Sidonia the Sorceress.

VOL 2.

by Milliam Meinhold.

BOOK III. Continued.

FROM THE RECEPTION OF SIDONIA INTO THE CONVENT AT MARIENFLIESS UP TILL HER EXECUTION, AUGUST 19TH, 1620.

CHAPTER IV.

_How Dorothea Stettin is talked out of the sub-prioret by Sidonia, and the priest is prohibited from visiting the convent._

If Sidonia could not be the pastor's wife, she was determined at least to be sub-prioress, and commenced her preparations for this object by knitting a little pair of red hose for her cat. Then she sent for Dorothea Stettin, saying that she was weak and ill, and no one took pity on her.

When the good Dorothea came as she was asked, there lay my serpent on the bed in her nun's robes, groaning and moaning as if her last hour had come; and scarcely had the sub-prioress taken a seat near her, when my cat crept forth from under the bed, in his little red hose, mewing and rubbing himself up against the robe of the sub-prioress, as if praying her to remove this unwonted constraint from him, of the little red hose.

After Dorothea had inquired about her sickness, she looked at the cat, and asked wonderingly, what was the meaning of such a strange dress?

_Illa_.--"Ah, dear friend, it was dreadful to my feelings to see the little animal going about naked, therefore I knit little hose for him, as you see; indeed, I am often tempted to wonder how the Lord G.o.d could permit the poor animals to appear naked before us."

_Haec_ (extending her arms for joy, so that she almost tumbled back off the stool).--"Oh, G.o.d be praised and thanked, at last I have found one chaste soul in this wicked world! (sobs, throws up her eyes, falls upon Sidonia's neck, kisses her, and weeps over her:) ah yes, one chaste soul at last, like herself!"

_Illa._--"True, Dorothea, there is no virtue so rare in this evil world as chast.i.ty. Ah, why has the Lord G.o.d placed such things before our eyes? I never can comprehend it, and never will.

What a sight for a chaste virgin these naked animals! What did the dear sister think on the matter?"

_Haec._--"Ah, she knew not what to think, had asked the priest about it."

_Illa._--"And what did he say?"

_Haec._--"He laughed at her."

_Illa._--"Just like him, the lewd, hypocritical pharisee."

_Haec._--"Eh? she was too hard on the good priest. He was a pure and upright servant of G.o.d."

_Illa._--"Ay, as Judas was. Had not sister Dorothea heard----"

_Haec._--"No; for G.o.d's sake, what? The dear sister frightened her already."

_Illa._--"First, you confess that the priest laughed when you talked about chast.i.ty?"

_Haec._--"Yes, true, ah, indeed true."

_Illa._--"Then you remember that he preached a sermon lately upon adul--upon adul--. No, she never could utter the word--the horrible word. Upon the seventh commandment, to the great scandal of the entire convent?"

_Haec._--"Ah yes, ah yes, she was there, and had to stop one ear with her finger, the other with her kerchief, not to hear all the strange and dreadful things he was saying."

_Illa._--"And yet this was the man that ran in and out of the cloister daily at his pleasure, sent for or not--a young unmarried man--though the convent rules especially declared an _old_ man. Ah, if _she_ were sub-prioress, this scandal should never be permitted."

_Haec_.--"What could be done? it was a blessed thing to live in peace. Besides, the priest was such a pious man."

_Illa_.--"Pious? Heaven defend us from such piety! Why, had she not heard?--the whole convent talked about it."

_Haec_.--"No, no; for G.o.d's sake, what had happened? tell her--she had been making sausages all the morning, and had heard nothing."

_Illa_.--"Then know, ah G.o.d, how it pained her to talk of it--she had heard a great noise in the kitchen in the morning, as if all the pots and pans were tumbled about, and when she ran in to see--there was the priest--oh, her chaste eyes never had seen such a sight--the _pious_ priest making love to her old maid, Wolde."

_Haec_.--"Impossible, impossible!--to her old maid, Wolde?"

_Illa_.-"Yea, and he was praying her for kisses, and praising her fat hand, and extolling her white hair. But as to what more she had seen----"

_Haec_.--"For G.o.d's sake, sister, what more?"

