The Amber Witch | Page 8

of berries, and put them, together with the bird,
in Staffer Zuter his pot, which the honest fellow had left with us for a
while, and set them on the fire for supper against my child and the maid
should return. It was not long before they came through the coppice and
told me of the fearful devastation which Satan had made in the village
and manse by the permission of all-righteous God. My child had
gathered together a few books, which she brought with her, above all, a
Virgilius and a Greek Bible. And after she had told me that the
carpenter would not have done till next day, and we had satisfied the

cravings of hunger, I made her read to me again, for the greater
strengthening of my faith, the locus about the blessed raven from the
Greek of Luke, at the twelfth chapter; also, the beautiful _locus
parallelus_, Matt. vi. After which the maid said the evening blessing,
and we all went into the cave to rest for the night. When I awoke next
morning, just as the blessed sun rose out the sea and peeped over the
mountain, I heard my poor hungry child already standing outside the
cave reciting the beautiful verses about the joys of paradise which St.
Augustine wrote and I had taught her. She sobbed for grief as she spoke
the words:--
Uno pane vivunt cives utriusque patriae; Avidi et semper pleni, quod
habent desiderant. Non sacietas fastidit, neque fames cruciat; Inhiantes
semper edunt, et edentes inhiant. Flos perpetuus rosarum ver agit
perpetuum; Candent lilia, rubescit crocus, sudat balsamum, Virent prata,
vernant sata, rivi mellis influunt; Pigmentorum spirat odor liquor et
aromatum, Pendent poma floridorum non lapsura nemorum. Non
alternat luna vices, sol vel cursus syderum. Agnus est faelicis urbis
lumen inocciduum.
At these words my own heart was melted; and when she ceased from
speaking, I asked, "What art thou doing, my child?" Whereupon she
answered, "Father, I am eating." Thereat my tears now indeed began to
flow, and I praised her for feeding her soul, as she had no meat for her
body. I had not, however, spoken long, before she cried to me to come
and look at the great wonder that had risen out of the sea, and already
appeared over the cave. For behold a cloud, in shape just like a cross,
came over us, and let great heavy drops, as big or bigger than large
peas, fall on our heads, after which it sank behind the coppice. I
presently arose and ran up the mountain with my daughter to look after
it. It floated on towards the Achterwater, where it spread itself out into
a long blue streak, whereon the sun shone so brightly that it seemed
like a golden bridge on which, as my child said, the blessed angels
danced. I fell on my knees with her and thanked the Lord that our cross
had passed away from us; but, alas! our cross was yet to come, as will
be told hereafter.

The Eighth Chapter
HOW OUR NEED WAXED SORER AND SORER, AND HOW I

SENT OLD ILSE WITH ANOTHER LETTER TO PUDGLA, AND
HOW HEAVY A MISFORTUNE THIS BROUGHT UPON ME
Next day, when I had buried the poor corpses amid the lamentations of
the whole village (by the same token that they were all buried under
where the lime-tree overhangs the wall), I heard with many sighs that
neither the sea nor the Achterwater would yield anything. It was now
ten days since the poor people had caught a single fish. I therefore went
out into the field, musing how the wrath of the just God might be
turned from us, seeing that the cruel winter was now at hand, and
neither corn, apples, fish nor flesh to be found in the village, nor even
throughout all the parish. There was indeed plenty of game in the
forests of Coserow and Uekeritze; but the old forest ranger, Zabel
Nehring, had died last year of the plague, and there was no new one in
his place. Nor was there a musket nor a grain of powder to be found in
all the parish; the enemy had robbed and broken everything: we were
therefore forced, day after day, to see how the stags and the roes, the
hares and the wild boars, et cet., ran past us, when we would so gladly
have had them in our bellies, but had no means of getting at them: for
they were too cunning to let themselves be caught in pit-falls.
Nevertheless, Claus Peer succeeded in trapping a roe, and gave me a
piece of it, for which may God reward him. _Item_, of domestic cattle
there was not a head left; neither was there a dog, nor