This pleased the bloodthirsty attorney-general, and he asked if the bailiff were present. And when my Brose stepped forward with a profound bow, Ludecke went on--
"Was this the case about the dairy-mother? Was she, in truth, an evil witch?"
Whereupon his malicious wife nudged him again with her elbows in the side, till he answered--"Ay, the people say so."
Ludecke continued--"Were there more witches in the place beside the dairy-mother?"
The fellow was silent and seemed disturbed, until being menaced by the commissioner with all temporal and eternal punishment if he spoke not the truth, my Brose stepped up upon the wheel, and whispered in his ear, while he cast a frightened glance at the convent gate--
"Ay, there is another, one of the convent sisters called Sidonia Bork, she is the very devil itself."
But Ludecke seemed as though he could not believe him--
"It was impossible; he had always heard that this lady was a model of all goodness, piety, and wisdom, who had healed the sheriff himself of some great sickness;" but he squinted all the time over at the convent gate, where the black robes were crowding, and then whispered the bailiff--"Is Sidonia amongst them, think you?"
My carl squinted likewise at the gate, then whispered back again in his ear--"No, Sidonia is not there, as far as I can see."
Meanwhile the _pastor loci_, a simple, timid little man, as I have said, got up all his courage, and feeling it to be his duty to defend his parishioner, the poor dairy-mother, advanced to the waggon, saying--
"Would his worship the lord attorney-general permit him a few words? He was the priest of the parish, had married the widow of his late brother, as no doubt his worship had heard by letters from his dear spouse. His duty compelled him to take the part of this poor dairy-woman, whose character evil tongues had blackened to his worship, for she was the most pious person in all the parish, and every evening brought her spinning along with other pious women to his house, to hear the blessed Word of God, and be examined in the catechism--any one who knew her pious honest life could not believe this of her."
"So much the more likely she is a witch," cried Ludecke; "they are all hypocrites. Look at that pious and honest trio in the cart, how they cast down their eyes and look so innocent, and yet they were three of the vilest witches; for what made them look down, if it were not their evil conscience?"