the judgment is God's."

Then he called upon God to

forgive the Prince who, by taking away law and justice from the land, had obliged him to be the judge and condemner of How the Lord dealt with the Prince we shall hear

his son. farther on. One while he sent mine host to look over the hedge, and tell him if the head were off yet. Then he would begin to pray that he might soon follow this poor son, who had never given him one moment of joy but through his death, and pass quickly after him through the vale of tears.

The son, however, is steadfast unto the end. For when they reached the churchyard, he stood still a while gazing on the heap of sand. Then he desired to be led to the spot where his grave was dug; and near this same grave there being a tombstone, on which was figured a man kneeling before a crucifix, he asked

"Who was to share his grave

bed here?"

Whereupon M. Vitus replied—

"He was a rector schola out of Stargard, a very learned man, who had retired from active life, and settled down here at Bruchhausen, where he died not long since."

Whereat the poor sinner stood still a while, and then repeated this beautiful distich, no doubt by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, to warn all learned sinners against that demon of pride and vain-glory which too often takes possession of them.

་་

"Quid juvat innumeros scire atque evolvere casus

Si facienda fugis et fugienda facis?" *

Then he looked calmly at his grave, and only prayed the executioner not to put his head between his feet; after which he returned to the sand-heap and exclaimed—

"Now to God! "

Upon which, M. Vitus blessed him yet again, and spake—

* "What is the use of knowledge and all our infinite learning,
If we fly what is right and do what we ought to fly?"

"O God, Father, who hast brought back this lost son, and filled this foolish soul with wisdom; ah! Jesus, Saviour, who, in truth, hast turned Thy holy eyes on him as on the denying Peter and on the dying thief. O Holy Spirit, who hast not scorned to make this poor vessel a temple for Thyself to dwell in, that in the death-anguish this sinner may find the sweetness of Thy presence and the heaven-high comfort of Thy promises! O Thou Holy Trinity-to Theeto Thee—to Thee—to Thy grace, Thy power, Thy protection, we resign this dying mortal in his last agonies. Help him, Lord God! Kyrie Eleison! Give Thy holy angels command to bear this poor soul into Abraham's bosom. O come,

Lord Jesus; help him, O Lord our God. Kyrie Eleison ! Amen."

And hereupon he pronounced a last blessing over him. And when the executioner took off his upper garment and bound the kerchief over his eyes, M. Vitus again spake

"Think on the holy martyrs, of whom Basilius Magnus testifies that they exclaimed, when undressing for their death -Non vestes exuimus, sed veterem hominem deponimus.'

Upon which he answered from under the kerchief something in Latin, but the executioner had laid the cloth so thickly even over his mouth and chin, that no one could catch the words. Then he kneeled down, and while the executioner drew his sword, M. Vitus chanted

*

"When my lips no more can speak,
May Thy Spirit in me cry;

When my eyes are faint and weak,
May my soul see Heaven nigh!

When my heart is sore dismayed,

This dying frame has lost its strength,
May my spirit, with Thy aid,

Cry-Jesu, take me home at length!"

'We lay not off our clothes, but the old man."-Basil the Great, Archbishop of Cæsarea, A.D. 379.

And all who stood round saw, as it were, a wonderful sign from God; for as the executioner let the sword fall, head and sun appeared at the same moment-the head upon the earth, the sun above the earth; and there was a deep silence. Sidonia alone laughed out loud, and cried, “So ends the conversion! And while the psalm was singing, "Now, pray we to the Holy Ghost," the executioner acting as clerk, she disappeared, and for thirty years, as we shall hear presently, no one could ascertain where she went to or how she lived; though sometimes, like a horrible ghost, she was seen occasionally here and there.

Summa. The miserable criminal was laid in his coffin, and as, in truth, it was too short for the corpse, and the poor sinner had requested that his head might not be placed between his feet, so it was laid upon his chest, with his hands folded over it, and thus he was buried.

