The following morning a stormy scene took place in the private study of
the Kurfuerst in the new court. The Magistrate Hartmann Hartmanni was
seeking refuge behind a leather backed arm chair to protect himself
from the wrath of the Count of the Palatinate who pressed forward
towards him, upbraiding him with flaming countenance.
"You shall set them all free," cried the thick set Kurfuerst, "all. Do
you understand?"
"If Your Gracious Highness would only remember," replied the obdurate
Magistrate, "how great a calamity has come over the Palatinate through
this pestilence. And now should those who have been proved in a certain
measure to have introduced this pestilence through their devilish arts
be set free, among their fellow creatures, the first who would fall
victims to their wrath would be Your Highness' faithful servants who
considered it necessary to oppose these sorceresses."
"Who has told you that this pestilence is the work of witchcraft?"
replied the Kurfuerst. "Only yesterday the Church Council reported to me
in a long document--there it lies--that it was plain to all the world,
that as a punishment for the blasphemies of the Arians in Ladenburg and
Heidelberg the plague had broken out in Petersthal and Schoenau, to-day
witches and magicians are accused of being responsible for all this
misery. Whom shall I believe, you or Olevianus?"
Herr Hartmann Hartmanni assumed a wise and deliberative expression.
"Will Your Highness only consider that the one does not exclude the
other. Through the veritable belief in God and the grace of God which
accompanied this, the art of the witches was restricted and their hand
enfeebled, scarcely however had Sylvanus, Neuser and Erastus tainted
the land with their secret blasphemies, than the Almighty withdrew his
countenance, and then the allies of Satan had free play. Or is it not
then a fact, that immediately after the disclosure of the heresy, the
magic arts came to the fore?" The Kurfuerst shrugged his shoulders
contemptuously. "If Your Grace does not believe me or the Church
Council, the Juristical Faculties of Heidelberg or Tuebingen might be
called upon for a legal opinion."
"Go to the Devil with your Faculties," roared out the old gentleman,
"who every year send hundreds to the stake for the Judas reward of
twelve golden gulden. Where do you think the bones of Luther and Calvin
would be to-day, if the Kurfuerst of Saxony and the Honorable Council of
the town of Geneva had requested the legal opinion of the University
Jurists? Under heaven I know of no more venal people than those who
live by their legal opinions."
"Then I can only think of the witch's test."
"What sort of test is that?"
"Let the young woman be thrown into the Neckar, should she rise to the
top she is clearly a witch. Should she sink, then is she innocent and
escapes prosecution."
"And if she drowns or dies of fright, do you bring her back to life
again," asked the Kurfuerst with an angry look.
"Then is nothing to be done," said the Magistrate surlily.
"If the herb picking woman was found with devilish vermin," said the
Kurfuerst, "sitting near the Holtermann or by the Linsenteich at a time
of night when people are usually asleep, you can try her and execute
her, but Erastus' daughter is to be set free to-day I tell you."
"Would Your Grace only condescend to take into His high consideration,
what an evil impression would be produced, if the old witch were tried
for being at night on the Kreuzweg, and the young woman known to be
guilty of the same crime were set at liberty?"
The Kurfuerst once more approached so close to the Amtmann that that
worthy again withdrew behind his arm-chair. "I know you, Herr Amtmann,"
he said peremptorily. "I know of your amours in Ladenburg and Mosbach.
You are lusting to proceed against a well made woman, to cut the hair
from her body and do anything else which may come into your head,
because you say, that otherwise the Devil has the power to strengthen
her against the rack. You shall not touch with one of your fingers the
pious child, whom I have seen praying every Sunday in my church, and I
have often felt edified by her hearty worship, even when the discursive
sermons of your spiritual friends were sickening to me. Is this
harmless sweet young creature to be considered a devils' harlot? Who
can be safe, if such a child is tried by torture?"
"But it has been proved," replied the Amtmann with unheard of
obstinacy, "that this very maiden with her hypocritical appearance of
virtue, used to walk about at night on the cross-road which of the
whole neighbourhood has the worst repute. Three young men from
Neuenheim, named by the old woman have confirmed all her statements.
They have sworn upon oath to having met on a fine June night of this
year Erastus' daughter on the Holtermann and to have wished to lay hold
of her, the Maiden however floated on before them like a will-o'-the
wisp, and when they thought to have seized her near the haunted ruins
of the fallen Chapel she melted into thin air and disappeared."
The Kurfuerst looked at the Magistrate with astonished eyes.
