The Fiery Angel (43 page)

And so, this is what I wrote down, question following question, acting in my capacity as a humble scribe of the inquisitorial court:

Question:
Who taught you sorcery, the Devil himself, or one of his disciples?

Answer:
The Devil.

Question:
Whom did you teach in your turn?

Answer:
None.

Question:
When, and on what date, did the Devil wed you?

Answer:
Three years ago on the night of the holiday of Corpus Christi.

Question:
Did he force you, in pact with him, to renounce God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Most Blessed Virgin, all the saints and all the Christian faith?

Answer:
Yes.

Question:
Did you receive a second baptism from the Devil?

Answer:
Yes.

Question:
Have you been present at the dances of the Sabbath, thrice a year, or oftener?

Answer:
Much oftener, many times.

Question:
How did you transport yourself thither?

Answer:
In the evenings, when night set in, when the Sabbath was gathering, we anointed our bodies with a special ointment, and then there appeared to us a black billy-goat, that transported us through the air on its back, or a demon himself, in the shape of a gentleman dressed in a green jacket and yellow waistcoat, and I held on to his neck with my arms as he flew above the fields. And if there were neither billy-goat nor demon, we could sit astride any object and it would fly like the fastest steed.

Question:
Of what substances did you concoct the ointment that you rubbed on yourself in such cases?

Answer:
We took various herbs: hart’s wort, parsley, sweet-rush, cotton-weed, banewort, madwort, placed them in an infusion of aconite, added an oil distilled from plants and the blood of a bat, and boiled them all together, repeating certain words, varying according to the different months of the year.

Question:
Did you add to this composition the fat of babies you had done to death, and if so which, melted or grilled?

Answer:
No, for it was not necessary.

Question:
Did you see at the Sabbath the Evil Spirit seated on a throne in the shape of a He-goat, and had you to give worship to him, and kiss his unclean rump?

Answer:
That has been my sin. And also we brought him our offerings: moneys, eggs, pasties, and some, also, brought him stolen babes. Also we gave suck with our breasts to small demons in the shape of toads, or, by order of the Master, we thrashed them with rods. Then we danced to the sounds of a drum and a flute.

Question:
Did you also take part in the service of the ungodly Black Mass?

Answer:
Yes, and the Devil himself partook of the communion as well as administered it to us, saying “this is my body.”

Question:
Did this communion consist of one substance or of two?

Answer:
Of two, but instead of the host there was something hard that was difficult to swallow, and instead of wine a draught of liquid terribly bitter, and bringing cold to the heart.

Question:
Did you at the Sabbath enter into bodily connection with the Devil?

Answer:
The Devil each night chose one among the women whom we called Queen of the Sabbath, and she whiled away the night with him. And everyone else united at the end of the feast, as it might befal, who chanced to approach whom, women, men, and demons, and only occasionally did the Devil interfere, himself arranging couples, saying; “This is he of whom you stand in need” or “She will suit you.”

Question:
Did it happen to you to be Queen of the Sabbath?

Answer:
Yes, and not only once, of which I was very proud—may the Lord have mercy on my soul!

Question:
Tell us, did your lying with the Devil give you more sweetness and satisfaction than that with a man?

Answer:
Much greater, without any comparison.

Question:
Had he in its course an outflowing of seed?

Answer:
Yes, but this seed was cold.

Question:
Did you not have any issue from cohabitation with demons?

Answer:
One small white mouse, very pretty, was born unto me, but I strangled it and buried it in the garden, above the river. Ah, had I but had any children, how many sins would I have been saved from committing!

Question:
In general, did it give you pleasure to visit the Sabbath?

Answer:
An extreme pleasure, so that we went to the Sabbath as to a wedding. The Devil held always our hearts so strongly shackled that no other desire could enter into us. It seemed to me then as though I saw at each Sabbath many hundreds of new and wonderful things, as though the music of the Sabbath were more beautiful than any other music, as though it were an earthly paradise.

