At last the day came when the clockmaker joyfully announced that his masterpiece was finished, and he called upon Guta and his young partner to witness his handiwork.  They beheld a wonderful clock, of exquisite workmanship, and so constructed that the striking of the hour automatically set in motion several small figures.  The young people were not slow to express their admiration and their confidence that fame was assured.

When the clock was publicly exhibited the scepticism of the citizens was changed to respect; praise and flattery flowed from the lips that had formerly reviled its inventor.  Nevertheless the civic authorities, urged thereto by Guta’s discarded lover, refused to countenance any attempt to procure the wonderful clock for the town.  But soon its fame spread abroad to other cities.  Members of the clockmakers’ guild of Basel travelled to see it, and raised their hands in surprise and admiration.  Finally the municipal authorities of Basel made arrangements to purchase it.

But at this point the citizens of Strassburg stepped in and insisted on preserving the clock in their own city, and it was therefore purchased for a round sum and erected in a chapel of the Strassburg Cathedral.  The corporation of Basel, having set their hearts on the wonderful timepiece, commissioned the clockmaker to make another like it, and offered substantial remuneration.  The old man gladly agreed, but his arch-enemy, hearing of the arrangement and scenting a fine opportunity for revenge, contrived to raise an outcry against the proposal.  “Where was the advantage,” asked the magistrates, “in possessing a wonderful clock if every city in Germany was to have one?” So to preserve the uniqueness of their treasure they haled the old clockmaker before a tribunal and ordered him to cease practising his art.  This he indignantly refused to do, and the council, still instigated by his enemy, finally decided that his eyes be put out, so that his skill in clockmaking should come to a decided end.  Not a few objections were raised to so cruel a decision, but these were at length overruled.  The victim heard the dreadful sentence without a tremor, and when asked if he had any boon to crave ere it were carried out, he answered quietly that he would like to make a few final improvements in his clock, and wished to suffer his punishment in its presence.

Accordingly when the day came the old man was conducted to the place where his masterpiece stood.  There, under pretence of making the promised improvements, he damaged the works, after which he submitted himself to his torturers.  Hardly had they carried out their cruel task when, to the consternation of the onlookers, the clock began to emit discordant sounds and to whirr loudly.  When it had continued thus for a while the gong struck thirteen and the mechanism came to a standstill.

“Behold my handiwork!” cried the blind clockmaker.  “Behold my revenge!”

His assistant approached and led him gently away.  Henceforward he lived happily with Guta and her husband, whose affectionate care compensated in part for the loss of his eyesight and his enforced inability to practise his beloved art.  When the story became known the base magistrate was deprived of his wealth and his office and forced to quit the town.