_De confrontatione testium_.
When we were summoned before the court again, the whole court was
full of people, and some shuddered when they saw us, but others
wept; my child told the same tale as before. But when our old Ilse
was called, who sat on a bench behind, so that we had not seen
her, the strength wherewith the Lord had gifted her was again at
an end, and she repeated the words of our Saviour, "He that eateth
bread with Me hath lift up his heel against Me:" and she held fast
by my chair. Old Ilse, too, could not walk straight for very
grief, nor could she speak for tears, but she twisted and wound
herself about before the court, like a woman in travail. But when
_Dom. Consul_ threatened that the constable should presently
help her to her words, she testified that my child had very often
got up in the night, and called aloud upon the foul fiend.
_Q_. Whether she had ever heard Satan answer her?--_R_.
She never had heard him at all.
_Q_. Whether she had perceived that _Rea_ had a familiar
spirit, and in what shape? She should think upon her oath, and
speak the truth.--_R_. She had never seen one.
_Q_. Whether she had ever heard her fly up the
chimney?--_R_. Nay, she had always gone softly out at the
door.
_Q_. Whether she never at mornings had missed her broom or
pitchfork?--_R_. Once the broom was gone, but she had found
it again behind the stove, and may be left it there herself by
mistake.
_Q_. Whether she had never heard _Rea_ cast a spell, or
wish harm to this or that person?--_R_. No, never; she had
always wished her neighbours nothing but good, and even in the
time of bitter famine had taken the bread out of her own mouth to
give it to others.
_Q_.--Whether she did not know the salve which had been found
in _Rea_ her coffer?--_R_. Oh, yes! her young mistress
had brought it back from Wolgast for her skin, and had once given
her some when she had chapped hands, and it had done her a vast
deal of good.
_Q_. Whether she had anything further to say?--_R_. No,
nothing but good.
Hereupon my man Claus Neels was called up. He also came forward in
tears, but answered every question with a "nay," and at last
testified that he had never seen nor heard anything bad of my
child, and knew naught of her doings by night, seeing that he
slept in the stable with the horses; and that he firmly believed
that evil folks--and here he looked at old Lizzie--had brought
this misfortune upon her, and that she was quite innocent.
When it came to the turn of this old limb of Satan, who was to be
the chief witness, my child again declared that she would not
accept old Lizzie's testimony against her, and called upon the
court for justice, for that she had hated her from her youth up,
and had been longer by habit and repute a witch than she herself.
But the old hag cried out, "God forgive thee thy sins; the whole
village knows that I am a devout woman, and one serving the Lord
in all things;" whereupon she called up old Zuter Witthahn and my
churchwarden Claus Bulk, who bore witness hereto. But old Paasch
stood and shook his head; nevertheless when my child said,
"Paasch, wherefore dost thou shake thy head?" he started, and
answered, "Oh, nothing!"
Howbeit, _Dom. Consul_ likewise perceived this, and asked
him, whether he had any charge to bring against old Lizzie; if so,
he should give glory to God, and state the same; _item_, it
was competent to every one so to do; indeed, the court required of
him to speak out all he knew.
But from fear of the old dragon, all were still as mice, so that
you might have heard the flies buzz about the inkstand. I then
stood up, wretched as I was, and stretched out my arms over my
amazed and faint-hearted people, and spake: "Can ye thus crucify
me together with my poor child? have I deserved this at your
hands? Speak, then; alas, will none speak?" I heard, indeed, how
several wept aloud, but not one spake; and hereupon my poor child
was forced to submit.
And the malice of the old hag was such that she not only accused
my child of the most horrible witchcraft, but also reckoned to a
day when she had given herself up to Satan to rob her of her
maiden honour; and she said that Satan had, without doubt, then
defiled her, when she could no longer heal the cattle, and when
they all died. Hereupon my child said naught, save that she cast
down her eyes and blushed deep for shame at such filthiness; and
to the other blasphemous slander which the old hag uttered with
many tears, namely, that my daughter had given up her (Lizzie's)
husband, body and soul, to Satan, she answered as she had done
before. But when the old hag came to her re-baptism in the sea,
and gave out that while seeking for strawberries in the coppice
she had recognised my child's voice, and stolen towards her, and
perceived these devil's doings, my child fell in smiling, and
answered, "Oh, thou evil woman! how couldst thou hear my voice
speaking down by the sea, being thyself in the forest upon the
mountain? surely thou liest, seeing that the murmur of the waves
would make that impossible." This angered the old dragon, and
seeking to get out of the blunder she fell still deeper into it,
for she said, "I saw thee move thy lips, and from that I knew that
thou didst call upon thy paramour the devil!" for my child
straightway replied, "Oh, thou ungodly woman! thou saidst thou
wert in the forest when thou didst hear my voice; how then up in
the forest couldst thou see whether I, who was below by the water,
moved my lips or not?"
Such contradictions amazed even _Dom. Consul_, and he began
to threaten the old hag with the rack if she told such lies;
whereupon she answered and said, "List, then, whether I lie! When
she went naked into the water she had no mark on her body, but
when she came out again I saw that she had between her breasts a
mark the size of a silver penny, whence I perceived that the devil
had given it her, although I had not seen him about her, nor,
indeed, had I seen any one, either spirit or child of man, for she
seemed to be quite alone."
Hereupon the sheriff jumped up from his seat, and cried, "Search
must straightway be made for this mark;" whereupon _Dom.