"I greatly fear," continued the latter, "that we have to do with one of
those sorceresses known to the ancients as Empusae. A gentle exterior
attracts all the men to her; wherever she has been she has bewitched
all hearts by her supernatural beauty. She resembles the witch of
Bacharach with her golden hair, and perhaps she received like the
latter this beauteous adornment as a reward for the _homagium_ she paid
to Satan." The Kurfuerst made a displeased gesture, but the Amtmann
continued: "Very suspicious things are said about her. Her maid has
been heard to say among other things: that her young Mistress had a
green dress which the longer she wore, the better it looked."
"Rubbish."
"In the Stift where I, privately of course, made some inquiries, she
bore the name 'the bewitched maiden.' My instructions point out to me,
to take particular notice of any who may be considered by public
opinion to be concerned with magic. She has also often rocked herself
backwards and forwards on the pump-handle, as does the witches' fiddler
whenever he plays by the Saubrunnen for the witches' sabbath."
"Twaddle," grunted the old Prince.
"Indicium follows indicium. I have conducted the inquiry with the
greatest care. Will Your Grace try and remember what a terrible
whirlwind we had on the 4th _hujus_, which tore slates off roofs, blew
down chimneys, and tore up the oldest trees in the park. The Morning of
that very day, the young maiden drew water at sunrise out of the well,
though she had previously passed the spring, where she could have
provided herself more easily. This drawing was nothing but a pretext,
to throw three sage-leaves into the well, which together with the
repetition of a terrible incantation always calls forth a storm. On her
return from this criminal walk she had a blood-red rose in a glass; the
Castellan's maid, 'carotty Frances' she is called in the Schloss, asked
her where she had picked the flower as no roses grew in the Court-yard,
and what answer did the young damsel return? 'From the stone-wreath
over your door'!"
"Servants' tales," said the Kurfuerst disdainfully. "Of what use would a
storm have been to her which broke in her fathers' windows as well as
mine."
"She sought an opportunity of alluring the architect Laurenzano. When
the storm burst she enticed him from the rocking scaffolding into her
room, and got engaged to him at the very hour, when other Christian
maidens were kneeling in terror at the sulphurous lightning and hellish
stormwind."
The Kurfuerst became pensive. "That was told me by Erastus himself," he
thought. "The two circumstances look badly. Who are the three
witnesses, before whom she rendered herself invisible?" he then asked
of the Magistrate.
"The sons of the landlord of the Rose and Maier the Miller's apprentice
from the valley of the Siebenmuehlen."
"Bad characters, are they not?"
"Well that is as one thinks. The miller's apprentice is a hard-headed
and daring fellow who fears neither witch nor devil. He has even
overheard the black mass, performed near the white stone."
"What, do witches' conventicles take place in my dominions?" asked the
Kurfuerst horrified.
"Not two hours from Your Grace's own town." The eyes of the stout Count
became larger and larger. "Your Highness knows the desolate table land
above the spring of the valley of the Siebenmuehlen; a barren mountain
ridge, covered with thistles, blackberry bushes and strewn over with
rocks. 'The white stone' is the name of this desolate spot. Near to
this begins the wood which intersects the higher road. It was on
Midsummer's day, the miller's man was tracking a stag, when his eye
caught sight of a small fire. At first he thought it was a fire lit by
the laborers, but on approaching he beheld two huge flames as high as
towers, which illuminated the whole mountain with a red and yellow
glow, and higher up on the lofty Nistler he beheld a similar yellow
light. Around the fire he saw men and women dancing whose black
figures, whenever they approached the red fire, stood plainly out so
that their shadows reached right up to the crouching man. A curious
sound of bells, which tingled to a great distance, whistles and viols
sounded horribly exciting in the still night air. He had to restrain
his legs forcibly, so that they should not dance likewise, said the
man. Through the bushes he perceived masses of people crawling about in
the dark. Suddenly the bush before which he stood was brilliantly
illumined and he perceived a devil carrying a child's arm as torch,
whose fat fed the flame. Behind this monster, who luckily for him had
his back turned, came masked and veiled persons. He recognized no one.
He felt so frightened that he threw himself full length on the ground
and crawled slowly back to the wood. For the remainder of his life,
added the young man, who has not been pampered by the Landsknechte and
poachers, he will never forget the fright which he felt when creeping
back. The moon shone pale, as if horrified at the atrocities which it
saw. On the beech near a crossing, which had stood empty as he came,
now sat a devil beating a drum with a fox's tail, so that it sounded
afar off: tup, tup, tup. Behind him in the branches sat the fiddler,
and played a dance as if to allure the crowd to this place. As the boy
crawled past muttering a prayer, without suffering himself to be
enticed, a devilish peal of laughter burst behind him and re-echoed
through the entire valley. On the Holtermann were likewise four young
witches, riding on brooms, and having lights stuck in their backs as
signals for the others. He also heard the row of whistles, drums,
galloping riders, and ungreased axles. On stoves, pitch-forks, brooms
and sticks, in carts drawn by cats, or riding on hares, an army of
witches swept close past him. Yelping dogs ran between his feet, and
the wings of owls touched his cheeks, so that he lay there as dead
through fright. On creeping further he saw in a ditch a well dressed
company of ladies and gentlemen sitting round a table, on which smoked
a splendid roast joint and game. The Devil himself sat at the head of
the table and amused the company by playing the bagpipe on a black cat.