Question:
Did the Devil teach you how to produce thunderstorms, hail, rats, mice, moles, how to change yourself into a she-wolf, how to deprive cows of their milk, how to ruin crops, and make men incapable of marital cohabitation?

Answer:
He taught me all this and much else, in which I acknowledge myself a sinner, before the Lord God and before mankind.

Question:
Tell us, how do you produce thunderstorms?

Answer:
For this purpose one must make a little hollow in a field, in a place where banewort grows, and, squatting over it, cause it to become wet, and say: “In the name of the Devil, rain!” and at once there will come a cloud and rain will follow.

Question:
And how do you deprive men of their strength?

Answer:
For this there are more than fifty means, for example, take the male organs of a newly-slain wolf and go to the threshold of him whom you desire to disable, call him by his name, and, when he answers, wind that which you have in your hands around with white tape—and, anyway, I have no wish to tell you more of them!

Question:
Did you cause by these means, and also in the shape of a she-wolf, or of any other were-beast, hurt to fields, animals, or human beings?

Answer:
A terrible hurt, that it is impossible even to fathom, for we ate a multitude of lambs, ruined crops and orchards, sent hosts of rats into villages, made many women incapable of bearing issue, and, I think, had not remorse come upon us, the whole district would have perished from a failure of crops and other misfortunes! But why do you question me further when, however much you question me, I shall never be able to enumerate the whole number of my sins! Oh, lead me more quickly to the pyre, for even here my enemy does not quit me—even now he is about to seize me! Slay me, quickly, quickly!

With these last words, Renata began to jerk herself about, as if on the point of flinging herself at the judges, but the two burly guards seized her arms and restrained her from this intention. Then the Archbishop, perhaps rendered uneasy by the behaviour of the accused, or perhaps merely fatigued by the examination, turned to the inquisitor with the following words:

“Should not the examination be ended, if the accused herself admits that she is guilty and deserving of the stake?”

Brother Thomas, who had thrown himself into the inquiry as a merry otter dives into water, objected thus:

“I suggest it as my opinion that it behoves us first to discover the names of the demons with whom this slut has entered into connection, and the exact terms of her pacts with them, and also to worm out of her the identity of her accomplices in all these ungodly deeds. For thus speaks the Apostle: they are from amongst us,
ex nobis egressi sunt!
”

Renata, hearing the words of the inquisitor, exclaimed in a strangled voice:

“You must not ask me any more. I had no accomplices! They whom I met at the Sabbath are afar off. It was not here, but in another land! Merciful Lord Christ, come to my aid!”

Brother Thomas replied to her:

“Not so fast, my little chicken, when we jerk you up on the strappado, and roast your heels with a red-hot iron, you will sing us a song in another tune.”

I clapped my hand to the hilt of my sword, but the Archbishop said firmly:

“It were better for us to continue the investigation at some other time, for we have yet to question the witnesses, Mother Martha and the other sisters.”

The Count, who had been silent until now, also took part in the discussion, and he too began to insist that the case be postponed until to-morrow morning, pointing out, among other things, that it was not worth while to begin torture when even the judges themselves were already tired by the examination, but Brother Thomas disagreed:

“Have you not forgotten, my lord Count, that it is only prohibited to
repeat
the torture, if no new evidence be manifested, but all the authorities are agreed that it may be
continued
the next day, or the one after next also, and intellects worthy of respect call on us to proceed in such a case
ad continuandum tormenta, non ad iterandum
. We might just have begun to-day, and to-morrow we could have continued. …”

Seeing however that his speech met with no sympathy, Brother Thomas abruptly broke it off, like a spinner a ravelled thread, and though he himself would obviously have been happy to continue questioning day and night—he said in a quite different voice:

“However, I am entirely obedient to the will of His Reverend Eminence, who knows better than others how this case should be conducted. But nevertheless, methinks you will agree that we should not let this wench go without first having seen whether she have upon her body the stigmata of a witch.”

