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Sidonia The Sorceress V1

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What could the poor abbess do? She had to submit, and not only
give her up the refectory, but, finding that she had no bed, order
one in for her. _Item,_ seeing that Sidonia was in rags, she
desired black serge for a robe to be brought, and a white veil,
such as the sisterhood wore, and bid the nuns stitch them up for
her, thinking thus to win her over by kindness. Also she desired
tables, stools, &c., to be arranged in the refectory, since she so
ardently desired to possess this room. But what fruit all this
kindness brought forth we shall see in _liber tertius_.


END OF SECOND BOOK.



BOOK III.


FROM THE RECEPTION OF SIDONIA INTO THE CONVENT AT MARIENFLIESS UP
TILL HER EXECUTION, AUGUST 19th, 1620.




CHAPTER I.

_How the sub-prioress, Dorothea Stettin, visits Sidonia and
extols her virtue--Item, of Sidonia's quarrel with the dairywoman,
and how she beats the sheriff himself, Eggert Sparling, with a
broom-stick._


MOST EMINENT AND ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE!--Your Serene Highness will
surely pardon me if I pass over, in _libra tertio_, many of
the quarrels, bickerings, strifes, and evil deeds, with which
Sidonia disturbed the peace of the convent, and brought many a
goodly person therein to a cruel end; first, because these things
are already much known and talked of; and secondly, because such
dire and Satanic wickedness must not be so much as named to gentle
ears by me.

I shall therefore only set down a few of the principal events of
her convent life, by which your Grace and others may easily
conjecture much of what still remains unsaid; for truly wickedness
advanced and strengthened in her day by day, as decay in a rotting
tree.

The morning after her arrival in the convent, while it was yet
quite early, and Wolde Albrechts, her lame maid, was sweeping out
the refectory, the sub-prioress, Dorothea Stettin, came to pay her
a visit. She had a piece of salmon, and a fine haddock's liver, on
a plate, to present to the lady, and was full of joy and gratitude
that so pious and chaste a maiden should have entered this
convent. "Ah, yes! it was indeed terrible to see how the convent
gates lay open, and the men-folk walked in and out, as the lady
herself had seen yesterday. And would sister Sidonia believe it,
sometimes the carls came in bare-legged? Not alone old Matthias
Winterfeld, the convent porter, but others--yea, even in their
shirt-sleeves sometimes--oh, it was shocking even to think of! She
had talked about it long enough, but no one heeded her, though
truly she was sub-prioress, and ought to have authority. However,
if sister Sidonia would make common cause with her from this time
forth, modesty and sobriety might yet be brought back to their
blessed cloister."

Sidonia desired nothing better than to make common cause with the
good, simple Dorothea--but for her own purposes. Therefore she
answered, "Ay, truly; this matter of the open gates was a grievous
sin and shame. What else were these giddy wantons thinking of but
lovers and matrimony? She really blushed to see them yesterday."

_Illa._--"True, true; that was just it. All about love and
marriage was the talk for ever amongst them. It made her heart die
within her to think what the young maidens were nowadays."

_Hæc._--"Had she any instances to bring forward; what had
they done?"

_Illa._--"Alas! instances enough. Why, not long since, a nun
had married with a clerk, and this last chaplain, David Grosskopf,
had taken another nun to wife himself."

_Hæc._--"Oh, she was ready to faint with horror."

_Illa _ (sobbing, weeping, and falling upon Sidonia's
neck).--"God be praised that she had found one righteous soul in
this Sodom and Gomorrah. Now she would swear friendship to her for
life and death! And had she a little drop of wine, just to pour on
the haddock's liver? it tasted so much better stewed in wine! but
she would go for some of her own. The liver must just get one turn
on the fire, and then the butter and spices have to be added. She
would teach her how to do it if she did not know, only let the old
maid make up the fire."

_Hæc_.--"What was she talking about? Cooking was child's play
to her; she had other things to cook than haddocks' livers."

_Illa_ (weeping).--"Ah! let not her chaste sister be angry;
she had meant it all in kindness."

_Hæc_.--"No doubt--but why did she call the convent a Sodom
and Gomorrah? Did the nuns ever admit a lover into their cells?"

_Illa_ (screaming with horror).--"No, no, fie! how could the
chaste sister bring her lips to utter such words?"

_Hæc_.--"What did she mean, then, by the Sodom and Gomorrah?"

_Illa_.--"Alas! the whole world was a Sodom and Gomorrah,
why, then, not the convent, since it lay in the world? For though
we do not sin in words or works, yet we may sin in thought; and
this was evidently the case with some of these young things, for
if the talk in their hearing was of marriage, they laughed and
tittered, so that it was a scandal and abomination!"