The old father rejoiced greatly that his son remained steadfast in the truth until the last, and thanked God for it. Then he returned to Stargard; and I may just mention, to conclude concerning him, that the merciful God heard the prayer of this His faithful servant, for he scarcely survived his son a year, but, after a short illness, fell asleep in Jesus.*

CHAPTER XIX.

Of Sidonia's disappearance for thirty years-Item, how the young Princess Elizabeth Magdelene was possessed by a devil, and of the sudden death of her father, Ernest Ludovicus of Pomerania.

I HAVE said that Sidonia disappeared after the execution at Bruchhausen, and that for thirty years no one knew where

* For further particulars concerning this truly worthy man, who may well be called the Pomeranian Manlius, see Friedeborn, "Description of Old Stettin," vol. ii. p. 113; and Barthold, "Pomeranian History," pp. 46, 419.

she lived or how she lived. At her farm-house at Zachow she never appeared; but the Acta Criminalia set forth that during that period she wandered about the towns of Freienwald, Regenwald, Stargard, and other places, in company with Peter Konnemann and divers other knaves.

However, the ducal prosecutor, although he instituted the strictest inquiries at the period of her trial, could ascertain nothing beyond this, except that, in consequence of her evil habits and licentious tongue, she was held everywhere in fear and abhorrence, and was chased away from every place she entered after about six or eight o'clock. Further, that some misfortune always fell upon every one who had dealings with her, particularly young married people. To the said Konnemann, she betrothed herself after the death of her first paramour, but afterwards gave him fifty florins to get rid of the contract, as she confessed at the seventeenth question upon the rack, according to the Actis Lothmanni. Meantime her brother and cousins were so completely turned against her, that her brother even took those two farm-houses to himself; and though Sidonia wrote to him, begging that an annuity might be settled on her, yet she never received a line in answer-and this was the manner in which the whole cousinhood treated her in her despair and poverty.

I myself made many inquiries as to her mode of life during those thirty years, but in vain. Some said that she went into Poland and there kept a little tavern for twenty years; some had seen her living at Rügen at the old wall, where in heathen times the goddess Hertha was honoured. Some said she went to Rüden, a little uninhabited island between Rügen and Usdom, where the wild geese and other birds flock in the moulting season and drop their feathers. Thence, they said, she gathered the eggs, and killed the birds with clubs. At least this was the story of the Usdom fishermen, but whether it were Sidonia or some other outcast woman, I cannot in strict verity declare. Only in Freienwald did I

hear for certain that she lived there twelve years with some carl whom she called her shield-knight; but one day they quarrelled, and beat each other till the blood flowed, after which they both ran out of the town, and went different

ways.

Summa.—On the 1st of May 1592, when the witches gather in the Brocken to hold their Walpurgis night, and the princely castle of Wolgast was well guarded from the evil one by white and black crosses placed on every door, an old wrinkled hag was seen about eight o'clock of the morning (just the time she had returned from the Blocksberg, according to my thinking), walking slowly up and down the great corridor of the princely castle. And the providence of the great God so willed it that at that moment the young and beautiful Princess Elizabeth Magdalena (who had been betrothed to the Duke Frederick of Courland) opened her chamber-door and slipped forth to pay her morning greetings to her illustrious father, Duke Ernest, and his spouse, the Lady Sophia Hedwig of Brunswick, who sat together drinking their warm beer,* and had sent for her.

young

So the hag advanced with much friendliness and cried out, "Hey, what a beautiful But her lord papa damsel ! was called the handsome' in his time, and wasn't she as like him as one egg to another.

Might she take her lady

Now as the hag was bold in

ship's little hand and kiss it?" her bearing, and the young Princess was a timid thing, she feared to refuse; so she reached forth her hand, alas! to the witch, who first three times blew on it, murmuring some words before she kissed it; then as the young Princess asked her who she was and what she wanted, the evil hag answered, "I would speak with your gracious father, for I have known him well. Ask his princely Grace to come to me, for I have somewhat to say to him." Now the Princess, in her

* Before the introduction of coffee or chocolate, warm beer was in general use at breakfast.