He wore blue and red striped stockings, had a red beard, and a pointed
hat adorned with colored ribbons and cock's feathers. As he looked with
his fiery eye on the interloper, the latter called out in his fright:
'Oh thou holy and blessed Trinity.' The earth immediately gave a shock,
so that the man fell down stunned and then only became aware that he
was sitting close to a dead white horse and the bones of the hanged.
The field-fare now crept about the ditch in the shape of toads, and the
company disappeared in the bushes weeping and sobbing. From that place
to the valley of the Seven Mills nothing more occurred, except that he
met three hares, one of which had a body like that of a goat. Rendered
more courageous the man called out to them: 'Stop thou sorceress in the
name of the triune God.' On that they turned into three black ravens
and flew away towards the Heiligenberg. Since then the Devil gets out
of Maier's path like a whipped cur as he himself told me."
The Magistrate learned in humanity stopped talking and wiped the
perspiration from his brow after this poetic harangue. At first the
Kurfuerst had looked astonished, then doubtful, and finally listened
with scarcely concealed disgust. He now said deliberately: "If anything
takes place in the least resembling what you have described, it is,
because you permit so many lewd fellows to gather here, who are a
torment to all honest people, jugglers, magicians, peddlars with
pictures, quacks, spirit-conjurors, exorcists, and other vagrants who
travel backwards and forwards between the Bishoprics on the Main and
Rhine, a loose lot, who if they are not in league with the devil, are
not very far from it."
"Vagrants would not mask or veil themselves. Most Gracious Sir,"
answered the Magistrate with a wise look.
"Well and why should Erastus' daughter have been one of those masks?"
"Your Highness knows of the note, by which, as her father maintains,
Master Laurenzano makes an appointment with her on the Holtermann."
"Ah yes; and how does that scoundrelly Priest explain his invitation?"
The confused Magistrate cleared his throat: "I own that I have not as
yet questioned him on the matter."
"How," roared the Prince. "You have not examined the chief witness? And
in the meantime you destroy the character of an innocent maiden simply
on the testimony of an old quean and of rascally scoundrels? You are
indeed a model magistrate! Did you know that I have been told, that
this Laurenzano caused the child all this misery by pretending he
wished to speak with her of some important discoveries relating to her
father, and yet you do not examine this man?"
"I wanted to do so," said the Amtmann hesitatingly, "but Pigavetta
warranted his innocence. Besides this he alone maintains order in
Schoenau, so that he cannot yet be spared from there."
"Pretty justice," thundered out the enraged Prince. "You let the most
guilty person escape scot free, and in the meantime wish to put the
innocent body of a poor girl to torture; that is urgent, that cannot be
put off! but the examination of witnesses is not of such importance.
Beware, Herr Hartmann Hartmanni that I do not ever catch you again
treading these slippery paths."
The Magistrate bowed his bald head with a terrified look. "Before all
arrest this Italian Priest," repeated the Kurfuerst.
"Herr Pigavetta says...." stammered the Magistrate.
"And I tell you," interrupted the infuriated Prince, "that I am
beginning to feel suspicious of this Pigavetta. He smuggled in this
disguised Jesuit. He wanted to recommend him to me as a tutor for my
children. He informed my wife how thoroughly proficient this young man
was in astronomy and astrology, and wanted to talk her over into
looking into the future, which does not concern us mortal men, and
certainly not young wives with old husbands. If this Herr Pigavetta
thinks that he can insinuate himself everywhere in my house, he is much
mistaken. And now that's enough. You lead the young girl to-day to her
father in the Great Tower. There under the care of her father she will
be safe from witches and from you. You have to cross-examine the Priest
in Schoenau as to his reason for enticing the maiden to the Kreuzweg,
and how the matter stands as regards the miracles he is said to have
performed in Schoenau? If anyone of the whole lot appears to me worthy
of being suspected of magic, it is that pale Parson, who occupies
himself with astrology," and in concluding this speech the excited
Count cast a look at the planetary Deities on the new building, under
whose protection dwelt his young wife. "The whole day I have on the new
building opposite Justice in stone ever before my eyes. I shall break
its image to pieces, if I suffer even but once, Right to be trampled
upon in my dominions."
The Magistrate bowed low and left the room with a crushed look. When
out of the room he was about to open his mouth to ejaculate an oath,
but his eye catching sight of a page, he made a grimace intended to
represent a smile, as he descended the staircase.