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Sidonia The Sorceress V2

W >> William Mienhold >> Sidonia The Sorceress V2




Before long my poor child gave a loud cry, and cast herself upon
the bench, weeping and wailing, "What has happened, what has
happened?" I therefore thought I ought to tell her what I had
heard, namely, that she was looked upon as a witch. Whereat she
began to smile instead of weeping any more, and ran out of the
door to overtake the maid, who had already left the house, as we
had seen. She returned after an hour crying out that all the
people in the village had run away from her, when she would have
asked them whither the maid was gone. _Item_, the little
children, for whom she had kept school, had screamed, and had
hidden themselves from her: also no one would answer her a single
word, but all spat out before her, as the maid had done. On her
way home she had seen a boat on the water, and had run as fast as
she could to the shore, and called with might and main after old
Ilse, who was in the boat. But she had taken no notice of her, not
even once to look round after her, but had motioned her to be
gone. And now she went on to weep and to sob the whole day and the
whole night, so that I was more miserable than even in the time of
the great famine. But the worst was yet to come, as will be shown
in the following chapter.




CHAPTER XVII.

_How my poor child was taken up for a witch, and carried to
Pudgla._


The next day, Monday, the 12th July, at about eight in the
morning, while we sat in our grief, wondering who could have
prepared such great sorrow for us, and speedily agreed that it
could be none other than the accursed witch Lizzie Kolken, a coach
with four horses drove quickly up to the door, wherein sat six
fellows, who straightway all jumped out. Two went and stood at the
front, two at the back door, and two more, one of whom was the
constable Jacob Knake, came into the room, and handed me a warrant
from the sheriff for the arrest of my daughter, as in common
repute of being a wicked witch, and for her examination before the
criminal court. Any one may guess how my heart sunk within me when
I read this. I dropped to the earth like a felled tree, and when I
came to myself my child had thrown herself upon me with loud
cries, and her hot tears ran down over my face. When she saw that
I came to myself, she began to praise God therefore with a loud
voice, and essayed to comfort me, saying that she was innocent,
and should appear with a clean conscience before her judges.
_Item_, she repeated to me the beautiful text from Matthew,
chap. v.: "Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for My
sake."

And she begged me to rise and to throw my cassock over my doublet,
and go with her, for that without me she would not suffer herself
to be carried before the sheriff. Meanwhile, however, all the
village--men, women, and children--had thronged together before my
door; but they remained quiet, and only peeped in at the windows
as though they would have looked right through the house. When we
had both made us ready, and the constable, who at first would not
take me with them, had thought better of it, by reason of a good
fee which my daughter gave him, we walked to the coach; but I was
so helpless that I could not get up into it.

Old Paasch, when he saw this, came and helped me up into the
coach, saying, "God comfort ye! Alas, that you should ever see
your child come to this!" and he kissed my hand to take leave.

A few others came up to the coach, and would have done likewise;
but I besought them not to make my heart still heavier, and to
take Christian charge of my house and my affairs until I should
return. Also to pray diligently for me and my daughter, so that
the evil one, who had long gone about our village like a roaring
lion, and who now threatened to devour me, might not prevail
against us, but might be forced to depart from me and from my
child as from our guileless Saviour in the wilderness. But to this
none answered a word; and I heard right well, as we drove away,
that many spat out after us, and one said (my child thought it was
Berow her voice), "We would far sooner lay fire under thy coats
than pray for thee." We were still sighing over such words as
these, when we came near to the churchyard, and there sat the
accursed witch Lizzie Kolken at the door of her house with her
hymn-book in her lap, screeching out at the top of her voice, "God
the Father, dwell with us," as we drove past her: the which vexed
my poor child so sore that she swooned, and fell like one dead
upon me. I begged the driver to stop, and called to old Lizzie to
bring us a pitcher of water; but she did as though she had not
heard me, and went on to sing so that it rang again. Whereupon the
constable jumped down, and at my request ran back to my house to
fetch a pitcher of water; and he presently came back with it, and
the people after him, who began to say aloud that my child's bad
conscience had stricken her, and that she had now betrayed
herself. Wherefore I thanked God when she came to life again, and
we could leave the village. But at Uekeritze it was just the same,
for all the people had flocked together, and were standing on the
green before Labahn his house when we went by.

