Item: rex tremendae majestatis But when the men that guarded the waggon heard this and at the same time a great tempest arose over the Achter-gulf they thought nothing less than that my little daughter had wrought this, and as the people that were following at a distance also cried: "that's the witch's doing, that the accursed witch hath done!" all the ten, unto one man, leaped over the dike and ran away. But this Dn Consul, who was riding with the honourable justices behind us, no sooner saw, than he called unto the beadle asking: "what was the meaning of all this?" and the beadle called out to the Amtshauptmann, who was a little way before, who forthwith turned round, and after he had learned the cause, shouted after the men, that he would hang them all upon the very first tree they came to, and feed his falcons with their flesh, if they did not instantly return to their post and duty. This prevailed with them, and when they came back, he gave to every man of them about six lashes with his whip, whereupon they remained, albeit they kept as far off the waggon as they could for the dike. In the meantime, however, the tempest from the South came nearer, with thunder, lightning, hail, and storm-winds, as if the righteous God would manifest his wrath against those ruthless murderers; and the tops of the high beech trees were snapped off like rotten wood, so that our waggon was quite covered with leaves as with hail, and no one could hear himself * King of awful Majesty, Of thy saints the Saviour free, speak for noise. This happened just at the time that we were going down from the cloister-dam into the wood. The Amtshauptmann now rode behind us by the side of the carriage wherein Dn. Consul sat. But presently, when we would have gone over the bridge before the water-mill, the storm-wind, that was blowing hitherward, from the Achter-water, caught us in such a manner that we thought it would drive us into the abyss, which was, circa, thirty feet deep and more; and as the horses went as if they were upon slippery ice, and could not stand, the coachman halted till the storm was overpast. But the Amtshauptmann no sooner saw this than he came up and commanded the driver to proceed forthwith. The same therefore lashed the horses to make them go on, but they stumbled, so that it was awful to look upon. Our guardsmen, with their forks, kept back, and my little daughter uttered a loud shriek of terror, and just as we came where the great wheel ran under the bridge, our driver fell with his horse, and the same broke one of its legs. The beadle now sprang from the waggon, but instantly fell also, upon this slippery ground; item, the driver had no sooner raised himself up than he fell down again. Then the Amtshauptmann, with a curse, set spurs to his grey steed, which, however, also began to reel and stagger as our horses had done. Howbeit, he rode up to us, and seeing that the horse with the broken leg ever and anon tried to get up, but fell again with the slipperiness of the ground, he roared out and beckoned to the men with the forks to come and take out the mare; item, drag the carriage over the bridge that it might not be driven into the gulf. In the meantime however, a long flash of lightning came darting down before us into the water, which was followed by a clap of thunder so sudden and awful, that the whole bridge shook therewith: and the Amtshauptmann's horse (our horses became quiet) recoiled, and plunging a few paces, lost its footing, and with its rider darted headlong down upon the great mill-wheel. A fearful cry arose from all the folk that stood behind us on the bridge, and for a time there was nothing to be seen for the white foam, until the Amtshauptmann's legs came on high with the wheel, and then also the trunk; but the head stuck betwixt the paddles of the wheel, and, terrible to behold, he was whirling round and round with the same. His steed, however, ailed nothing; but swam behind in the mill-pond. When I saw this I took the hand of my little lamb, and cried: seest thou now, Maria, our Lord God liveth and rideth upon the cherub, unto this day, and flieth; yea, He flieth upon the wings of the wind. He will beat our enemies small as the dust before the wind, and cast them out as the dirt in the streets! Look down now, and behold what the Almighty hath done." As she hereupon lifted up her eyes, sighing towards heaven, we heard Dn. Consul behind us crying as loud as he could; but as no one could understand him for the awful tempest, and the noise of the water, he sprang from the carriage and would go over the bridge on foot, but he also fell upon his face, so that the blood gushed out; he then crept back again upon his hands and knees, and presently held a long consultation with Dn. Camerario, who, however, never moved in the carriage. In the meantime the beadle and the driver having taken out the horse, dragged it away from the bridge and tied it up; they * Psalm xviii., 10, 42. then came back to the carriage and bade us step out and cross the bridge on foot, which also we did; whiles the beadle with many cursings and railings unloosed my little daughter, threatening at the same time to repay her for her maliciousness by roasting her till late in the evening. (Nor could I altogether blame him, for verily and in troth it was a strange thing!) Albeit, she herself came well over it; we both fell, to wit, Rev. Martinus and I, as did all the rest to the ground about three times, but at length, through God's mercy, we reached the miller's house in safety, where the beadle committing my little daughter to the charge of the miller, not to let her escape at the peril of his life, and ran down to the mill-pool to save the Amtshauptmann's horse. He charged the driver in the meantime to remove the carriage and the other horses away from the bewitched bridge. But we had not been standing long under a tall oak tree before the miller's house, when Dn. Consul with the honourable justices, and all the people, came riding over the little bridge, which was only a few yards from the first, and scarcely could he restrain the people from seizing my child and worrying her alive, seeing that all, even Dn. Consul himself, believed that no other than she had raised the storm, also bewitched the bridge, (especially as she herself had not fallen thereon,) and caused the death of the Amtshauptmann, which, however, was altogether false, as we shall hear presently. He then called her an accursed fiend, who after having made a confession and partaken of the Holy Sacrament, had not yet renounced that hateful Satan. But none of these things should at all avail her; she should soon receive her reward. Seeing that she held her peace, and it cut me to the heart when one fellow swore that he would have some of her ashes, as he had not gotten any of the staff, for there was scarcely anything better for fever and the gout than witch-ash. Wherefore I beckoned to the custodi to begin again, and they kept quiet for a time, i. e. as long as the verse lasted, but afterwards went on much worse than before. But as we were now near the fields, and my little daughter beheld the pretty little flowers that grew about the dikes, she fell into profound thought, and began again to recite part of the splendid hymn of St. Augustini, as follows: flos perpetuus rosarum ver agit perpetuum, By this Casus we gained the advantage that all the people ran away cursing from the waggon, and trotted *There the ever-blooming roses everlasting spring bestow, There the snow-white lilies glisten with the saffron's ruddy glow; Ev'ry shrub with balm distilleth-em'rald meadows softly gleam Richly wave the golden harvests-honey flows in luscious stream Od'rous essence there exhaleth-fragrant spices scent the breeze Clusters of eternal fruitage breed the never-fading trees; There the sun by day they need not-stars nor changing moon by night; For the Lamb on that blest city pours his own unceasing light. |