Consul_ answered, "Yea, but not by us, but by two women of good
repute," for he would not hearken to what my child said, that it
was a mole, and that she had had it from her youth up. Wherefore
the constable his wife was sent for, and _Dom. Consul_
muttered somewhat into her ear, and as prayers and tears were of
no avail, my child was forced to go with her. Howbeit, she
obtained this favour, that old Lizzie Kolken was not to follow
her, as she would have done, but our old maid Ilse. I, too, went
in my sorrow, seeing that I knew not what the women might do to
her. She wept bitterly as they undressed her, and held her hands
over her eyes for very shame.
Well-a-day, her body was just as white as my departed wife's;
although in her childhood, as I remember, she was very yellow, and
I saw with amazement the mole between her breasts, whereof I had
never heard aught before. But she suddenly screamed violently and
started back, seeing that the constable his wife, when nobody
watched her, had run a needle into the mole, so deep that the red
blood ran down over her breasts. I was sorely angered thereat, but
the woman said that she had done it by order of the judge,
[Footnote: It was believed that these marks were the infallible
sign of a witch when they were insensible, and that they were
given by the devil; and every one suspected of witchcraft was
invariably searched for them.] which, indeed, was true; for when
we came back into court, and the sheriff asked how it was, she
testified that there was a mark of the size of a silver penny, of
a yellowish colour, but that it had feeling, seeing that
_Rea_ had screamed aloud, when she had, unperceived, driven a
needle therein. Meanwhile, however, _Dom. Camerarius_
suddenly rose, and stepping up to my child, drew her eyelids
asunder and cried out, beginning to tremble, "Behold the sign
which never fails:" [Footnote: See, among other authorities,
Delrio, _Disquisit. magicæ_, lib. v. tit. xiv. No. 28.]
whereupon the whole court started to their feet, and looked at the
little spot under her right eyelid, which in truth had been left
there by a sty, but this none would believe. _Dom. Consul_
now said, "See, Satan hath marked thee on body and soul! and thou
dost still continue to lie unto the Holy Ghost; but it shall not
avail thee, and thy punishment will only be the heavier. Oh, thou
shameless woman! thou hast refused to accept the testimony of old
Lizzie; wilt thou also refuse that of these people, who have all
heard thee on the mountain call upon the devil thy paramour, and
seen him appear in the likeness of a hairy giant, and kiss and
caress thee?"
Hereupon old Paasch, goodwife Witthahn, and Zuter, came forward
and bare witness, that they had seen this happen about midnight,
and that on this declaration they would live and die; that old
Lizzie had awakened them one Saturday night about eleven o'clock,
had given them a can of beer, and persuaded them to follow the
parson's daughter privately, and to see what she did upon the
mountain. At first they refused; but in order to get at the truth
about the witchcraft in the village, they had at last, after a
devout prayer, consented, and had followed her in God's name.
They had soon through the bushes seen the witch in the moonshine;
she seemed to dig, and spake in some strange tongue the while,
whereupon the grim arch-fiend suddenly appeared, and fell upon her
neck. Hereupon they ran away in consternation, but, by the help of
the Almighty God, on whom from the very first they had set their
faith, they were preserved from the power of the evil one. For,
notwithstanding he had turned round on hearing a rustling in the
bushes, he had had no power to harm them.
Finally, it was even charged to my child as a crime, that she had
fainted on the road from Coserow to Pudgla, and none would believe
that this had been caused by vexation at old Lizzie her singing,
and not from a bad conscience, as stated by the judge.
When all the witnesses had been examined, _Dom. Consul_ asked
her whether she had brewed the storm, what was the meaning of the
frog that dropped into her lap, _item_, the hedgehog which
lay directly in his path? To all of which she answered, that she
had caused the one as little as she knew of the other. Whereupon
_Dom. Consul_ shook his head, and asked her, last of all,
whether she would have an advocate, or trust entirely in the good
judgment of the court. To this she gave answer, that she would by
all means have an advocate. Wherefore I sent my ploughman, Claus
Neels, the next day to Wolgast to fetch the _Syndicus_
Michelson, who is a worthy man, and in whose house I have been
many times when I went to the town, seeing that he courteously
invited me.
I must also note here that at this time my old Ilse came back to
live with me; for after the witnesses were gone she stayed behind
in the chamber, and came boldly up to me, and besought me to
suffer her once more to serve her old master and her dear young
mistress; for that now she had saved her poor soul, and confessed
all she knew. Wherefore she could no longer bear to see her old
master in such woeful plight, without so much as a mouthful of
victuals, seeing that she had heard that old wife Seep, who had
till _datum_ prepared the food for me and my child, often let
the porridge burn; _item_, over-salted the fish and the meat.
Moreover that I was so weakened by age and misery, that I needed
help and support, which she would faithfully give me, and was
ready to sleep in the stable, if needs must be; that she wanted no
wages for it, I was only not to turn her away. Such kindness made
my daughter to weep, and she said to me, "Behold, father, the good
folks come back to us again; think you, then, that the good angels
will forsake us for ever? I thank thee, old Ilse; thou shalt
indeed prepare my food for me, and always bring it as far as the
prison-door, if thou mayest come no further; and mark, then, I
pray thee, what the constable does therewith."
This the maid promised to do, and from this time forth took up her
abode in the stable. May God repay her at the day of judgment for
what she then did for me and for my poor child!