Nevertheless, they were quiet enough as we drove past, albeit some
few cried, "How can it be, how can it be?" I heard nothing else.
But in the forest near the watermill the miller and all his men
ran out and shouted, laughing, "Look at the witch, look at the
witch!" Whereupon one of the men struck at my poor child with the
sack which he held in his hand, so that she turned quite white,
and the flour flew all about the coach like a cloud. When I
rebuked him, the wicked rogue laughed and said, That if no other
smoke than that ever came under her nose, so much the better for
her. _Item_, it was worse in Pudgla than even at the mill.
The people stood so thick on the hill, before the castle, that we
could scarce force our way through, and the sheriff caused the
death-bell in the castle tower to toll as an _avisum_.
Whereupon more and more people came running out of the ale-houses
and cottages. Some cried out, "Is that the witch?" Others, again,
"Look at the parson's witch! the parson's witch!" and much more,
which for very shame I may not write. They scraped up the mud out
of the gutter which ran from the castle kitchen and threw it upon
us; _item_, a great stone, the which struck one of the horses
so that it shied, and belike would have upset the coach had not a
man sprung forward and held it in. All this happened before the
castle gates, where the sheriff stood smiling and looking on, with
a heron's feather stuck in his grey hat. But so soon as the horse
was quiet again he came to the coach and mocked at my child,
saying, "See, young maid, thou wouldest not come to me, and here
thou art nevertheless!" Whereupon she answered, "Yea, I come; and
may you one day come before your Judge as I come before you;"
whereunto I said, Amen, and asked him how his lordship could
answer before God and man for what he had done to a wretched man
like myself and to my child? But he answered, saying, Why had I
come with her? And when I told him of the rude people here,
_item_, of the churlish miller's man, he said that it was not
his fault, and threatened the people all around with his fist, for
they were making a great noise. Thereupon he commanded my child to
get down and to follow him, and went before her into the castle;
motioned the constable, who would have gone with them, to stay at
the foot of the steps, and began to mount the winding staircase to
the upper rooms alone with my child.

But she whispered me privately, "Do not leave me, father;" and I
presently followed softly after them. Hearing by their voices in
which chamber they were, I laid my ear against the door to listen.
And the villain offered to her that if she would love him naught
should harm her, saying he had power to save her from the people;
but that if she would not, she should go before the court next
day, and she might guess herself how it would fare with her,
seeing that he had many witnesses to prove that she had played the
wanton with Satan, and had suffered him to kiss her. Hereupon she
was silent, and only sobbed, which the arch rogue took as a good
sign, and went on, "If you have had Satan himself for a
sweetheart, you surely may love me." And he went to her and would
have taken her in his arms, as I perceived; for she gave a loud
scream, and flew to the door; but he held her fast, and begged and
threatened as the devil prompted him. I was about to go in when I
heard her strike him in the face, saying, "Get thee behind me,
Satan," so that he let her go. Whereupon she ran out at the door
so suddenly that she threw me on the ground, and fell upon me with
a loud cry. Hereat the sheriff, who had followed her, started, but
presently cried out, "Wait, thou prying parson, I will teach thee
to listen!" and ran out and beckoned to the constable who stood on
the steps below. He bade him first shut me up in one dungeon,
seeing that I was an eavesdropper, and then return and thrust my
child into another. But he thought better of it when he had come
half way down the winding-stair, and said he would excuse me this
time, and that the constable might let me go, and only lock up my
child very fast, and bring the key to him, seeing she was a
stubborn person, as he had seen at the very first hearing which he
had given her.

Hereupon my poor child was torn from me, and I fell in a swound
upon the steps. I know not how I got down them; but when I came to
myself, I was in the constable his room, and his wife was throwing
water in my face. There I passed the night sitting in a chair, and
sorrowed more than I prayed, seeing that my faith was greatly
shaken, and the Lord came not to strengthen it.




CHAPTER XVIII.

