Sidonia, the Sorceress Volume I Part 35

Or, if the foaming flask is before me, how can I resist to drain it, for the spirit of gluttony is within me? Or, if I see a maiden, the blood throbs in my veins, and the demon of l.u.s.t has taken possession of me. 'Oh, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?' You will, dearest father.

You will release me from this life, as you once gave it to me, for it is now a life in death. Ah! show mercy! Come quickly, and release me from the body of this death!"

When he ceased, the old man sprung up like a youth, and pressing his lost son to his heart, sobbed forth like him of the Gospel--

"O friends, see! 'This my son was dead, but is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' Yea, yea, see all that nothing is impossible with G.o.d. O Thou Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now I have nothing more to ask, but that I too may soon be released from the body of this death, and go forth to meet my new-found son amidst the bright circle of the Holy Angels."

Then the son answered--

"Let me go now, father. See, the morning dawn s.h.i.+nes already through the window; so hath the loving mercy of my G.o.d come to me, who sat in darkness and the shadow of death. Farewell, father; let me go now. Away with this head in the clear early morning light, so that my feet be fixed for evermore upon the path to peace."

And so speaking, he seized M. Vitus by the hand, who was sobbing loudly, as well as most of the burghers, and the executioner with his a.s.sistants bearing the coffin were going to follow, when the old man, who had sunk down upon a bench, called back his son, though he had already gone out at the door, and prayed the executioner to let him stay one little while longer. For he remembered that his son had a welt upon his neck, and he must see whether it would interfere with the sword. Woe, woe! if he should have to strike twice or thrice before the head fell!

So the executioner removed the neck-cloth from the poor sinner (who, by the great mercy of G.o.d, was stronger than any of them), and having felt the welt, said--

"No; the welt was close up to the head, but he would take the neck in the middle, as indeed was his usual custom. His wors.h.i.+p may make his mind quite easy; he would stake his life on it that the head would fall with the first blow. This was his one hundred and fiftieth, and he never yet had failed."

Then the unhappy criminal tied his cravat on again, took M. Vitus by the hand, and said--

"Farewell, my father; once more forgive me for all that I have done!"

After which he went out quickly, without waiting to hear a word more from his father, and the executioner followed him.

Meanwhile the afflicted father was sore troubled in mind. Three times he repeated the text--"Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, nor be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is G.o.d's." Then he called upon G.o.d to forgive the Prince who, by taking away law and justice from the land, had obliged him to be the judge and condemner of his son. How the Lord dealt with the Prince we shall hear farther on. One while he sent mine host to look over the hedge, and tell him if the head were off yet. Then he would begin to pray that he might soon follow this poor son, who had never given him one moment of joy but through his death, and pa.s.s quickly after him through the vale of tears.

The son, however, is steadfast unto the end. For when they reached the churchyard, he stood still a while gazing on the heap of sand.

Then he desired to be led to the spot where his grave was dug; and near this same grave there being a tombstone, on which was figured a man kneeling before a crucifix, he asked--

"Who was to share his grave bed here?"

Whereupon M. Vitus replied--

"He was a _rector scholae_ out of Stargard, a very learned man, who had retired from active life, and settled down here at Bruchhausen, where he died not long since."

Whereat the poor sinner stood still a while, and then repeated this beautiful distich, no doubt by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to warn all learned sinners against that demon of pride and vain-glory which too often takes possession of them.

"Quid juvat innumeros scire atque evolvere casus Si facieuda fugis et fugienda facis?"

["What is the use of knowledge and all our infinite learning, If we fly what is right and do what we ought to fly?"]

Then he looked calmly at his grave, and only prayed the executioner not to put his head between his feet; after which he returned to the sand-heap and exclaimed--

"Now to G.o.d!"

Upon which, M. Vitus blessed him yet again, and spake--

"O G.o.d, Father, who hast brought back this lost son, and filled this foolish soul with wisdom; ah! Jesus, Saviour, who, in truth, hast turned Thy holy eyes on him as on the denying Peter and on the dying thief. O Holy Spirit, who hast not scorned to make this poor vessel a temple for Thyself to dwell in, that in the death-anguish this sinner may find the sweetness of Thy presence and the heaven-high comfort of Thy promises! O Thou Holy Trinity--to Thee--to Thee--to Thee--to Thy grace, Thy power, Thy protection, we resign this dying mortal in his last agonies. Help him, Lord G.o.d! _Kyrle Eleison!_ Give Thy holy angels command to bear this poor soul into Abraham's bosom. O come, Lord Jesus; help him, O Lord our G.o.d. _Kyrie Eleison!_ Amen."

