of peace.
Tis a testimony.