_Of the first trial, and what came thereof._


Next morning, as I walked up and down in the court, seeing that I
had many times asked the constable in vain to lead me to my child
(he would not even tell me where she lay), and for very
disquietude I had at last begun to wander about there; about six
o'clock there came a coach from Uzdom, [Footnote: Or Usedom, a
small town which gives its name to the whole island.] wherein sat
his worship, Master Samuel Pieper, _consul dirigens_,
_item_, the _camerarius_ Gebhard Wenzel, and a
_scriba_, whose name, indeed, I heard, but have forgotten it
again; and my daughter forgot it too, albeit in other things she
has an excellent memory, and, indeed, told me most of what
follows, for my old head well-nigh burst, so that I myself could
remember but little. I straightway went up to the coach, and
begged that the worshipful court would suffer me to be present at
the trial, seeing that my daughter was yet in her nonage, but
which the sheriff, who meanwhile had stepped up to the coach from
the terrace, whence he had seen all, had denied me. But his
worship Master Samuel Pieper, who was a little round man, with a
fat paunch, and a beard mingled with grey hanging down to his
middle, reached me his hand, and condoled with me like a Christian
in my trouble: I might come into court in God's name; and he
wished with all his heart that all whereof my daughter was fyled
might prove to be foul lies. Nevertheless I had still to wait full
two hours before their worships came down the winding stair again.
At last towards nine o'clock I heard the constable moving about
the chairs and benches in the judgment chamber; and as I conceived
that the time was now come, I went in and sat myself down on a
bench. No one, however, was yet there, save the constable and his
young daughter, who was wiping the table, and held a rosebud
between her lips. I was fain to beg her to give it me, so that I
might have it to smell to; and I believe that I should have been
carried dead out of the room that day if I had not had it. God is
thus able to preserve our lives even by means of a poor flower, if
so He wills it!

At length their worships came in and sat round the table,
whereupon _Dom. Consul_ motioned the constable to fetch in my
child. Meanwhile he asked the sheriff whether he had put
_Rea_ in chains, and when he said No, he gave him such a
reprimand that it went through my very marrow. But the sheriff
excused himself, saying that he had not done so from regard to her
quality, but had locked her up in so fast a dungeon, that she
could not possibly escape therefrom. Whereupon _Dom. Consul_
answered that much is possible to the devil, and that they would
have to answer for it should _Rea_ escape. This angered the
sheriff, and he replied that if the devil could convey her through
walls seven feet thick, and through three doors, he could very
easily break her chains too. Whereupon _Dom. Consul_ said
that hereafter he would look at the prison himself; and I think
that the sheriff had been so kind only because he yet hoped (as,
indeed, will hereafter be shown) to talk over my daughter to let
him have his will of her.

And now the door opened, and my poor child came in with the
constable, but walking backwards, [Footnote: This ridiculous
proceeding always took place at the first examination of a witch,
as it was imagined that she would otherwise bewitch the judges
with her looks. On this occasion indeed such an event was not
unlikely.] and without her shoes, the which she was forced to
leave without. The fellow had seized her by her long hair, and
thus dragged her up to the table, when first she was to turn round
and look upon her judges. He had a vast deal to say in the matter,
and was in every way a bold and impudent rogue, as will soon be
shown. After _Dom. Consul_ had heaved a deep sigh, and gazed
at her from head to foot, he first asked her her name, and how old
she was; _item_, if she knew why she was summoned before
them? On the last point she answered that the sheriff had already
told her father the reason; that she wished not to wrong any one,
but thought that the sheriff himself had brought upon her the
repute of a witch, in order to gain her to his wicked will.
Hereupon she told all his ways with her, from the very first, and
how he would by all means have had her for his housekeeper; and
that when she would not (although he had many times come himself
to her father his house), one day, as he went out of the door, he
had muttered in his beard, "I will have her, despite of all!"
which their servant Claus Neels had heard, as he stood in the
stable; and he had also sought to gain his ends by means of an
ungodly woman, one Lizzie Kolken, who had formerly been in his
service; that this woman, belike, had contrived the spells which
they laid to her charge: she herself knew nothing of witchcraft;
_item_, she related what the sheriff had done to her the
evening before, when she had just come, and when he for the first
time spoke out plainly, thinking that she was then altogether in
his power: nay, more, that he had come to her that very night
again, in her dungeon, and had made her the same offers, saying
that he would set her free if she would let him have his will of
her; and that when she denied him, he had struggled with her,
whereupon she had screamed aloud, and had scratched him across the
nose, as might yet be seen, whereupon he had left her; wherefore
she would not acknowledge the sheriff as her judge, and trusted in
God to save her from the hand of her enemies, as of old He had
saved the chaste Susannah.

