The Amber Witch | Page 4

nothing, and I should have perished for want
if Hinrich Seden had not begged for me in the parish. May God reward
the honest fellow for it in eternity! Moreover, he was then growing old,
and was sorely plagued by his wicked wife Lizzie Kolken. Methought

when I married them that it would not turn out over well, seeing that
she was in common report of having long lived in unchastity with
Wittich Appelmann, who had ever been an arch-rogue, and especially
an arrant whoremaster, and such the Lord never blesses. This same
Seden now brought me five loaves, two sausages, and a goose, which
old goodwife Paal, at Loddin, had given him; also a flitch of bacon
from the farmer Jack Tewert. But he said I must shield him from his
wife, who would have had half for herself, and when he denied her she
cursed him, and wished him gout in his head, whereupon he
straightway felt a pain in his right cheek, and it was quite hard and
heavy already. At such shocking news I was affrighted, as became a
good pastor, and asked whether peradventure he believed that she stood
in evil communication with Satan, and could bewitch folks? But he said
nothing, and shrugged his shoulders. So I sent for old Lizzie to come to
me, who was a tall, meagre woman of about sixty, with squinting eyes,
so that she could not look any one in the face; likewise with quite red
hair, and indeed her goodman had the same. But though I diligently
admonished her out of God's Word, she made no answer until at last I
said, 'Wilt thou unbewitch thy goodman (for I saw from the window
how that he was raving in the street like a madman), or wilt thou that I
should inform the magistrate of thy deeds?' Then, indeed, she gave in,
and promised that he should soon be better (and so he was); moreover
she begged that I would give her some bread and some bacon,
inasmuch as it was three days since she had a bit of anything to put
between her lips, saving always her tongue. So my daughter gave her
half a loaf, and a piece of bacon about two handsbreadths large; but she
did not think it enough, and muttered between her teeth; whereupon my
daughter said, 'If thou art not content, thou old witch, go thy ways and
help thy goodman; see how he has laid his head on Zabel's fence, and
stamps with his feet for pain.' Whereupon she went away, but still kept
muttering between her teeth, 'Yea, forsooth, I will help him and thee
too.'"

The Seventh Chapter
HOW THE IMPERIALISTS ROBBED ME OF ALL THAT WAS
LEFT, AND LIKEWISE BROKE INTO THE CHURCH AND STOLE
THE _VASA SACRA_; ALSO WHAT MORE BEFELL US

After a few days, when we had eaten almost all our food, my last cow
fell down dead (the wolves had already devoured the others, as
mentioned above), not without a strong suspicion that Lizzie had a
hand in it, seeing that the poor beast had eaten heartily the day before;
but I leave that to a higher judge, seeing that I would not willingly
calumniate any one; and it may have been the will of God, whose wrath
I have well deserved. _Summa_, I was once more in great need, and my
daughter Mary pierced my heart with her sighs, when the cry was
raised that another troop of Imperialists was come to Uekeritze, and
was marauding there more cruelly than ever, and, moreover, had burnt
half the village. Wherefore I no longer thought myself safe in my
cottage; and after I had commended everything to the Lord in a fervent
prayer, I went up with my daughter and old Ilse into the Streckelberg,
where I already had looked out for ourselves a hole like a cavern, well
grown over with brambles, against the time when the troubles should
drive us thither. We therefore took with us all we had left to us for the
support of our bodies, and fled into the woods, sighing and weeping,
whither we soon were followed by the old men, and the women and
children; these raised a great cry of hunger when they saw my daughter
sitting on a log and eating a bit of bread and meat, and the little things
came with their tiny hands stretched out and cried "Have some too,
have some too." Therefore, being justly moved by such great distress, I
hindered not my daughter from sharing all the bread and meat that
remained among the hungry children. But first I made them pray--"The
eyes of all wait upon thee"; upon which words I then spake comfortably
to the people, telling them that