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Sidonia The Sorceress V2

W >> William Mienhold >> Sidonia The Sorceress V2




And now any one would think that the grapes were sour even for the
sheriff; nevertheless he came riding to us soon after, and without
more ado asked my daughter in marriage for his huntsman. Moreover,
he promised to build him a house of his own in the forest;
_item_, to give him pots and kettles, crockery, bedding, &c.,
seeing that he had stood godfather to the young fellow, who,
moreover, had ever borne himself well during seven years he had
been in his service. Hereupon my daughter answered that his
lordship had already heard that she would keep house for nobody
but her papa, and that she was still much too young to become a
huswife.

This, however, did not seem to anger him, but, after he had talked
a long time to no purpose, he took leave quite kindly, like a cat
which pretends to let a mouse go, and creeps behind the corners,
but she is not in earnest, and presently springs out upon it
again. For doubtless he saw that he had set to work stupidly;
wherefore he went away in order to begin his attack again after a
better fashion, and Satan went with him, as whilom with Judas
Iscariot,




CHAPTER XIII.

_What more happened during the winter--Item, how in the spring
witchcraft began in the village._


Nothing else of note happened during the winter, save that the
merciful God bestowed a great plenty of fish both from the
Achterwater and the sea, and the parish again had good food; so
that it might be said of us, as it is written, "For a small moment
have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee."
[Footnote: Isa. liv. 7.] Wherefore we were not weary of praising
the Lord; and the whole congregation did much for the church,
buying new pulpit and altar cloths, seeing that the enemy had
stolen the old ones. _Item_, they desired to make good to me
the money I had paid for the new cups, which, however, I would not
take.

There were still, however, about ten peasants in the parish who
had not been able to buy their seed-corn for the spring, inasmuch
as they had spent all their earnings on cattle and corn for bread.
I therefore made an agreement with them that I would lend them the
money for it, and that if they could not repay me this year, they
might the next, which offer they thankfully took; and we sent
seven waggons to Friedland, in Mecklenburg, to fetch seed-corn for
us all. For my beloved brother-in-law, Martin Behring, in Hamburg,
had already sent me by the schipper Wulf, who had sailed home by
Christmas, 700 florins for the amber: may the Lord prosper it with
him!

Old Thiemcke died this winter in Loddin, who used to be the
midwife in the parish, and had also brought my child into the
world. Of late, however, she had had but little to do, seeing that
in this year I only baptized two children, namely, Jung his son in
Uekeritze, and Lene Hebers her little daughter, the same whom the
Imperialists afterwards speared. _Item_, it was now full five
years since I had married the last couple. Hence any one may guess
that I might have starved to death, had not the righteous God so
mercifully considered and blessed me in other ways. Wherefore to
Him alone be all honour and glory. Amen.

Meanwhile, however, it so happened that, not long after the
sheriff had last been here, witchcraft began in the village. I sat
reading with my child the second book of _Virgilus_, of the
fearful destruction of the city of Troy, which was more terrible
even than that of our own village, when a cry arose that our old
neighbour Zabel his red cow, which he had bought only a few days
before, had stretched out all fours, and seemed about to die; and
this was the more strange as she had fed heartily but half-an-hour
before. My child was therefore begged to go and pluck three hairs
from its tail and bury them under the threshold of the stall; for
it was well known that if this was done by a pure maid the cow
would get better. My child then did as they would have her, seeing
that she is the only maid in the whole village (for the others are
still children); and the cow got better from that very hour,
whereat all the folks were amazed. But it was not long before the
same thing befell Witthahn her pig, whilst it was feeding
heartily. She too came running to beg my child for God's sake to
take compassion on her, and to do something for her pig, as ill
men had bewitched it. Hereupon she had pity on her also; and it
did as much good as it had done before. But the woman, who was
_gravida_, was straightway taken in labour from the fright;
and my child was scarce out of the pig-stye when the woman went
into her cottage, wailing and holding by the wall, and called
together all the women of the neighbourhood, seeing that the
proper midwife was dead, as mentioned above; and before long
something shot to the ground from under her; and when the women
stooped down to pick it up, the devil's imp, which had wings like
a bat, flew up off the ground, whizzed and buzzed about the room,
and then shot out of the window with a great noise, so that the
glass clattered down into the street. When they looked after it,
nothing was to be found. Any one may judge for himself what a
great noise this made in all the neighbourhood. And the whole
village believed that it was no one but old Seden his squint-eyed
wife that had brought forth such a devil's brat.