When she now held her peace amid loud sobs, _Dom. Consul_
started up after he had looked, as we all did, at the sheriff's
nose, and had in truth espied the scar upon it, and cried out in
amaze, "Speak, for God His sake, speak, what is this that I hear
of your lordship?" Whereupon the sheriff, without changing colour,
answered, that although, indeed, he was not called upon to say
anything to their worships, seeing that he was the head of the
court, and that _Rea_, as appeared from numberless
_indicia_, was a wicked witch, and therefore could not bear
witness against him or any one else; he, nevertheless, would
speak, so as to give no cause of scandal to the court; that all
the charges brought against him by this person were foul lies; it
was, indeed, true, that he would have hired her for a housekeeper,
whereof he stood greatly in need, seeing that his old Dorothy was
already growing infirm; it was also true that he had yesterday
questioned her in private, hoping to get her to confess by fair
means, whereby her sentence would be softened, inasmuch as he had
pity on her great youth; but that he had not said one naughty word
to her, nor had he been to her in the night; and that it was his
little lap-dog, called Below, which had scratched him, while he
played with it that very morning; that his old Dorothy could bear
witness to this, and that the cunning witch had only made use of
this wile to divide the court against itself, thereby, and with
the devil's help, to gain her own advantage, inasmuch as she was a
most cunning creature, as the court would soon find out.

Hereupon I plucked up a heart, and declared that all my daughter
had said was true, and that the evening before I myself had heard,
through the door, how his lordship had made offers to her, and
would have done wantonness with her; _item_, that he had
already sought to kiss her once at Coserow; _item_, the
troubles which his lordship had formerly brought upon me in the
matter of the first-fruits.

Howbeit the sheriff presently talked me down, saying, that if I
had slandered him, an innocent man, in church, from the pulpit, as
the whole congregation could bear witness, I should doubtless find
it easy to do as much here, before the court; not to mention that
a father could, in no case, be a witness for his own child.

But _Dom. Consul_ seemed quite confounded, and was silent,
and leaned his head on the table, as in deep thought. Meanwhile
the impudent constable began to finger his beard from under his
arm; and _Dom. Consul_, thinking it was a fly, struck at him
with his hand, without even looking up; but when he felt the
constable his hand, he jumped up and asked him what he wanted?
whereupon the fellow answered, "Oh, only a louse was creeping
there, and I would have caught it."

At such impudence his worship was so exceeding wroth that he
struck the constable on the mouth, and ordered him, on pain of
heavy punishment, to leave the room.

Hereupon he turned to the sheriff, and cried angrily, "Why, in the
name of all the ten devils, is it thus your lordship keeps the
constable in order? and truly, in this whole matter there is
something which passes my understanding." But the sheriff
answered, "Not so; should you not understand it all when you think
upon the eels?"

Hereat _Dom. Consul_ of a sudden turned ghastly pale, and
began to tremble, as it appeared to me, and called the sheriff
aside into another chamber. I have never been able to learn what
that about the eels could mean.

Meanwhile _Dominus Camerarius_ Gebhard Wenzel sat biting his
pen and looking furiously--now at me, and now at my child, but
said not a word; neither did he answer _Scriba_, who often
whispered somewhat into his ear, save by a growl. At length both
their worships came back into the chamber together, and _Dom.
Consul_, after he and the sheriff had seated themselves, began
to reproach my poor child violently, saying that she had sought to
make a disturbance in the worshipful court; that his lordship had
shown him the very dog which had scratched his nose, and that,
moreover, the fact had been sworn to by the old housekeeper.

(Truly _she_ was not likely to betray him, for the old harlot
had lived with him for years, and she had a good big boy by him,
as will be seen hereafter.)

_Item_, he said that so many _indicia_ of her guilt had
come to light, that it was impossible to believe anything she
might say; she was therefore to give glory to God, and openly to
confess everything, so as to soften her punishment; whereby she
might perchance, in pity for her youth, escape with life, &c.

Hereupon he put his spectacles on his nose, and began to
cross-question her, during near four hours, from a paper which he
held in his hand. These were the main articles, as far as we both
can remember:

_Quæstio_. Whether she could bewitch?--_Responsio_. No;
she knew nothing of witchcraft.