_Hæc_.--"But had she anything else to tell her--what had she
come for?"

_Illa_.--"Ah! she had forgotten. The abbess sent to say, that
she must begin to knit the gloves directly for the canons of
Camyn. Here was the thread."

_Hæc_.--"Thousand devils! what did she mean?" _Illa_
(crossing herself).--"Ah! the pious sister might let the devils
alone, though (God be good to us) the world was indeed full of
them!"

_Hæc_.--"What did she mean, then, by this knitting--to talk
to her so--the lady of castles and lands?"

_Illa_.--"Why, the matter was thus. The reverend canons of
Camyn, who were twelve in number, purchased their beer always from
the convent--for such had been the usage from the old Catholic
times--and sent a waggon regularly every half-year to fetch it
home. In return for this goodness, the nuns knit a pair of thread
gloves for each canon in spring, and a pair of woollen ones in
winter."

_Hæc_.--"Then the devil may knit them if he chooses, but she
never will. What! a lady of her rank to knit gloves for these old
fat paunches! No, no; the abbess must come to her! Send a message
to bid her come."

And truly, in a little time, the abbess, Magdalena von Petersdorf,
came as she was bid; for she had resolved to try and conquer
Sidonia's pride and insolence by softness and humility.

But what a storm of words fell upon the worthy matron!

"Was this treatment, forsooth, for a noble lady? To be told to
knit gloves for a set of lazy canons. Marry, she had better send
the men at once to her room, to have them tried on. No wonder that
levity and wantonness should reign throughout the convent!"

Here the good mother interposed--

"But could not sister Sidonia moderate her language a little? Such
violence ill became a spiritual maiden. If she would not hold by
the old usage, let her say so quietly, and then she herself, the
abbess, would undertake to knit the gloves, since the work so
displeased her."

Then she turned to leave the room, but, on opening the door,
tumbled right against sister Anna Apenborg, who was stuck up close
to it, with her ear against the crevice, listening to what was
passing inside. Anna screamed at first, for the good mother's head
had given her a stout blow, but recovering quickly, as the two
prioresses passed out, curtsied to Sidonia--

"Her name was Anna Apenborg. Her father, Elias, dwelt in
Nadrensee, near Old Stettin, and her great-great-grandfather,
Caspar, had been with Bogislaff X. in the Holy Land. She had come
to pay her respects to the new sister, for she was cooking in the
kitchen yesterday when the lady arrived, and never got a sight of
her, but she heard that this dear new sister was a great lady,
with castles and lands. Her father's cabin was only a poor thing
thatched with straw," &c.

All this pleased the proud Sidonia mightily, so she beckoned her
into the room, where the aforesaid Anna immediately began to stare
about her, and devour everything with her eyes; but seeing such
scanty furniture, remarked inquiringly--

"The dear sister's goods are, of course, on the road?"

This spoiled all Sidonia's good-humour in a moment, and she
snappishly asked--

"What brought her there?"

Hereupon the other excused herself--

"The maid had told her that the dear sister was going to eat her
salmon for her lunch, with bread and butter, but it was much
better with kale, and if she had none, her maid might come down
now and cut some in the garden. This was what she had to say. She
heard, indeed, that the sub-prioress and Agnes Kleist ate their
salmon stewed in butter, but that was too rich; for one should be
very particular about salmon, it was so apt to disagree. However,
if sister Sidonia would just mind her, she would teach her all the
different ways of dressing it, and no one was ever the worse for
eating salmon, if they followed her plan."

But before Sidonia had time to answer, the chatterbox had run to
the door and lifted the latch--

"There was a strange woman in the courtyard, with something under
her apron. She must go and see what it was, but would be back
again instantly with the news."

In a short time she returned, bringing along with her Sheriff
Sparling's dairy-woman, who carried a large bundle of flax under
her apron. This she set down before Sidonia--

"And his worship bid her say that she must spin all this for him
without delay, for he wanted a new set of shirts, and the thread
must be with the weaver by Christmas."

When Sidonia heard this, she fell into a right rage in earnest--

"May the devil wring his ears, the peasant carl! To send such a
message to a lady of her degree!"

Then she pitched the flax out of the door, and wanted to shove the
dairy-woman out after it, but she stopped, and said--

"His worship gave all the nuns a bushel of seed for their trouble,
and sowed it for them; so she had better do as the others did."