But the people soon knew not what to believe. For that woman her
cow got the same thing as all the other cows; wherefore she too
came lamenting, and begged my daughter to take pity on her as on
the rest, and to cure her poor cow for the love of God. That if
she had taken it ill of her that she had said anything about going
into service with the sheriff, she could only say she had done it
for the best, &c. _Summa_, she talked over my unhappy child
to go and cure her cow.

Meanwhile I was on my knees every Sunday before the Lord with the
whole congregation, praying that He would not allow the evil one
to take from us that which His mercy had once more bestowed upon
us after such extreme want; _item_, that he would bring to
light the _auctor_ of such devilish works, so that he might
receive the punishment he deserved.

But all was of no avail. For a very few days had passed when the
mischief befell Stoffer Zuter his spotted cow, and he, too, like
all the rest, came running to fetch my daughter; she accordingly
went with him, but could do no good, and the beast died under her
hands.

_Item_, Katy Berow had bought a little pig with the money my
daughter had paid her in the winter for spinning, and the poor
woman kept it like a child, and let it run about her room. This
little pig got the mischief, like all the rest, in the twinkling
of an eye; and when my daughter was called it grew no better, but
also died under her hands; whereupon the poor woman made a great
outcry and tore her hair for grief, so that my child was moved to
pity her, and promised her another pig next time my sow should
litter. Meantime another week passed over, during which I went on,
together with the whole congregation, to call upon the Lord for
His merciful help, but all in vain, when the same thing happened
to old wife Seden her little pig. Whereupon she again came running
for my daughter with loud outcries, and although my child told her
that she must have seen herself that nothing she could do for the
cattle cured them any longer, she ceased not to beg and pray her,
and to lament, till she went forth to do what she could for her
with the help of God. But it was all to no purpose, inasmuch as
the little pig died before she left the stye.

What think you this devil's whore then did? After she had run
screaming through the village she said that any one might see that
my daughter was no longer a maid, else why could she now do no
good to the cattle, whereas she had formerly cured them? She
supposed my child had lost her maiden honour on the Streckelberg,
whither she went so often this spring, and that God only knew who
had taken it! But she said no more then, and we did not hear the
whole until afterwards. And it is indeed true that my child had
often walked on the Streckelberg this spring both with me and also
alone, in order to seek for flowers and to look upon the blessed
sea, while she recited aloud, as she was wont, such verses out of
_Virgilius_ as pleased her best (for whatever she read a few
times that she remembered).

Neither did I forbid her to take these walks, for there were no
wolves now left on the Streckelberg, and even if there had been
they always fly before a human creature in the summer season.
Howbeit, I forbade her to dig for amber. For as it now lay deep,
and we knew not what to do with the earth we threw up, I resolved
to tempt the Lord no further, but to wait till my store of money
grew very scant before we would dig any more.

But my child did not do as I had bidden her, although she had
promised she would, and of this her disobedience came all our
misery. (O blessed Lord, how grave a matter is Thy holy fourth
commandment! [Footnote: In Luther's version.]) For as his
reverence Johannes Lampius, of Crummin, who visited me this
spring, had told me that the Cantor of Wolgast wanted to sell the
_Opp. St. Augustini_, and I had said before her that I
desired above all things to buy that book, but had not money
enough left; she got up in the night without my knowledge to dig
for amber, meaning to sell it as best she might at Wolgast, in
order secretly to present me with the _Opp. St. Augustini_ on
my birthday, which falls on the 28th _mensis Augusti_. She
had always covered over the earth she cast up with twigs of fir,
whereof there were plenty in the forest, so that no one should
perceive anything of it.

Meanwhile, however, it befell that the young _nobilis_
Rüdiger of Nienkerken came riding one day to gather news of the
terrible witchcraft that went on in the village. When I told him
all about it he shook his head doubtingly, and said he believed
that all witchcraft was nothing but lies and deceit; whereat I was
struck with great horror, inasmuch as I had hitherto held the
young lord to be a wiser man, and now could not but see that he
was an atheist. He guessed what my thoughts were, and with a smile
he answered me by asking whether I had ever read Johannes Wierus,
[Footnote: A Netherland physician, who, long before Spee or
Thomasius, attacked the wicked follies of the belief in witchcraft
prevalent in his time in the paper entitled _Confulatio
opinionum de magorum Dæmonomia_, Frankfort, 1590, and was
therefore denounced by Bodinus and others as one of the worst
magicians. It is curious that this liberal man had in another
book, _De præstigiis Dæmonum_, taught the method of raising
devils, and described the whole of hell, with the names and
surnames of its 572 princes.] who would hear nothing of
witchcraft, and who argued that all witches were melancholy
persons who only imagined to themselves that they had a
_pactum_ with the devil; and that to him they seemed more
worthy of pity than of punishment? Hereupon I answered that I had
not indeed read any such book (for say, who can read all that
fools write?), but that the appearances here and in all other
places proved that it was a monstrous error to deny the reality of
witchcraft, inasmuch as people might then likewise deny that there
were such things as murder, adultery, and theft.

