Sidonia The Sorceress, vol 2 | Page 6

means to
prevent her, but in vain. Even in the middle of her prayers, the said
Anna would come in to tell her what one sister was cooking, and
another getting, or some follies even quite unfit for chaste ears. And
that last night being very sick, she sent for the priest, upon which she
heard Anna calling out from the window to the porter, "Will he come?
will he come?" _Item_, she had then crept down to listen at the door.
So after the priest went, notwithstanding all her weakness, she (Sidonia)
determined to give her a good fright, and thus prevent her from spying
and listening any more. Then she called Wolde, and bid her dance,
while she muttered some words out of the cookery-book. But here
Anna called out, "It is not true; there were three danced. Where is the
carl with the deep bass voice? Who could this be at that midnight hour,
but the devil bodily himself?"
At this, Sidonia laughed louder than before. It was her cat--her own cat,
who was springing about the room, because for divers reasons she had
put little red hose on him. On this she stoops under the bed, seizes my
cat by the leg, who howls (that was the deep bass voice), and flings him
into the middle of the room, where all the nuns, when they beheld his
strange jumps and springs in the little hose, burst out into loud laughter,
in which the abbess herself could not refrain from joining. So as there
was no evidence against Sidonia, and Anna Apenborg was truly held of
all as a most troublesome chatterbox and spy, the inquiry ended. And
with somewhat more friendliness, putting the best face on a bad matter,
they accepted Sidonia for their sub-prioress.

CHAPTER V
.

_How Sidonia wounds Ambrosia von Guntersberg with an axe, because
she purposed to marry--And prays the convent porter, Matthias
Winterfeld, to death--For these, and other causes, the reverend chaplain
refuses to shrive the sorceress, and denounces her publicly from the
altar_.
Sidonia's first act, as may easily be imagined, was to dismiss the priest;
and for this purpose she wrote him a letter, saying that he must never
more presume to set foot within the cloister, for if old ice-grey mothers
were not safe from him, how could she and the other maidens hope to
escape? If he disobeyed her orders, she would summon him before the
princely consistorium, where strange things might be told of him.
So the reverend David consented right willingly, and never saw the
nuns except on Sundays in the chapel, but Sidonia herself never
appeared in the nuns' choir. She gave Dorothea many excellent and
convincing reasons for her absence. (But in my opinion, it was caused
by hate and abhorrence of the sacrament and the holy Word of God; for
such are a torment and a torture to the children of the devil, even as the
works of the devil are an abomination to the children of God.)
When, however, the report came, that the reverend David was indeed
betrothed to Barbara Bamberg, Sidonia presented herself once in the
choir, kneeled down, and was heard to murmur, "Wed if thou wilt, that
I cannot hinder; but a child thou shalt never hold at the font!" And truly
was the evil curse fulfilled.
Meanwhile the fear and the dread of her increased daily in the convent,
for besides old Wolde, two other horrible hags were observed
frequently going in and out of her apartments--true children of Satan, as
one might see by their red, glowing eyes. With these she practised
many horrible sorceries, sometimes quarrelled with them, however, and
beat them out with the broom-stick; but they always came back again,
and were as well received as ever.
Then she had strifes and disputes with every one who approached her,
and was notorious through all the courts of justice for her wrangling
and fighting, in particular with her brother's son, Otto of Stramehl, for
she sued him for an alimentum pension, and also demanded that the
rents of her two farm-houses in Zachow should be paid her, according
to the sum to which they must have accumulated during the last fifty
years. But he answered, she should have no money; why did she not

live at her farm-houses? He knew nothing of the rents, the whole matter
was past and forgotten, and she had no claim now on him, and so every
month she wrangled in the courts about this business. _Item_, she
fought with Preslar of Buslar, because, being a feudal vassal of the
Borks', she required him to kiss her hand, which he refused; then her
dog having strayed into his house, she accused him of having stolen it.
_Item_, she fought