The Amber Witch

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But my gracious lady the Duchess Agnes saw her from the open window
wherein she lay, and called to his Princely Highness, "My lord, there is a
little maiden behind you, who, it seems, would speak with you," whereupon
his Princely Highness straightway turned him round, smiling pleasantly, so
that my little maid presently took courage, and, holding up the ring,
spoke in Latin as I had told her. Hereat both the princes wondered beyond
measure, and after my gracious Duke Philippus had felt his finger, he
answered, "_Dulcissima puella, ego perdidi_"; whereupon she gave it to
him. Then he patted her cheek, and again asked, "_Sed quaenam es, et unde
venis?_" whereupon she boldly gave her answer, and at the same time
pointed with her finger to where I stood by the statue; whereupon his
Princely Highness motioned me to draw near. My gracious lady saw all that
passed from the window, but all at once she left it. She, however,
came back to it again before I had time even humbly to draw near to my
gracious lord, and beckoned to my child, and held a cake out of the window
for her. On my telling her, she ran up to the window, but her Princely
Highness could not reach so low nor she so high above her as to take it,
wherefore my gracious lady commanded her to come up into the castle, and
as she looked anxiously round after me, motioned me also, as did my
gracious lord himself, who presently took the timid little maid by the
hand and went up with his Princely Highness the Duke Bogislaff. My
gracious lady came to meet us at the door, and caressed and embraced my
little daughter, so that she soon grew quite bold and ate the cake. When
my gracious lord had asked me my name, _item_, why I had in so singular a
manner taught my daughter the Latin tongue, I answered that I had heard
much from a cousin at Cologne of Maria Schurman, and as I had observed a
very excellent _ingenium_ in my child, and also had time enough in my
lonely cure, I did not hesitate to take her in hand, and teach her from
her youth up, seeing I had no boy alive. Hereat their Princely Highnesses
marvelled greatly, and put some more questions to her in Latin, which she
answered without any prompting from me. Whereupon my gracious lord Duke
Philippus said in the vulgar tongue, "When thou art grown up and art one
day to be married, tell it to me, and thou shall then have another ring
from me, and whatsoever else pertains to a bride, for thou hast this day
done me good service, seeing that this ring is a precious jewel to me, as
I had it from my wife." Hereupon I whispered her to kiss his Princely
Highness' hand for such a promise, and so she did.

(But alas! most gracious God, it is one thing to promise, and quite
another to hold. Where is his Princely Highness at this time? Wherefore
let me ever keep in mind that "thou only art faithful, and that which thou
hast promised thou wilt surely hold." Psalm xxxiii. 4. Amen.)

_Item_. When his Princely Highness had also inquired concerning myself
and my cure, and heard that I was of ancient and noble family, and my
_salarium_ very small, he called from the window to his chancellor,
D. Rungius, who stood without, looking at the sun-dial, and told him that
I was to have an addition from the convent at Pudgla, _item_ from the
crown-lands at Ernsthoff, as I mentioned above; but, more's the pity, I
never have received the same, although the _instrumentum donationis_ was
sent me soon after by his Princely Highness' chancellor.

Then cakes were brought for me also, _item_, a glass of foreign wine in a
glass painted with armorial bearings, whereupon I humbly took my leave,
together with my daughter.

However, to come back to my bargain, anybody may guess what joy my child
felt when I showed her the fair ducats and florins I had gotten for the
amber. To the maid, however, we said that we had inherited such riches
from my brother in Holland; and after we had again given thanks to the
Lord on our knees, and eaten our dinner, we bought in a great store of
bread, salt, meat, and stock-fish: _item_, of clothes, seeing that I
provided what was needful for us three throughout the winter from the
cloth-merchant. Moreover, for my daughter I bought a hair-net and a
scarlet silk bodice, with a black apron and white petticoat, _item_, a
fine pair of earrings, as she begged hard for them; and as soon as I had
ordered the needful from the cordwainer we set out on our way homewards,
as it began to grow very dark; but we could not carry nearly all we had
bought. Wherefore we were forced to get a peasant from Bannemin to help
us, who likewise was come into the town; and as I found out from him
that the fellow who gave me the piece of bread was a poor cotter called
Pantermehl, who dwelt in the village by the roadside, I shoved a couple of
loaves in at his house-door without his knowing it, and we went on our way
by the bright moonlight, so that by the help of God we got home about ten
o'clock at night. I likewise gave a loaf to the other fellow, though truly
he deserved it not, seeing that he would go with us no further than to
Zitze. But I let him go, for I, too, had not deserved that the Lord should
so greatly bless me.