Sidonia, however, was not to be appeased--

"May the devil take her and her flax, if she did not trot out of
that instantly."

So she pushed the poor woman out, and then panting and blowing
with rage, asked Anna Apenborg to tell her what this boor of a
sheriff was like?

_Illa_.--"He was a strange man. Ate fish every day, and
always cooked the one way, namely, in beer. How this was possible
she could not understand. To-day she heard he was to have pike for
his dinner."

_Hæc_.--"Was she asking the fool what he ate? What did she
care about his dinners? But what sort of man was he, and did all
the nuns, in truth, spin for him?"

_Illa_.--"Ay, truly, except Barbara Schetzkow; she was dead
now. But once when he went storming to her cell, she just turned
him out, and so she had peace ever after. For he roared like a
bear, but, in truth, was a cowardly rabbit, this same sheriff. And
she heard, that one time, when he was challenged by a noble, he
shrank away, and never stood up to his quarrel."

But just then in walked the sheriff himself, with a horse-whip in
his hand. He was a thick-set, grey-headed fellow, and roared at
Sidonia--

"What! thou old, lean hag--so thou wilt spin no flax? May the
devil take thee, but thou shalt obey my commands!"

While he thus scolded, Sidonia quietly caught hold of the broom,
and grasping it with both hands, gave such a blow with the handle
on the grey pate of the sheriff, that he tumbled against the door,
while she screamed out--

"Ha! thou peasant boor, take that for calling me a hag--the lady
of castle and lands!"

Then she struck him again and again, till the sheriff at last got
the door open and bolted out, running down the stairs as hard as
he could, and into the courtyard, where, when he was safely
landed, he shook the horsewhip up at Sidonia's windows, crying
out--

"I will make you pay dear for this. Anna Apenborg was witness of
the assault. I will swear information this very day before his
Highness, how the hag assaulted me, the sheriff, and
superintendent of the convent, in the performance of my duty, and
pray him to deliver an honourable cloister from the presence of
such a vagabond."

Then he went to the abbess, and begged her and the nuns to sustain
him in his accusation--

"Such wickedness and arrogance had never yet been seen under the
sun. Let the good abbess only feel his head; there was a lump as
big as an egg on it. Truly, he had had a mind to horsewhip her
black and blue; but that would have been illegal; so he thanked
God that he had restrained himself."

Then he made the abbess feel his head again; also Anna Apenborg,
who happened to come in that moment. But the worthy mother knew
not what to do. She told the sheriff of Sidonia's behaviour as she
drove into the convent; also how she had possessed herself of the
refectory by force, refused to knit or spin, and had sent for her,
the abbess, bidding her come to her, as if she were no better than
a serving-wench.

At last the sheriff desired all the nuns to be sent for, and in
their presence drew up a petition to his Highness, praying that
the honourable convent might be delivered from the presence of
this dragon, for that no peace could be expected within the walls
until this vagabond and evil-minded old hag were turned out on the
road again, or wherever else his Highness pleased. Every one
present signed this, with the exception of Anna Apenborg and the
sub-prioress, Dorothea Stettin. And many think that in
consideration of this gentleness, Sidonia afterwards spared their
lives, and did not bring them to a premature grave, like as she
did the worthy abbess and others.

For the next time that she caught Anna at her old habit of
listening, Sidonia said, while boxing her--

"You should get something worse than a box on the ear, only for
your refusal to sign that lying petition to his Highness."

_Summa_.--After a few days, an answer arrived from his Grace
the Duke of Stettin, and the abbess, with the sheriff, proceeded
with it to Sidonia's apartment.

They found her brewing beer, an art in which she excelled; and the
letter which they handed to her ran thus, according to the copy
received likewise by the convent:--

"WE, BOGISLAFF, BY THE GRACE OF GOD, DUKE OF STETTIN, &c.

"Having heard from our sheriff and the pious sisterhood of
Marienfliess, of thy unseemly behaviour, in causing uproars and
tumults in the convent; further, of thy having struck our worthy
sheriff on the head with a broom-stick--We hereby declare, desire,
and command, that, unless thou givest due obedience to the
authorities, lay and spiritual, doing this well, with humility and
meekness, even as the other sisters, the said authorities shall
have full power to turn thee out of the convent, by means of their
bailiffs or otherwise, as they please, giving thee back again to
that perdition from which thou wast rescued. Further, thou art
herewith to deliver up the refectory to the abbess, of which We
hear thou hast shamefully possessed thyself.

"Old Stettin, 10th November, 1603.

"BOGISLAFF."