And hereupon he p.r.o.nounced a last blessing over him. And when the executioner took off his upper garment and bound the kerchief over his eyes, M. Vitus again spake--

"Think on the holy martyrs, of whom Basilius Magnus testifies that they exclaimed, when undressing for their death--_Non vestes exuimus, sed veterem hommem deponimus." [Footnote: "We lay not off our clothes, but the old man."--Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea, A.D. 379.]

Upon which he answered from under the kerchief something in Latin, but the executioner had laid the cloth so thickly even over his mouth and chin, that no one could catch the words. Then he kneeled down, and while the executioner drew his sword, M. Vitus chanted--

"When my lips no more can speak, May Thy Spirit in me cry; When my eyes are faint and weak, May my soul see Heaven nigh!

When my heart is sore dismayed, This dying frame has lost its strength, May my spirit, with Thy aid, Cry--Jesu, take me home at length!"

And all who stood round saw, as it were, a wonderful sign from G.o.d; for as the executioner let the sword fall, head and sun appeared at the same moment--the head upon the earth, the sun above the earth; and there was a deep silence. Sidonia alone laughed out loud, and cried, "So ends the conversion!" And while the psalm was singing, "Now, pray we to the Holy Ghost," the executioner acting as clerk, she disappeared, and for thirty years, as we shall hear presently, no one could ascertain where she went to or how she lived; though sometimes, like a horrible ghost, she was seen occasionally here and there.

_Summa_.--The miserable criminal was laid in his coffin, and as, in truth, it was too short for the corpse, and the poor sinner had requested that his head might not be placed between his feet, so it was laid upon his chest, with his hands folded over it, and thus he was buried.

The old father rejoiced greatly that his son remained steadfast in the truth until the last, and thanked G.o.d for it. Then he returned to Stargard; and I may just mention, to conclude concerning him, that the merciful G.o.d heard the prayer of this His faithful servant, for he scarcely survived his son a year, but, after a short illness, fell asleep in Jesus. [Footnote: For further particulars concerning this truly worthy man, who may well be called the Pomeranian Manlius, see Friedeborn, "Description of Old Stettin," vol. ii. p. 113; and Barthold, "Pomeranian History," pp.

46, 419.]

CHAPTER XIX.

_Of Sidonia's disappearance for thirty years--Item, how the young Princess Elizabeth Magdelene was possessed by a devil, and of the sudden death of her father, Ernest Ludovicus of Pomerania._

I have said that Sidonia disappeared after the execution at Bruchhausen, and that for thirty years no one knew where she lived or how she lived. At her farm-house at Zachow she never appeared; but the _Acta Criminalia_ set forth that during that period she wandered about the towns of Freienwald, Regenwald, Stargard, and other places, in company with Peter Konnemann and divers other knaves.

However, the ducal prosecutor, although he inst.i.tuted the strictest inquiries at the period of her trial, could ascertain nothing beyond this, except that, in consequence of her evil habits and licentious tongue, she was held everywhere in fear and abhorrence, and was chased away from every place she entered after about six or eight o'clock. Further, that some misfortune always fell upon every one who had dealings with her, particularly young married people. To the said Konnemann, she betrothed herself after the death of her first paramour, but afterwards gave him fifty florins to get rid of the contract, as she confessed at the seventeenth question upon the rack, according to the _Actis Lothmanni_. Meantime her brother and cousins were so completely turned against her, that her brother even took those two farm-houses to himself; and though Sidonia wrote to him, begging that an annuity might be settled on her, yet she never received a line in answer--and this was the manner in which the whole cousinhood treated her in her despair and poverty.

I myself made many inquiries as to her mode of life during those thirty years, but in vain. Some said that she went into Poland and there kept a little tavern for twenty years; some had seen her living at Riigen at the old wall, where in heathen times the G.o.ddess Hertha was honoured. Some said she went to Riiden, a little uninhabited island between Riigen and Usdom, where the wild geese and other birds flock in the moulting season and drop their feathers. Thence, they said, she gathered the eggs, and killed the birds with clubs. At least this was the story of the Usdom fishermen, but whether it were Sidonia or some other outcast woman, I cannot in strict verity declare. Only in Freienwald did I hear for certain that she lived there twelve years with some earl whom she called her s.h.i.+eld-knight; but one day they quarrelled, and beat each other till the blood flowed, after which they both ran out of the town, and went different ways.