_Illa_ (sighing, and covering her face with both hands).--"No, no, that she could never bring her chaste lips to utter. Oh, that such wickedness should be in the world (weeping bitterly). But she would never enter the chapel again, and that priest there; nor receive the rites from him. But this was not all; the dear sister must hear how he revenged himself upon her, because she interrupted his toying with the old hag. It was truth, all truth!

She (Sidonia) grew so ill with fright and horror that she was unable to disrobe, and threw herself on the bed just as she was, but growing weaker and weaker hour by hour, sent for the priest at last, to pray with her, and afterwards to offer up general supplication for her restoration, in the chapel with all the sisterhood; but only think, the shameless hypocrite refused to pray with her, because he spied an end of her black robe out of the bed, declaring she was not ill at all, that she was a base liar, all because she had lain down in her convent dress, and finally went his way cursing and swearing, without even saying one prayer, or uttering one word of comfort, as was his duty. And now, alas! she must die without priest or sacrament! To what a Sodom and Gomorrah she had come! But if an old hag like her maid was not safe from the shameless parson, how could she or any of them be safe? What was to be done? unless the dear sister, as sub-prioress, took the matter in her own hands, and brought him to task about it?"

At this proposal the other trembled like an aspen leaf, and seemed more dead than alive. She wept, wrung her hands--for G.o.d's sake what could she do? how could she talk on such a matter? Let the abbess see to it, if she chose.

_Illa_.--"Stuff, the old p.u.s.s.y--the less said of _her_ the better. Why, she was worse than the old maid, Wolde, herself."

_Haec_.--"The abbess? why, the whole convent, and the whole world too, talked of her piety and virtue."

_Illa_.--"Very virtuous, truly, to have the priest locked up with her; and when some of the sisters wished to remain, suspecting that all was not right, the priest pushed them out at the door with his own hands, and bolted it after them, as many could testify to her had been done this very day. Oh, what a Sodom and Gomorrah she had been betrayed into! (weeping, sobbing, and falling upon Dorothea's neck.) I pray you, sister, for the sake of our heavenly bridegroom, bring this evil to an end, otherwise fire and brimstone will a.s.suredly and justly be rained down upon our poor cloister."

Still the other maintained, "That the dear sister must err as regarded the abbess. It might be her chaste zeal that blinded her.

True enough, probably, what she said of the priest; but the worthy abbess--no, never could she believe that."

_Illa_.--"Let her have proof then. It was not her custom to weaken innocence; call her maid, Wolde."

Then as Wolde entered, Sidonia made a sign, and bid her tell the sub-prioress all that the shameless priest had done.

_Ancilla_.--"He had asked her for little kisses, praised her hands and hair, and her beautiful limp, and had sat up close to her on the bench, then run after her into the kitchen, gave her money (shows the money), asked again for kisses, then----"

Sidonia screams--

"Hold your tongue; no more, no more; enough, enough!"

At this story, Dorothea Stettin nearly went into convulsions--she wrung her hands, crying--.

"How is it possible? O heaven, how is it possible?"

_Illa_.--"There is something more quite possible also; the hag shall tell you what she saw at the room door of the abbess."

_Ancilla_.-"When the scandalous priest left her, he went straight to the abbess, and there was taken with cramps, as she heard, upon which all the convent ran thither, and she with the rest. And he was lying stretched out on a bench, like one dead, no doubt from shame; but the shame soon went off, and then he got up, and bade them all leave the room. However, good Anna Apenborg did not choose to go, for she suspected evil. Whereupon he seized her by the hand, and put her out along with the others. She saw all this herself, for she was standing in the pa.s.sage, waiting to speak to sister Anna. When, behold, she was pushed out, to her great surprise, in this way by the priest, and they heard the door bolted inside immediately after."

At this Dorothea Stettin fell upon Sidonia's bed, weeping, sobbing, and ready to die with grief; but Sidonia bade her not take on so; for perhaps, after all, the old hag had not told the truth, at least concerning the dear, worthy abbess; but two witnesses would be sufficient testimony. Whereupon she bid Wolde watch for Anna Apenborg from the window, and beckon to her to come in if she saw her going by.