Sidonia scarcely looked at the letter, but thrust it under the pot
on the fire, where it soon blazed away to help the brewing, and
exclaimed--

"They had forged it between them; the Prince never wrote a line of
it. Nor would he have sent it to her by the hands of her enemies.
Let it burn there. Little trouble would she take to read their
villainy. But never fear, they should have something in return for
their pains."

Hereupon she blew on them both, and they had scarcely reached the
court, after leaving her apartment, when both were seized with
excruciating pains in their limbs; both the sheriff and the abbess
were affected in precisely the same way--a violent pain first in
the little finger, then on through the hand, up the arm, finally,
throughout the whole frame, as if the members were tearing
asunder, till they both screamed aloud for very agony. Doctor
Schwalenberg is sent for from Stargard, but his salve does no
good; they grow worse rather, and their cries are dreadful to
listen to, for the pain has become intolerable.

So my brave sheriff turns from a roaring ox into a poor cowardly
hare, and sends off the dairy-woman with a fine haunch of venison
and a sweetbread to Sidonia: "His worship's compliments to the
illustrious lady with these, and begged to know if she could send
him anything good for the rheumatism, which had attacked him quite
suddenly. The Stargard doctor was not worth the air he breathed,
and his salve had only made him worse in place of better. He would
send the illustrious lady also some pounds of wax-lights; she
might like them through the winter, but they were not made yet."

When Sidonia heard this she laughed loudly, danced about, and
repeated the verse which was then heard for the first time from
her lips; but afterwards she made use of it, when about any evil
deed:--

"Also kleien und also kratzen,
Meine Hunde und meine Katzen."

["So claw and so scratch,
My dogs and my cats."]

The dairy-woman stood by in silent wonder, first looking at
Sidonia, then at Wolde, who began to dance likewise, and
chanted:--

"Also kleien und also kratzen,
Unsre Hunde und unsre Katzen."

["So claw and so scratch,
Our dogs and our cats."]

At last Sidonia answered, "This time I will help him; but if he
ever bring the roaring ox out of the stall again, assuredly he
will repent it."

Hereon the dairy-mother turned to depart, but suddenly stood quite
still, staring at Anne Wolde; at length said, "Did I not see thee
years ago spinning flax in my mother's cellar, when the folk
wanted to bring thee to an ill end?"

But the hag denied it all--"The devil may have been in her
mother's cellar, but she had never seen Marienfliess in her life
before, till she came hither with this illustrious lady."

So the other seemed to believe her, and went out; and by the time
she reached her master's door, his pains had all vanished, so that
he rode that same day at noon to the hunt.

The poor abbess heard of all this through Anna Apenborg, and
thereupon bethought herself of a little embassy likewise.

So she bid Anna take all sorts of good pastry, and a new kettle,
and greet the Lady Sidonia from her--"Could the dear sister give
her anything for the rheumatism?" She heard the sheriff was quite
cured, and all the doctor's salves and plasters were only making
her worse. She sent the dear sister a few dainties--_item_, a
new kettle, as her own kettle had not yet arrived. _Item_,
she begged her acceptance of all the furniture, &c., which she had
lent her for her apartment.

At this second message, the horrible witch laughed and danced as
before, repeating the same couplet; and the old hag, Wolde, danced
behind her like her shadow.

Now Anna Apenborg's curiosity was excited in the highest degree at
all this, and her feet began to beat up and down on the floor as
if she were dying to dance likewise; at last she exclaimed, "Ah,
dear lady! what is the meaning of that? Could you not teach it to
me, if it cures the rheumatism? that is, if there be no devil's
work in it (from which God keep us). I have twelve pounds of wool
lying by me; will you take it, dear lady, for teaching me the
secret?"

But Sidonia answered, "Keep your wool, good Anna, and I will keep
my secret, seeing that it is impossible for me to teach it to you;
for know, that a woman can only learn it of a man, and a man of a
woman; and this we call the doctrine of sympathies. However, go
your ways now, and tell the abbess that, if she does my will, I
will visit her and see what I can do to help her; but, remember,
my will she must do."

Hereupon sister Anna was all eagerness to know what her will was,
but Sidonia bade her hold her tongue, and then locked up the
viands in the press, while Wolde went into the kitchen with the
kettle, where Anna Apenborg followed her slowly, to try and pick
something out of the old hag, but without any success, as one may
easily imagine.




CHAPTER II.

