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Page 37
But I hindered him, and sprinkled her face with water, so that she opened
her eyes, and raised herself up by a table. She then stood a while,
without saying a word or regarding my sorrow. At last she smiled sadly,
and spake thus: That she clearly saw how true was that spoken by the Holy
Ghost, "Cursed be the man that trusteth in man"; and that the
faithlessness of the young lord had surely broken her poor heart if the
all-merciful God had not graciously prevented him, and sent her a dream
that night, which she would tell, not hoping to persuade the judges, but
to raise up the white head of her poor father.
"After I had sat and watched all the night," quoth she, "towards morning I
heard a nightingale sing in the castle-garden so sweetly that my eyes
closed, and I slept. Then methought I was a lamb, grazing quietly in my
meadow at Coserow. Suddenly the Sheriff jumped over the hedge and turned
into a wolf, who seized me in his jaws, and ran with me towards the
Streckelberg, where he had his lair. I, poor little lamb, trembled and
bleated in vain, and saw death before my eyes, when he laid me down before
his lair, where lay the she-wolf and her young. But behold a hand, like
the hand of a man, straightway came out of the bushes and touched the
wolves, each one with one finger, and crushed them so that nought was left
of them save a grey powder. Hereupon the hand took me up, and carried me
back to my meadow."
Only think, beloved reader, how I felt when I heard all this, and about
the dear nightingale too, which no one can doubt to have been the servant
of God. I clasped my child with many tears, and told her what had happened
to me, and we both won such courage and confidence as we had never yet
felt, to the wonderment of _Dom. Consul_, as it seemed; but the Sheriff
turned as pale as a sheet when she stepped towards their worships and
said, "And now do with me as you will, the lamb fears not, for she is in
the hands of the Good Shepherd!" Meanwhile _Dom. Camerarius_ came in with
the _scriba_, but was terrified as he chanced to touch my daughter's apron
with the skirts of his coat; and stood and scraped at his coat as a woman
scrapes a fish. At last, after he had spat out thrice, he asked the court
whether it would not begin to examine witnesses, seeing that all the
people had been waiting some time both in the castle and at the ale-house.
Hereunto they agreed, and the constable was ordered to guard my child in
his room, until it should please the court to summon her. I therefore went
with her, but, we had to endure much from the impudent rogue, seeing he
was not ashamed to lay his arm round my child her shoulders and to ask for
a kiss _in me� presenti�_. But, before I could get out a word, she tore
herself from him, and said, "Ah, thou wicked knave, must I complain of
thee to the court; hast thou forgotten what thou hast already done to me?"
To which, he answered, laughing, "See, see! how coy"; and still sought to
persuade her to be more willing, and not to forget her own interest; for
that he meant as well by her as his master; she might believe it or not;
with many other scandalous words besides which I have forgot; for I took
my child upon my knees and laid my head on her neck, and we sat and wept.
_The Twenty-first Chapter_
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?
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