But he called my _argumentum_ a _dilemma_, and after he
had discoursed a great deal of the devil, all of which I have
forgotten, seeing it savoured strangely of heresy, he said he
would relate to me a piece of witchcraft which he himself had seen
at Wittenberg.

It seems that one morning, as an Imperial captain mounted his good
charger at the Elstergate in order to review his company, the
horse presently began to rage furiously, reared, tossed his head,
snorted, kicked, and roared not as horses use to neigh, but with a
sound as though the voice came from a human throat, so that all
the folks were amazed, and thought the horse bewitched. It
presently threw the captain and crushed his head with its hoof, so
that he lay writhing on the ground, and straightway set off at
full speed. Hereupon a trooper fired his carabine at the bewitched
horse, which fell in the midst of the road, and presently died.
That he, Riidiger, had then drawn near, together with many others,
seeing that the colonel had forthwith given orders to the surgeon
of the regiment to cut open the horse and see in what state it was
inwardly. However, that everything was quite right, and both the
surgeon and army physician testified that the horse was thoroughly
sound; whereupon all the people cried out more than ever about
witchcraft. Mean-while he himself (I mean the young
_nobilis_) saw a thin smoke coming out from the horse's
nostrils, and on stooping down to look what it might be, he drew
out a match as long as my finger, which still smouldered, and
which some wicked fellow had privately thrust into its nose with a
pin. Hereupon all thoughts of witchcraft were at an end, and
search was made for the culprit, who was presently found to be no
other than the captain's own groom. For one day that his master
had dusted his jacket for him he swore an oath that he would have
his revenge, which indeed the provost-marshal himself had heard as
he chanced to be standing in the stable. _Item_, another
soldier bore witness that he had seen the fellow cut a piece off
the fuse not long before he led out his master's horse. And thus,
thought the young lord, would it be with all witchcraft if it were
sifted to the bottom; like as I myself had seen at Giitzkow, where
the devil's apparition turned out to be a cordwainer, and that one
day I should own that it was the same sort of thing here in our
village. By reason of this speech I liked not the young nobleman
from that hour forward, believing him to be an atheist. Though,
indeed, afterwards, I have had cause to see that he was in the
right, more's the pity, for had it not been for him what would
have become of my daughter?

But I will say nothing beforehand. _Summa_: I walked about
the room in great displeasure at his words, while the young lord
began to argue with my daughter upon witchcraft, now in Latin, and
now in the vulgar tongue, as the words came into his mouth, and
wanted to hear her mind about it. But she answered that she was a
foolish thing, and could have no opinion on the matter; but that,
nevertheless, she believed that what happened in the village could
not be by natural means. Hereupon the maid called me out of the
room (I forget what she wanted of me); but when I came back again
my daughter was as red as scarlet, and the nobleman stood close
before her. I therefore asked her, as soon as he had ridden off,
whether anything had happened, which she at first denied, but
afterwards owned that he had said to her while I was gone, that he
knew but one person who could bewitch; and when she asked him who
that person was, he caught hold of her hand and said, "It is
yourself, sweet maid; for you have thrown a spell upon my heart,
as I feel right well!" But that he said nothing further, but only
gazed on her face with eager eyes, and this it was that made her
so red.

But this is the way with maidens; they ever have their secrets if
one's back is turned but for a minute; and the proverb--

"To drive a goose and watch a maid
Needs the devil himself to aid,"

is but too true, as will be shown hereafter, more's the pity!




CHAPTER XIV.