_Q_. Whether she could charm?--_R_. Of that she knew as
little.

_Q_. Whether she had ever been on the Blocksberg?--_R_.
That was too far off for her; she knew few hills save the
Streckelberg, where she had been very often.

_Q_. What had she done there?--_R_. She had looked out
over the sea, or gathered flowers; _item_, at times carried
home an apronful of dry brushwood.

_Q_. Whether she had ever called upon the devil
there?--_R_. That had never come into her mind.

_Q_. Whether, then, the devil had appeared to her there,
uncalled?--R. God defend her from such a thing.

_Q_. So she could not bewitch?--_R_. No.

_Q_. What, then, befell Kit Zuter his spotted cow, that it
suddenly died in her presence?--_R_. She did not know; and
that was a strange question.

_Q_.. Then it would be as strange a question, why Katie Berow
her little pig had died?--_R_. Assuredly; she wondered what
they would lay to her charge.

_Q_. Then she had not bewitched them?--_R_. No; God
forbid it.

_Q_. Why, then, if she were innocent, had she promised old
Katie another little pig, when her sow should litter?--_R_.
She did that out of kind-heartedness. (And hereupon she began to
weep bitterly, and said she plainly saw that she had to thank old
Lizzie Kolken for all this, inasmuch as she had often threatened
her when she would not fulfil all her greedy desires, for she
wanted everything that came in her way; moreover, that Lizzie had
gone all about the village when the cattle were bewitched,
persuading the people that if only a pure maid pulled a few hairs
out of the beasts' tails they would get better. That she pitied
them, and knowing herself to be a maid, went to help them; and
indeed, at first it cured them, but latterly not.)

_Q_. What cattle had she cured?--_R_. Zabel his red cow;
_item_, Witthan her pig, and old Lizzie's own cow.

_Q_. Why could she afterwards cure them no more?--_R_.
She did not know, but thought-albeit she had no wish to fyle any
one--that old Lizzie Kolken, who for many a long year had been in
common repute as a witch, had done it all, and bewitched the cows
in her name and then charmed them back again, as she pleased, only
to bring her to misfortune.

_Q_. Why, then, had old Lizzie bewitched her own cow,
_item_, suffered her own pig to die, if it was she that had
made all the disturbance in the village, and could really
charm?--_R_. She did not know; but belike there was some one
(and here she looked at the sheriff) who paid her double for it
all.

_Q_. It was in vain that she sought to shift the guilt from
off herself; had she not bewitched old Paasch his crop, nay, even
her own father's, and caused it to be trodden down by the devil,
_item_, conjured all the caterpillars into her father's
orchard?--_R_. The question was almost as monstrous as the
deed would have been. There sat her father, and his worship might
ask him whether she ever had shown herself an undutiful child to
him. (Hereupon I would have risen to speak, but _Dom. Consul_
suffered me not to open my mouth, but went on with his
examination; whereupon I remained silent and downcast.)

_Q_. Whether she did likewise deny that it was through her
malice that the woman Witthan had given birth to a devil's imp,
which straightway started up and flew out at the window, so that
when the midwife sought for it it had disappeared?--_R_.
Truly she did; and indeed she had all the days of her life done
good to the people instead of harm, for during the terrible famine
she had often taken the bread out of her own mouth to share it
among the others, especially the little children. To this the
whole parish must needs bear witness, if they were asked; whereas
witches and warlocks always did evil and no good to men, as our
Lord Jesus taught (Matt. xii.), when the Pharisees blasphemed Him,
saying that He cast out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the
devils; hence his worship might see whether she could in truth be
a witch.

_Q_. He would soon teach her to talk of blasphemies; he saw
that her tongue was well hung; but she must answer the questions
he asked her, and say nothing more. The question was not what good
she had done to the poor, but _wherewithal_ she had done it?
She must now show how she and her father had of a sudden grown so
rich that she could go pranking about in silken raiment, whereas
she used to be so very poor?

Hereupon she looked towards me, and said, "Father, shall I tell?"
Whereupon I answered, "Yes, my child, now thou must openly tell
all, even though we thereby become beggars." She accordingly told
how, when our need was sorest, she had found the amber, and how
much we had gotten for it from the Dutch merchants.

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