Mary Schweidler, - the amber witch. - The most interesting trial for witchcraft ever known. | Page 6

Lene
Hebers as she lay in childbed, speared the child, and flung it over Claus
Peer's hedge among the nettles, where it was yet lying when they came
away. There was not a living soul left in the village, and still less a
morsel of bread, so that unless the Lord took pity on their need they
must all die miserably of hunger.
(Now who is to believe that such people can call themselves
Christians!)
I next inquired, when he had done speaking (but with many sighs, as
any one may guess), after my cottage; but of that they knew nought
save that it was still standing. I thanked the Lord therefore with a quiet
sigh; and having asked old Seden what his wife had been doing in the
church, I thought I should have died for grief when I heard that the
villains came out of it with both the chalices and patens in their hands. I
therefore spoke very sharply to old Lizzie, who now came slinking
through the bushes; but she answered insolently that the strange
soldiers had forced her to open the church, as her goodman had crept
behind the hedge, and nobody else was there; that they had gone
straight up to the altar, and seeing that one of the stones was not well
fitted (which, truly, was an arch-lie), had begun to dig with their
swords till they found the chalices and patens; or somebody else might
have betrayed the spot to them, so I need not always to lay the blame
on her, and rate her so hardly.
Meanwhile the old men and the women came with a good store of
berries; item, my old maid, with the cow's tail and mane, who brought
word that the whole house was turned upside down, the windows all

broken, and the books and writings trampled in the dirt in the midst of
the street, and the doors torn off their hinges. This, however, was a less
sorrow to me than the chalices; and I only bade the people make
springes and snares, in order next morning to begin our fowling, with
the help of Almighty God. I therefore scraped the rods myself until near
midnight; and when we had made ready a good quantity, I told old
Seden to repeat the evening blessing, which we all heard on our knees;
after which I wound up with a prayer, and then admonished the people
to creep in under the bushes to keep them from the cold (seeing that it
was now about the end of September, and the wind blew very fresh
from the sea), the men apart, and the women also apart by themselves. I
myself went up with my daughter and my maid into the cavern, where I
had not slept long before I heard old Seden moaning bitterly because,
as he said, he was seized with the colic. I therefore got up and gave him
my place, and sat down again by the fire to cut springes, till I fell
asleep for half an hour; and then morning broke, and by that time he
had got better, and I woke the people to morning prayer. This time old
Paasch had to say it, but could not get through with it properly, so that I
had to help him. Whether he had forgot it, or whether he was frightened,
I cannot say. Summa. After we had all prayed most devoutly, we
presently set to work, wedging the springes into the trees, and hanging
berries all around them; while my daughter took care of the children,
and looked for blackberries for their breakfast. Now we wedged the
snares right across the wood along the road to Uekeritze; and mark
what a wondrous act of mercy befell from gracious God! As I stepped
into the road with the hatchet in my hand (it was Seden his hatchet,
which he had fetched out of the village early in the morning), I caught
sight of a loaf as long as my arm, which a raven was pecking, and
which doubtless one of the Imperial troopers had dropped out of his
knapsack the day before, for there were fresh hoofmarks in the sand by
it. So I secretly buttoned the breast of my coat over it, so that none
should perceive anything, although the aforesaid Paasch was close
behind me; item, all the rest followed at no great distance. Now, having
set the springes so very early, towards noon we found such a great
number of birds taken in them that Katy Berow, who went beside me
while I took them out, scarce could hold them all in her apron; and at
the other end old Pagels pulled nearly as many out of his doublet and

coat pockets. My daughter then