_How Sidonia visits the abbess, Magdalena von Petersdorf, and
explains her wishes, but is diverted to other objects by a sight
of David Ludeck, the chaplain to the convent._


When Sidonia went to visit the abbess, as she had promised, she
found her lying in bed and moaning, so that it might have melted
the heart of a stone; but the old witch seemed quite
surprised--"What could be the matter with the dear, good mother?
but by God's help she would try and cure her. Only, concerning
this little matter of the refectory, it might as well be settled
first, for Anna Apenborg told her the room was to be taken from
her; but would not the good mother permit her to keep it?"

And when the tortured matron answered, "Oh yes; keep it, keep it,"
Sidonia went on--

"There was just another little favour she expected for curing her
dear mother (for, by God's help, she expected to cure her). This
was, to make her sub-prioress in place of Dorothea Stettin; for,
in the first place, the situation was due to her rank, she being
the most illustrious lady in the convent, dowered with castles and
lands; secondly, because her illustrious forefathers had helped to
found this convent; and thirdly, it was due to her age, for she
was the natural mother of all these young doves, and much more
fitted to keep them in order and strict behaviour than Dorothea
Stettin."

Here the abbess answered, "How could she make her sub-prioress
while the other lived? This was not to be done? Truly sister
Dorothea was somewhat prudish and whining, this she could not
deny, for she had suffered many crosses in her path; but, withal,
she was an upright, honest creature, with the best and simplest
heart in the world; and so little selfishness, that verily she
would lay down her life for the sisterhood, if it were necessary."

_Illa_.--"A good heart was all very well, but what could it
do without respect? and how could a poor fool be respected who
fell into fits if she saw a bride, particularly here, where the
young sisters thought of nothing but marriage from morning till
night."

_Hæc_.--"Yet she was held in great respect and honour by all
the sisterhood, as she herself could testify."

_Illa_.--"Stuff! she must be sub-prioress, and there was an
end of it, or the abbess might lie groaning there till she was as
stiff as a pole."

"Alas! Sidonia," answered the abbess, "I would rather lie here as
stiff as a pole--or, in other words, lie here a corpse, for I
understand thy meaning--than do aught that was unjust."

_Illa_.--"What was unjust? The old goose need not be turned
out of her office by force, but persuaded out of it--that would be
an easy matter, if she were so humble and excellent a creature."

_Hæc_.--"But then deceit must be practised, and that she
could never bring herself to."

_Illa_.--"Yet you could all practise deceit against me, and
send off that complaint to his Highness the Prince."

_Hæc_.--"There was no falsehood there nor deceit, but the
openly expressed wish of the whole convent, and of his worship the
sheriff."

_Illa_.--"Then let the whole convent and his worship the
sheriff make her well again; she would not trouble herself about
the matter."

Whereupon she rose to depart, but the suffering abbess stretched
out her hands, and begged, for the sake of Jesus, that she would
release her from this torture! "Take everything--everything thou
wishest, Sidonia--only leave me my good conscience. Thy dying hour
must one day come too; oh! think on that."

_Illa_.--"The dying hour is a long way off yet" (and she
moved to the door).

_Hæc _(murmuring):--

"Why should health from God estrange thee?
Morning cometh and may change thee;
Life, to-day, its hues may borrow
Where the grave-worm feeds to-morrow."

_Illa_.--"Look to yourself then. Speak! Make me sub-prioress,
and be Cured on the instant."

_Hæc _ (turning herself back upon the pillow).--"No, no,
temptress; begone:--

"'Softest pillow for the dying,
Is a conscience void of dread.'

Go, leave me; my life is in the hand of God. 'For if we live, we
live unto the Lord; and if we die, we die unto the Lord. Living,
therefore, or dying, we are the Lord's.'"

So saying, the pious mother turned her face to the wall, and
Sidonia went out of the chamber.

In a little while, however, she returned--"Would the good mother
promise, at least, to offer no opposition, if Dorothea Stettin
proposed, of her own free will, to resign the office of
sub-prioress? If so, let her reach forth her hand; she would soon
find the pains leave her."

The poor abbess assented to this, and oh, wonder! as it came, so
it went; first out of the little finger, and then by degrees out
of the whole body, so that the old mother wept for joy, and
thanked her murderess.

Just then the door opened, and David Ludeck, the chaplain, whom
the abbess had sent for, entered in his surplice. He was a fine
tall man, of about thirty-five years, with bright red lips and
jet-black beard.

He wondered much on hearing how the abbess had been cured by what
Sidonia called "sympathies," and smelled devil's work in it, but
said nothing--for he was afraid; spoke kindly to the witch-hag
even, and extolled her learning and the nobility of her race;
declaring that he knew well that the Von Borks had helped mainly
to found this cloister.

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