_The Eleventh Chapter_

HOW I FED ALL THE CONGREGATION:
_ITEM_, HOW I JOURNEYED TO THE HORSE FAIR AT GUeTZKOW, AND WHAT BEFELL
ME THERE

Next morning my daughter cut up the blessed bread, and sent to every one
in the village a good large piece. But as we saw that our store would
soon run low, we sent the maid with a truck, which we bought of Adam
Lempken, to Wolgast to buy more bread, which she did. _Item_, I gave
notice throughout the parish that on Sunday next I should administer the
blessed sacrament, and in the meantime I bought up all the large fish
that the people of the village had caught. And when the blessed Sunday
was come I first heard the confessions of the whole parish, and after
that I preached a sermon on Matt. xv. 32--"I have compassion on the
multitude ... for they have nothing to eat." I first applied the same to
spiritual food only, and there arose a great sighing from both the men
and the women, when, at the end, I pointed to the altar, whereon stood
the blessed food for the soul, and repeated the words, "I have compassion
on the multitude ... for they have nothing to eat." (N.B.--The pewter
cup I had borrowed at Wolgast, and bought there a little earthenware
plate for a paten till such time as Master Bloom should have made ready
the silver cup and paten I had bespoke.) Thereupon as soon as I had
consecrated and administered the blessed sacrament, _item_, led the
closing hymn, and every one had silently prayed his "Our Father" before
going out of church, I came out of the confessional again, and motioned
the people to stay yet a while, as the blessed Saviour would feed not
only their souls, but their bodies also, seeing that he still had the
same compassion on his people as of old on the people at the Sea of
Galilee, as they should presently see. Then I went into the tower and
fetched out two baskets which the maid had bought at Wolgast, and which I
had hidden there in good time; set them down in front of the altar, and
took off the napkins with which they were covered, whereupon a very loud
shout arose, inasmuch as they saw one filled with broiled fish and the
other with bread, which we had put into them privately. Hereupon, like
our Saviour, I gave thanks and brake it, and gave it to the churchwarden
Hinrich Seden, that he might distribute it among the men, and to my
daughter for the women. Whereupon I made application of the text, "I have
compassion on the multitude ... for they have nothing to eat," to the
food of the body also; and walking up and down in the church, amid great
outcries from all, I exhorted them alway to trust in God's mercy, to pray
without ceasing, to work diligently, and to consent to no sin. What was
left I made them gather up for their children and the old people who were
left at home.

After church, when I had scarce put off my surplice, Hinrich Seden his
squint-eyed wife came and impudently asked for more for her husband's
journey to Liepe; neither had she had anything for herself, seeing she had
not come to church. This angered me sore, and I said to her, "Why wast thou
not at church? Nevertheless, if thou hadst come humbly to me thou shouldst
have gotten somewhat even now, but as thou comest impudently, I will give
thee nought: think on what thou didst to me and to my child." But she stood
at the door and glowered impudently about the room till my daughter took
her by the arm and led her out, saying, "Hear'st thou, thou shalt come back
humbly before thou gett'st anything, but when thou comest thus, thou also
shalt have thy share, for we will no longer reckon with thee an eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth; let the Lord do that if such be his will, but
we will gladly forgive thee!" Hereupon she at last went out at the door,
muttering to herself as she was wont; but she spat several times in the
street, as we saw from the window.

Soon after I made up my mind to take into my service a lad, near upon
twenty years of age, called Claus Neels, seeing that his father, old
Neels of Loddin, begged hard that I would do so, besides which the lad
pleased me well in manners and otherwise. Then, as we had a good harvest
this year, I resolved to buy me a couple of horses forthwith, and to sow
my field again; for although it was now late in the year, I thought that
the most merciful God might bless the crop with increase if it seemed
good to him.