_How old Seden disappeared all on a sudden--Item, how the great
Gustavus Adolphus came to Pomeranla, and took the fort at
Peenemünde._


We were now left for some time in peace from witchcraft; unless,
indeed, I reckon the caterpillars, which miserably destroyed my
orchard, and which truly were a strange thing. For the trees
blossomed so fair and sweetly, that one day as we were walking
under them, and praising the almighty power of the most merciful
God, my child said, "If the Lord goes on to bless us so
abundantly, it will be Christmas Eve with us every night of next
winter!" But things soon fell out far otherwise. For all in a
moment the trees were covered with such swarms of caterpillars
(great and small, and of every shape and colour), that one might
have measured them by the bushel; and before long my poor trees
looked like brooms; and the blessed fruit, which was so well set,
all fell off, and was scarce good enough for the pigs. I do not
choose to lay this to any one, though I had my own private
thoughts upon the matter, and have them yet. However, my barley,
whereof I had sown about three bushels out on the common, shot up
bravely. On my field I had sown nothing, seeing that I dreaded the
malice of Satan. Neither was corn at all plentiful throughout the
parish, in part because they had sown no winter crops, and in part
because the summer crops did not prosper. However, in all the
villages a great supply of fish was caught by the mercy of God,
especially herring; but they were very low in price. Moreover,
they killed many seals; and at Whitsuntide I myself killed one as
I walked by the sea with my daughter. The creature lay on a rock
close to the water, snoring like a Christian. Thereupon I pulled
off my shoes and drew near him softly, so that he heard me not,
and then struck him over his nose with my staff (for a seal cannot
bear much on his nose), so that he tumbled over into the water;
but he was quite stunned, and I could easily kill him outright. It
was a fat beast, though not very large; and we melted forty pots
of train-oil out of his fat, which we put by for a winter store.

Meanwhile, however, something seized old Seden all at once, so
that he wished to receive the Holy Sacrament. When I went to him,
he could give no reason for it; or perhaps he would give none for
fear of his old Lizzie, who was always watching him with her
squinting eyes, and would not leave the room. However, Zuter his
little girl, a child near twelve years old, said that a few days
before, while she was plucking grass for the cattle under the
garden hedge by the road, she heard the husband and wife
quarrelling violently again, and that the goodman threw in her
teeth that he now knew of a certainty that she had a familiar
spirit, and that he would straightway go and tell it to the
priest. Albeit this is only a child's tale, it may be true for all
that, seeing that children and fools, they say, speak the truth.

But be that as it may. _Summa:_ my old warden grew worse and
worse; and though I visited him every morning and evening, as I
use to do to my sick, in order to pray with him, and often
observed that he had somewhat on his mind, nevertheless he could
not disburthen himself of it, seeing that old Lizzie never left
her post.

This went on for a while, when at last one day about noon, he sent
to beg me to scrape a little silver off the new sacramental cup,
because he had been told that he should get better if he took it
mixed with the dung of fowls. For some time I would not consent,
seeing that I straightway suspected that there was some devilish
mischief behind it; but he begged and prayed, till I did as he
would have me.

And lo and behold, he mended from that very hour, so that when I
went to pray with him at evening, I found him already sitting on
the bench with a bowl between his knees, out of which he was
supping broth. However, he would not pray (which was strange,
seeing that he used to pray so gladly, and often could not wait
patiently for my coming, insomuch that he sent after me two or
three times if I was not at hand, or elsewhere employed), but he
told me he had prayed already, and that he would give me the cock,
whose dung he had taken, for my trouble, as it was a fine large
cock, and he had nothing better to offer for my Sunday's dinner.
And as the poultry was by this time gone to roost, he went up to
the perch which was behind the stove, and reached down the cock,
and put it under the arm of the maid, who was just come to call me
away.

