When I woke beneath the gallows I did not know where I was. The shoemaker had taken out my eyes in exchange for a bit of bread. He had left me there to die, and that is exactly what would have happened had I not heard two hanged men speaking to one another.

“Brother,” said one, “Are you awake?”

“Yes, I am awake,” answered the second.

“Then I will tell you something. If a blind man were to wash his eyes with the dew that has fallen over us this night, he would regain his sight. What do you think of that?”

I knew what I thought! I’d been given my salvation!

Blind Tailor in The Two Travellers, Grimms. Painting “Christ Crucified Between the Two Thieves” by William Blake.