_Summa._--On the 1st of May 1592, when the witches gather in the Brocken to hold their Walpurgis night, and the princely castle of Wolgast was well guarded from the evil one by white and black crosses placed on every door, an old wrinkled hag was seen about eight o'clock of the morning (just the time she had returned from the Blocksberg, according to my thinking), walking slowly up and down the great corridor of the princely castle. And the providence of the great G.o.d so willed it that at that moment the young and beautiful Princess Elizabeth Magdalena (who had been betrothed to the Duke Frederick of Courland) opened her chamber-door and slipped forth to pay her morning greetings to her ill.u.s.trious father, Duke Ernest, and his spouse, the Lady Sophia Hedwig of Brunswick, who sat together drinking their warm beer, [Footnote: Before the introduction of coffee or chocolate, warm beer was in general use at breakfast] and had sent for her.

So the hag advanced with much friendliness and cried out, "Hey, what a beautiful young damsel! But her lord papa was called 'the handsome' in his time, and wasn't she as like him as one egg to another. Might she take her ladys.h.i.+p's little hand and kiss it?"

Now as the hag was bold in her bearing, and the young Princess was a timid thing, she feared to refuse; so she reached forth her hand, alas! to the witch, who first three times blew on it, murmuring some words before she kissed it; then as the young Princess asked her who she was and what she wanted, the evil hag answered, "I would speak with your gracious father, for I have known him well. Ask his princely Grace to come to me, for I have somewhat to say to him." Now the Princess, in her simplicity, omitted to ask the hag's name, whereby much evil came to pa.s.s, for had she told her gracious father that SIDONIA wished to speak to him, a.s.suredly he never would have come forth, and that fatal and malignant glance of the witch would not have fallen upon him.

However, his Serene Grace, having a mild Christian nature, stepped out into the corridor at the request of his dear daughter, and asked the hag who she was and what she wanted. Upon this, she fixed her eyes on him in silence for a long while, so that he shuddered, and his blood seemed to turn to ice in his veins.

[Footnote: This belief in the witchcraft of a glance was very general during the witch period. And even the ancients notice it (Pliny, Hist. Nat. vii. 2), also Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic, ix. 4; and Virgil, Eclog. in. 103. The glance of a woman with double pupils was particularly feared.] At last she spake: "It is a strange thing, truly, that your Grace should no longer remember the maiden to whom you once promised marriage." At this his Grace recoiled in horror, and exclaimed, "Ha, Sidonia! but how you are changed." "Ah!" she answered, with a scornful laugh, "you may well triumph, now that my cheek is hollow, and my beauty gone, and that I have come to you for justice against my own brother in Stramehl, who denies me even the means of subsistence--you, who brought me to this pa.s.s."

Upon which his Grace answered that her brother was a subject of the Duke of Stettin. Let her go then to Stettin, and demand justice there.

_Illa._--"She had been there, but the Duke refused to see her, and to her request for a _proebenda_ in the convent of Marienfliess had returned no answer. She prayed his Grace, therefore, out of old good friends.h.i.+p, to take up her cause, and use his influence with the Lord Duke of Stettin to obtain the _proebenda_ for her, also to send a good scolding to her brother at Stramehl under his own hand."

Now my gracious Prince was so anxious to get rid of her, that he promised everything she asked. Whereupon she would kiss his hand, but he drew it back shuddering, upon which she went down the great castle steps again, murmuring to herself.

But her wickedness soon came to light; for mark--scarcely a few days had pa.s.sed over, when the beautiful young Princess was possessed by Satan; she rolls herself upon the ground, twists and writhes her hands and feet, speaks with a great coa.r.s.e voice like a common carl, blasphemes G.o.d and her parents; and what was more wonderful than all, her throat swelled, and when they laid their hand on it, something living seemed creeping up and down in it.

Then it went up to her mouth, and her tongue swelled so, that her eyes seemed starting from their sockets, and the gracious young lady became fearful to look at.

_Item,_ then she began to speak Latin, though she had never learned this tongue, whereupon many, and in particular Mag.

Michael Aspius, the court chaplain (for Dr. Gerschovius was long since dead) p.r.o.nounced that Satan himself verily must be in the maiden. [Footnote: The ancients name three distinguis.h.i.+ng marks of demoniacal possession:--

1st, When the patient blasphemes G.o.d and cannot repeat the leading articles of his Christian belief.