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Page 59
But at these words my child only wept and sighed; and when he looked on
her, she cast down her eyes and trembled, so that I straightway perceived
that my sorrows were not yet come to an end, but that another barrel of
tears was just tapped for me, and so indeed it was. Moreover, the ass of a
_Custos_, having finished the _Te Deum_ before we were come to the bridge,
straightway struck up the next following hymn, which was a funeral one,
beginning, "The body let us now inter." (God be praised that no harm has
come of it till _datum_.) My beloved gossip rated him not a little, and
threatened him that for his stupidity he should not get the money for the
shoes which he had promised him out of the Church-dues. But my child
comforted him, and promised him a pair of shoes at her own charges, seeing
that peradventure a funeral hymn was better for her than a song of
gladness.
And when this vexed the young lord, and he said, "How now, sweet maid, you
know not how enough to thank God and me for your rescue, and yet you speak
thus?" She answered, smiling sadly, that she had only spoken thus to
comfort the poor _Custos_. But I straightway saw that she was in earnest,
for that she felt that although she had escaped one fire, she already
burned in another.
Meanwhile we were come to the bridge again, and all the folks stood still,
and gazed open-mouthed, when the young lord jumped down from the cart, and
after stabbing his horse, which still lay kicking on the bridge, went on
his knees, and felt here and there with his hand. At length he called to
the worshipful court to draw near, for that he had found out the
witchcraft. But none save _Dom. Consul_ and a few fellows out of the
crowd, among whom was old Paasch, would follow him; _item_, my dear gossip
and myself, and the young lord, showed us a lump of tallow about the size
of a large walnut, which lay on the ground, and wherewith the whole bridge
had been smeared, so that it looked quite white, but, which all the folks
in their fright had taken for flour out of the mill; _item_, with some
other _materia_, which stunk like fitchock's dung, but what it was we
could not find out. Soon after a fellow found another bit of tallow, and
showed it to the people; whereupon I cried, "Aha! none hath done this but
that ungodly miller's man, in revenge for the stripes which the Sheriff
gave him for reviling my child." Whereupon I told what he had done, and
_Dom. Consul_, who also had heard thereof, straightway sent for the
miller.
He, however, did as though he knew nought of the matter, and only said
that his man had left his service about an hour ago. But a young lass, the
miller's maid-servant, said that that very morning, before daybreak, when
she had got up to let out the cattle, she had seen the man scouring the
bridge. But that she had given it no further heed, and had gone to sleep
for another hour; and she pretended to know no more than the miller
whither the rascal was gone. When the young lord had heard this news, he
got up into the cart, and began to address the people, seeking to persuade
them no longer to believe in witchcraft, now that they had seen what it
really was. When I heard this, I was horror-stricken (as was but right) in
my conscience, as a priest, and I got upon the cartwheel, and whispered
into his ear, for God his sake, to leave this _materia_, seeing that if
the people no longer feared the devil, neither would they fear our Lord
God.
The dear young lord forthwith did as I would have him, and only asked the
people whether they now held my child to be perfectly innocent? and when
they had answered, "Yes!" he begged them to go quietly home, and to thank
God that he had saved innocent blood. That he, too, would now return home,
and that he hoped that none would molest me and my child if he let us
return to Coserow alone. Hereupon he turned hastily towards her, took her
hand and said: "Farewell, sweet maid, I trust that I shall soon clear your
honour before the world, but do you thank God therefor, not me." He then
did the like to me and to my dear gossip, whereupon he jumped down from
the cart, and went and sat beside _Dom. Consul_ in his coach. The latter
also spake a few words to the people, and likewise begged my child and me
to forgive him (and I must say it to his honour, that the tears ran down
his cheeks the while), but he was so hurried by the young lord that he
brake short his discourse, and they drove off over the little bridge,
without so much as looking back. Only _Dom. Consul_ looked round once, and
called out to me, that in his hurry he had forgotten to tell the
executioner that no one was to be burned to-day: I was therefore to send
the churchwarden of Uekeritze up the mountain, to say so in his name; the
which I did. And the bloodhound was still on the mountain, albeit he had
long since heard what had befallen; and when the bailiff gave him the
orders of the worshipful court, he began to curse so fearfully that it
might have awakened the dead; moreover, he plucked off his cap, and
trampled it under foot, so that any one might have guessed what he felt.
But to return to ourselves, my child sat as still and as white as a pillar
of salt, after the young lord had left her so suddenly and so unawares,
but she was somewhat comforted when the old maid-servant came running with
her coats tucked up to her knees, and carrying her shoes and stockings in
her hands. We heard her afar off, as the mill had stopped, blubbering for
joy, and she fell at least three times on the bridge, but at last she got
over safe, and kissed now mine and now my child her hands and feet;
begging us only not to turn her away, but to keep her until her life's
end; the which we promised to do. She had to climb up behind where the
impudent constable had sat, seeing that my dear gossip would not leave me
until I should be back in mine own manse. And as the young lord his
servant had got up behind the coach, old Paasch drove us home, and all the
folks who had waited till _datum_ ran beside the cart, praising and
pitying as much as they had before scorned and reviled us. Scarce,
however, had we passed through Uekeritze, when we again heard cries of
"Here comes the young lord, here comes the young lord!" so that my child
started up for joy, and became as red as a rose; but some of the folks ran
into the buckwheat, by the road, again, thinking it was another ghost. It
was, however, in truth, the young lord who galloped up on a black horse,
calling out as he drew near us, "Notwithstanding the haste I am in, sweet
maid, I must return and give you safe-conduct home, seeing that I have
just heard that the filthy people reviled you by the way, and I know not
whether you are yet safe." Hereupon he urged old Paasch to mend his pace,
and as his kicking and trampling did not even make the horses trot, the
young lord struck the saddle-horse from time to time with the flat of his
sword, so that we soon reached the village and the manse. Howbeit, when I
prayed him to dismount a while, he would not, but excused himself, saying
that he must still ride through Usedom to Anclam, but charged old Paasch,
who was our bailiff, to watch over my child as the apple of his eye, and
should anything unusual happen he was straightway to inform the town-clerk
at Pudgla, or _Dom. Consul_ at Usedom, thereof, and when Paasch had
promised to do this, he waved his hand to us, and galloped off as fast as
he could.
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