Thou askest me why I shudder? said Magdalena in an excited tone, forgetting in her agitation her purpose of self-control. Thou hast forced me to speak, and I will tell thee. Is not thy hand yet reeking with the bloody ashes of thy last victim? Has not a seventh unhappy woman suffered this very day a cruel death at the stake upon thy hideous denunciation; and thou askest me why I shudder?
Beware, womanbeware! cried the witchfinder, lifting up his long right arm with a gesture of menace. Those who defend the evil-doer, and malign the just and heaven-directed accuser, are not far from being arraigned as accomplices themselves!
What! thou seekest already another innocent sacrifice, wretched man! continued the female, tearing away her arm, which the beggar still held clenched in his left hand. Thou art not sated with the innocent blood thy false witness has this day shed?
It is a lie!it is a damning lie! screamed the cripple, foaming with passion. I have borne no false witness! Besides, did not she avow her deeds of darkness? did she not confess her complicity with the spirits of hell, and her harlotries with the arch-deceiver of mankind?
Ay! when, tortured in mind and body, her poor weak old head gave way, and she unconsciously affirmed all that her torturers had for hours past been pressing upon her wavering understanding. Ye had driven her mad, poor wretch!
Tis false again!tis false! repeated the witchfinder. The truth spoke out of her at last, when her treacherous paramour, the demon, had deserted her. Gods glory and that of the holy church, for which I work, had triumphed over the powers of darkness.
Thou serve the holy church! Hear not the blasphemy, O Lord! cried the excited woman, raising up her hands to heaven. Thou, miserable wretch! who, for the favour of the Amtmann or the priest, for the pittance bestowed on thee in reward of thy discovery of the supposed foul practices of witchery and magic, art ever ready to sell the innocent blood of the aged, helpless, and infirm!
For the lucre of gain! screamed the cripple, but in a tone as much of despair at this accusation as of wrath. For the lucre of gain! Nono; as God is my judge, it is not! My motives are pure; God and the Holy Virgin know they are! It is not even a spirit of revenge that instigates me. Nono! it cannot be; it is not! If the words of my mouth have condemned and killed, it is because my voice was uplifted in the cause of religion, and to the confusion of the prince of evil! But as he spoke, the beggar covered his face with his hands, with a shudder, as though there passed in his soul a struggle with himselfa doubt of his own real motives.
Magdalena was about to quit in haste her dangerous companion, when a sentiment of pity at the sight of the cripples evident emotion seemed to mingle strangely with her disgust and aversion to the witchfinder. It was even with an uncontrollable feeling of interest that she stopped for a moment to look upon the wretched man.
After a pause, the beggar removed his hands from his face, and uttering in a low tone the words, I thirst, staggered to the edge of the well, and seized the bucket within his hands. He bent over it but for a moment to drink, and could scarcely have swallowed many mouthfuls, before, flinging back the bucket into the well, he started up, and spat the water from his mouth.
Horror! he said, with a look of mingled terror and insanityit tastes of blood!
It is thy own conscience, poor man, that troubles the taste of the fresh element, said Magdalena solemnly; the water is pure and sweet!
Thou hast done this, old hag! cried the witchfinder wildly; unheeding her remark. Thou hast corrupted the waters at the source. Why did I find thee sitting here, cowering over the surface of the well, if it were not to cast malefick spells upon the water, and turn it into poisonin order to give ills, and ails, and blains, and aches, and pains, and sickness, and death to thy fellow-creatures? Ha! ha! I have long thought it. Thou also art one of the accursed ones!
Thou ravest, miserable wretch! replied the female; thou knowest not what thou utterest. God forgive thee, cripple, thy wicked thought, and change thy perverted mind!
She was again about to turn away, and leave her angry questioner, when, fearing the result of the evil feeling now fully excited in the witchfinders mind, she again paused to excuse herself in the eyes of the dangerous man, and added
Thou canst not mean what thou sayest, Claus; I sat by the well but to cool my heated brow in the night-air, and taste the breath of heaven; for my mind was saddened, and my head whirled, with the horrors that this day has witnessed.
But her words were but oil upon the flame, and only served to augment the wild infatuation of the witchfinder.
Ah! thy mind was saddened! Thou hadst pity for that vile hag of hell! Was she thy comrade? Perchance thou hadst fear for thyself? Thou thoughtst thy own time might come? Thy own time will come, old Magdalena. My eye is upon thee and thy dark practices; it has been upon thee since thou camest, unknown and unacknowledged, to this place, none could tell when, and whence, and how. Ay, my eye is upon thee, andbeware!
Willingly would the woman now have shrunk away before the maddened witchfinders objurgation; but the wild accusation thus thundered against her froze her with terror, and riveted her to the spot.
I have marked thee well, continued the frantic man, and I have seen thee pause upon the threshold of the holy house of God, and kneel in mockery upon the steps before it: but thou hast never dared to enter it. Thou knewest well that the devil thou servest would have torn thee in pieces hadst thou done it. Ha! do I catch thee there? he continued, as at these words the woman buried her face between her hands.
Thou canst not deny it! shouted the witchfinder with an air of triumph.
God best judges the motives of the heart, murmured Magdalena.
I will tell thee more, vile hag, and thou shalt hear it face to face, pursued the cripple, seizing the poor womans arms with his long bony fingers, and dragging her hands from before her face, in spite of her efforts at resistance. Thou watchest at street corners and in doorways, on the bridge or on the causeway, to see fair Fraulein Bertha, the Ober-Amtmanns daughter, ride past upon her ambling jennet, or mount the church-steps, her missal in her hand. Thou watchest her to cast thy spells upon her. Thou hatest her for her youth and beauty and spotless purity, like all thy wretched tribe, whom the sight of innocence and brightness sickens to the hearts core. Thou wouldst fascinate her with thy eye of evil and thy deadly incantations.
The moon, the light of which still struggled faintly through the fast-accumulating clouds, shone for a moment upon the face of old Magdalena, as the cripple pronounced these words. Her features were more deadly pale than usual, and convulsed with an excess of agitation at this mention of Berthas name, which she evidently struggled to control in vain.
Ah! I have thee there again! screamed Claus in triumph a second time. Already have I seen her cheek grow pale, her head bow down like a blighted flower, her walk become weary with faintness. Hast thou already been at thy filthy machinations? But Black Claus, the witchfinder, is there to wrestle with the powers of evil. And hear me! That fair sweet girl is the only comfort of my wretched life. My soul grows calm and soothed when I look upon that lovely face. A ray of sunshine gleams upon the darkness of my path when her smile beams upon me. My heart leaps within me for joy when her small white hand drops an offering into my beggars bowl. She is my only life, my only joy, and my guardian angel. And couldst thou harm her, woman, no torment should be too horrible for thee, body and soul. The chains of the stake still lie upon the market-placethe ashes of yon pile still reek with heat; and the pile shall rise again, the chains shall bind once more. Wretched hag! I bid thee again beware!