Not for all the world, however, would I have eaten the cock, but I
turned it out to breed. I went to him once more and asked whether
I should give thanks to the Lord next Sunday for his recovery;
whereupon he answered that I might do as I pleased in the matter.
Hereat I shook my head, and left the house, resolving to send for
him as soon as ever I should hear that his old Lizzie was from
home (for she often went to fetch flax to spin from the sheriff).
But mark what befell within a few days! We heard an outcry that
old Seden was missing, and that no one could tell what had become
of him. His wife thought he had gone up into the Streckelberg,
whereupon the accursed witch ran howling to our house and asked my
daughter whether she had not seen anything of her goodman, seeing
that she went up the mountain every day. My daughter said she had
not; but, woe is me, she was soon to hear enough of him. For one
morning, before sunrise, as she came down into the wood on her way
back from her forbidden digging after amber, she heard a
woodpecker (which, no doubt, was old Lizzie herself), crying so
dolefully, close beside her, that she went in among the bushes to
see what was the matter. There was the woodpecker, sitting on the
ground before a bunch of hair, which was red, and just like what
old Seden's had been, and as soon as it espied her it flew up with
its beak full of the hair, and slipped into a hollow tree. While
my daughter still stood looking at this devil's work, up came old
Paasch, who also had heard the cries of the woodpecker, as he was
cutting roofing shingles on the mountain, with his boy, and was
likewise struck with horror when he saw the hair on the ground. At
first they thought a wolf must have eaten him, and searched all
about, but could not find a single bone. On looking up they
fancied they saw something red at the very top of the tree, so
they made the boy climb up, and he forthwith cried out that here,
too, there was a great bunch of red hair, stuck to some leaves as
if with pitch, but that it was not pitch, but something speckled
red and white, like fish-guts; _item_, that the leaves all
around, even where there was no hair, were stained and spotted,
and had a very ill smell. Hereupon the lad, at his master's
bidding, threw down the clotted branch, and they two below
straightway judged that this was the hair and brains of old Seden,
and that the devil had carried him off bodily, because he would
not pray nor give thanks to the Lord for his recovery. I myself
believed the same, and told it on the Sunday as a warning to the
congregation. But further on it will be seen that the Lord had yet
greater cause for giving him into the hands of Satan, inasmuch as
he had been talked over by his wicked wife to renounce his Maker,
in the hopes of getting better. Now, however, this devil's whore
did as if her heart was broken, tearing out her red hair by whole
handfuls when she heard about the woodpecker from my child and old
Paasch, and bewailing that she was now a poor widow, and who was
to take care of her for the future, &c.

Meanwhile we celebrated on this barren shore, as best we could and
might, together with the whole Protestant Church, the 25th day
_mensis Junii_, whereon, one hundred years ago, the Estates
of the Holy Roman Empire laid their confession before the most
high and mighty Emperor Carolus V., at Augsburg; and I preached a
sermon on Matt. x. 32, of the right confession of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ, whereupon the whole congregation came to the
Sacrament. Now towards the evening of the self-same day, as I
walked with my daughter by the sea-shore, we saw several hundred
sail of ships, both great and small, round about Ruden, and
plainly heard firing, whereupon we judged forthwith that this must
be the most high and mighty king Gustavus Adolphus, who was now
coming, as he had promised, to the aid of poor persecuted
Christendom. While we were still debating a boat sailed towards us
from Oie, [Footnote: Ruden and Oie, two small islands between
Usedom and Rügen.] wherein was Kate Berow her son, who is a farmer
there, and was coming to see his old mother. The same told us that
it really was the king, who had this morning run before Ruden with
his fleet from Rügen; that a few men of Oie were fishing there at
the time, and saw how he went ashore with his officers, and
straightway bared his head and fell upon his knees. [Footnote: See
also the _Theatrum Europeum_, p. 226 fl.]

Thus, then, most gracious God, did I Thy unworthy servant enjoy a
still greater happiness and delight that blessed evening than I
had done on the blessed morn; and any one may think that I delayed
not for a moment to fall on my knees with my child, and to follow
the example of the king; and God knows I never in my life prayed
so fervently as that evening, whereon the Lord showed such a
wondrous sign upon us as to cause the deliverer of His poor
Christian people to come among them on the very day when they had
everywhere called upon Him, on their knees, for His gracious help
against the murderous wiles of the Pope and the devil. That night
I could not sleep for joy, but went quite early in the morning to
Damerow, where something had befallen Vithe his boy. I supposed
that he, too, was bewitched; but this time it was not witchcraft,
seeing that the boy had eaten something unwholesome in the forest.
He could not tell what kind of berries they were, but the
_malum_, which turned all his skin bright scarlet, soon
passed over. As I therefore was returning home shortly after, I
met a messenger from Peenemünde, whom his Majesty the high and
mighty king Gustavus Adolphus had sent to tell the sheriff that on
the 29th of June, at ten o'clock in the morning, he was to send
three guides to meet his Majesty at Coserow, and to guide him
through the woods to Swine, where the Imperialists were encamped.
_Item_, he related how his Majesty had taken the fort at
Peenemünde yesterday (doubtless the cause of the firing we heard
last evening), and that the Imperialists had run away as fast as
they could, and played the bush-ranger properly, for after setting
their camp on fire they all fled into the woods and coppices, and
part escaped to Wolgast and part to Swine.

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