Brother Thomas loudly called someone whose name I did not catch, and from the darkness, from beside the horrible post that rose in the depths, there stepped forth a man, broad-shouldered and bearded, in whom it was impossible not to recognise an executioner. At this appearance I clutched my sword for the second time, but encountered immediately the staring gaze of the Count, silently importuning me to keep calm until the last possible moment. Overpowering myself, I watched as my horrible dream became incarnate, saw how the executioner tore the dress of Renata, who in no wise resisted him, and how in the moist subterranean twilight he searched all her body with his coarse hands, her body, that once I covered with reverent kisses.

At last the attention of the executioner was arrested by a small birthmark on the left shoulder, which I knew so well, and taking a small awl from his pocket, he touched with it on this spot the flesh of Renata, who did not move. Then the executioner exclaimed in a coarse and gruff voice, as though he were shouting through a trumpet:

“Here it is! No blood has oozed!”

For the inquisitor and the Archbishop this announcement by the executioner, even though unverified by them, seemed a last and decisive proof, for Brother Thomas at once shrieked, as in bygone days did the High Priest of the Hebrews:

“What further need have ye of witnesses! Is it not as clear as God’s day that she is a witch!”

Then he added:

“And now we have still to singe all the hair on her body with fire, for beneath it she may be concealing spells.”

However, the Count, seeing clearly that I should suffer no further indignity, intervened firmly, reminding the inquisitor that the Archbishop himself, who presided over our inquiry, had decided to interrupt it until the morning of the morrow, and Brother Thomas, fussing like a mouse in a trap, gave orders for Renata to be led back into her cell. Methinks that at this moment Renata was not in consciousness, for a guard, clumsily pulling over her her monastic garb, lifted her up like a child and dragged her again into the darkness, while I, having no means of following her, almost collapsed, racked by my powerlessness. At this moment, in my fate, I was like the Spaniard whom the Aztecs, after taking prisoner, tied to a tree trunk and, cutting off his eyelids, forced to watch them submitting his comrades to torture before his eyes.

Despite all my efforts, I was probably not able entirely to conceal the interest that I felt in the fate of the accused, for when our small company, having passed once more through the subterranean passages, had come out again into the fresh air of which Renata was deprived, and when the Archbishop, having given us his blessing, had departed, Brother Thomas asked me, not without suspicion:

“It must, Master Rupprecht, be the first time you have been present at the prosecution of such fiends: you wear so depressed an air one might think you were sorry for this slut.”

And I, who had but just now been patient through far heavier trials, could not endure these words, and, suddenly losing mastery over myself, flew at the inquisitor, grabbed him by the collar of his cassock, shouting at him:

“You are the first to deserve being cast into the flames, accursed pater!”

Such behaviour on my part might have led to very serious consequences for me, but the Count, rushing quickly to the monk’s rescue, freed him from my hands and said sternly to me:

“You too must be possessed by some demon, Rupprecht, or else you have lost your reason!”

Brother Thomas, whose face had become all distorted with fear when I flew at him, very soon recovered his composure, and, though he tried to keep at a distance from me, also began to soothe me:

“Or perhaps it is that you do not know me, dear brother Rupprecht? It is I—your meek brother Thomas. How is it that you have thus granted dominion over yourself to the Unclean? The Fiend is strong, but one should be able to withstand him by prayer. Oh, heavy is this task, the combat with the Devil, for he prowls around his judges, and wherever he finds a breach undefended, there he hastens to penetrate: be it through the mouth, through the ears, or through any other opening of the body!”

I muttered some kind of apology through clenched teeth, and the Count, to dispel the unpleasant impression, entered into a conversation with the inquisitor about the case of Sister Maria, and asked whether it were undoubted that she would here and now be sentenced to the stake. Brother Thomas livened up at once, and began with the greatest readiness to explain to us the law: