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Page 41
After this I did not see him again till the morning of the third day at
ten o'clock, seeing that he sat at work in a room at the castle, which the
Sheriff had given him, and also ate there, as he sent me word by old Ilse
when she carried him his breakfast next day.
At the above-named time he sent the new constable for me, who, meanwhile,
had been fetched from Uzdom at his desire. For the Sheriff was exceeding
wroth when he heard that the impudent fellow had attempted my child in the
prison, and cried out in a rage, "S'death, and 'ouns, I'll mend thy
coaxing!" Whereupon he gave him a sound thrashing with a dog-whip he held
in his hand, to make sure that she should be at peace from him.
But, alas! the new constable was even worse than the old, as will be shown
hereafter. His name was Master K�ppner, and he was a tall fellow with a
grim face, and a mouth so wide that at every word he said the spittle ran
out at the corners, and stuck in his long beard like soap-suds, so that my
child had an especial fear and loathing of him. Moreover, on all occasions
he seemed to laugh in mockery and scorn, as he did when he opened the
prison-door to us, and saw my poor child sitting in her grief and
distress. But he straightway left us without waiting to be told, whereupon
_Dom. Syndicus_ drew his defence out of his pocket, and read it to us; we
have remembered the main points thereof, and I will recount them here, but
most of the _auctores_ we have forgotten.
1. He began by saying that my daughter had ever till now stood in good
repute, as not only the whole village, but even my servants bore witness;
_ergo_, she could not be a witch, inasmuch as the Saviour hath said, "A
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring
forth good fruit" (Matt. vii.).
2. With regard to the witchcraft in the village, that belike was the
contrivance of old Lizzie, seeing that she bore a great hatred towards
_Rea_, and had long been in evil repute, for that the parishioners dared
not to speak out, only from fear of the old witch; wherefore Zuter, her
little girl, must be examined, who had heard old Lizzie her goodman tell
her she had a familiar spirit, and that he would tell it to the parson;
for that notwithstanding the above-named was but a child, still it was
written in Psalm viii., "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou
ordained strength...."; and the Saviour himself appealed (Matt. xxi.) to
the testimony of little children.
3. Furthermore, old Lizzie might have bewitched the crops, _item_, the
fruit-trees, inasmuch as none could believe that _Rea_, who had ever shown
herself a dutiful child, would have bewitched her own father's corn, or
made caterpillars come on his trees; for no one, according to Scripture,
can serve two masters.
_Item_, she (old Lizzie) might very well have been the woodpecker that was
seen by _Rea_ and old Paasch on the Streckelberg, and herself have given
over her goodman to the Evil One for fear of the parson, inasmuch as
Spitzel _De Expugnatione Orci_ asserts; _item_, the _Malleus Maleficarum_
proves beyond doubt that the wicked children of Satan ofttimes change
themselves into all manner of beasts, as the foul fiend himself likewise
seduced our first parents in the shape of a serpent (Gen. iii.).
5. That old Lizzie had most likely made the wild weather when _Dom.
Consul_ was coming home with _Rea_ from the Streckelberg, seeing it was
impossible that _Rea_ could have done it, as she was sitting in the coach,
whereas witches when they raise storms always stand in the water, and
throw it over their heads backwards; _item_, beat the stones soundly with
a stick, as Hannold relates. Wherefore she too, may be, knew best about
the frog and the hedgehog.
6. That _Rea_ was erroneously charged with that as a _crimen_ which ought
rather to serve as her justification, namely, her sudden riches. For the
_Malleus Maleficarum_ expressly says that a witch can never grow rich,
seeing that Satan, to do dishonour to God, always buys them for a vile
price, so that they should not betray themselves by their riches.
Wherefore that as _Rea_ had grown rich, she could not have got her wealth
from the foul fiend, but it must be true that she had found amber on the
mountain; that the spells of old Lizzie might have been the cause why they
could not find the vein of amber again, or that the sea might have washed
away the cliff below, as often happens, whereupon the top had slipped
down, so that only a _miraculum naturale_ had taken place. The proof which
he brought forward from Scripture we have quite forgotten, seeing it was
but middling.
7. With regard to her re-baptism, the old hag had said herself that she
had not seen the devil or any other spirit or man about _Rea_, wherefore
she might in truth have been only naturally bathing, in order to greet the
King of Sweden next day, seeing that the weather was hot, and that bathing
was not of itself sufficient to impair the modesty of a maiden. For that
she had as little thought any would see her as Bathsheba the daughter of
Eliam, and wife of Uriah the Hittite, who in like manner did bathe
herself, as is written (2 Sam. xi. 2), without knowing that David could
see her. Neither could her mark be a mark given by Satan, inasmuch as
there was feeling therein; _ergo_, it must be a natural mole, and it was a
lie that she had it not before bathing. Moreover, that on this point the
old harlot was nowise to be believed, seeing that she had fallen from one
contradiction into another about it, as stated in the _acta_.
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