The Amber Witch | Page 6

to leave him in peace. But they stabbed 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