Neither did I feel much care with respect to food for them, inasmuch as
there was a great plenty of hay in the neighbourhood, seeing that all the
cattle had been killed or driven away (as related above). I therefore made
up my mind to go in God's name with my new ploughman to Guetzkow, whither a
great many Mecklenburg horses were brought to the fair, seeing that times
were not yet so bad there as with us. Meanwhile I went a few more times up
the Streckelberg with my daughter at night, and by moonlight, but found
very little; so that we began to think our luck had come to an end, when,
on the third night, we broke off some pieces of amber bigger even than
those the two Dutchmen had bought. These I resolved to send to my wife's
brother, Martin Behring, at Hamburg, seeing that the schipper Wulff of
Wolgast intends, as I am told, to sail thither this very autumn, with
pitch and wood for shipbuilding. I accordingly packed it all up in a
strong chest, which I carried with me to Wolgast when I started with my
man on my journey to Guetzkow. Of this journey I will only relate thus
much, that there were plenty of horses and very few buyers in the market.
Wherefore I bought a pair of fine black horses for twenty florins apiece;
_item_, a cart for five florins; _item_, twenty-five bushels of rye, which
also came from Mecklenburg, at one florin the bushel, whereas it is hardly
to be had now at Wolgast for love or money, and costs three florins or
more the bushel. I might therefore have made a good bargain in rye at
Guetzkow if it had become my office, and had I not, moreover, been afraid
lest the robbers, who swarm in these evil times, should take away my corn,
and ill-use and perchance murder me into the bargain, as has happened to
sundry people already. For, at this time especially, such robberies were
carried on after a strange and frightful fashion on Strellin heath at
Guetzkow; but by God's help it all came to light just as I journeyed
thither with my man-servant to the fair, and I will here tell how it
happened. Some months before a man had been broken on the wheel at
Guetzkow, because, being tempted of Satan, he murdered a travelling
workman. The man, however, straightway began to walk after so fearful a
fashion, that in the evening and night-season he sprang down from the
wheel in his gallows' dress whenever a cart passed by the gallows, which
stands hard by the road to Wolgast, and jumped up behind the people, who
in horror and dismay flogged on their horses, and thereby made a great
rattling on the log embankment which leads beside the gallows into a
little wood called the Kraulin. And it was a strange thing that on the
same night the travellers were almost always robbed or murdered on
Strellin heath. Hereupon the magistrates had the man taken down from the
wheel and buried under the gallows, in hopes of laying his ghost. But it
went on just as before, sitting at night snow-white on the wheel, so that
none durst any longer travel the road to Wolgast. Until at last it
happened that, at the time of the above-named fair, young Ruediger von
Nienkerken of Mellenthin, in Usedom, who had been studying at Wittenberg
and elsewhere, and was now on his way home, came this road by night with
his carriage. Just before, at the inn, I myself had tried to persuade him
to stop the night at Guetzkow on account of the ghost, and to go on his
journey with me next morning, but he would not. Now as soon as this young
lord drove along the road, he also espied the apparition sitting on the
wheel, and scarcely had he passed the gallows when the ghost jumped down
and ran after him. The driver was horribly afraid, and lashed on the
horses, as everybody else had done before, and they, taking fright,
galloped away over the log-road with a marvellous clatter. Meanwhile,
however, the young nobleman saw by the light of the moon how that the
apparition flattened a ball of horse-dung whereon it trod, and straightway
felt sure within himself that it was no ghost. Whereupon he called to the
driver to stop; and as the man would not hearken to him, he sprang out of
the carriage, drew his rapier, and hastened to attack the ghost. When the
ghost saw this he would have turned and fled, but the young nobleman gave
him such a blow on the head with his fist that he fell upon the ground
with a loud wailing. _Summa_: the young lord, having called back his
driver, dragged the ghost into the town again, where he turned out to be a
shoemaker called Schwelm.

I also, on seeing such a great crowd, ran thither with many others to
look at the fellow. He trembled like an aspen leaf; and when he was
roughly told to make a clean breast, whereby he might peradventure save
his own life, if it appeared that he had murdered no one, he confessed
that he had got his wife to make him a gallows' dress, which he had
put on, and had sat on the wheel before the dead man, when, from the
darkness and the distance, no one could see that the two were sitting
there together; and this he did more especially when he knew that a
cart was going from the town to Wolgast. When the cart came by, and he
jumped down and ran after it, all the people were so affrighted that
they no longer kept their eyes upon the gallows, but only on him,
flogged the horses, and galloped with much noise and clatter over the
log embankment. This was heard by his fellows in Strellin and Dammbecke
(two villages which are about three-fourths on the way), who held
themselves ready to unyoke the horses and to plunder the travellers
when they came up with them. That after the dead man was buried he
could play the ghost more easily still, etc. That this was the whole
truth, and that he himself had never in his life robbed, still less
murdered, any one; wherefore he begged to be forgiven: that all the
robberies and murders which had happened had been done by his fellows
alone. Ah, thou cunning knave! But I heard afterwards that he and his
fellows were broken on the wheel together, as was but fair.

And now to come back to my journey. The young nobleman abode that night
with me at the inn, and early next morning we both set forth; and as we
had grown into good-fellowship together, I got into his coach with him,
as he offered me, so as to talk by the way, and my Claus drove behind
us. I soon found that he was a well-bred, honest, and learned gentleman,
seeing that he despised the wild student life, and was glad that he had
now done with their scandalous drinking-bouts: moreover, he talked his
Latin readily. I had therefore much pleasure with him in the coach.
However, at Wolgast the rope of the ferry-boat broke, so that we were
carried down the stream to Zeuzin, and at length we only got ashore with
great trouble. Meanwhile it grew late, and we did not get into Coserow
till nine, when I asked the young lord to abide the night with me, which
he agreed to do. We found my child sitting in the chimney-corner, making
a petticoat for her little god-daughter out of her own old clothes. She
was greatly frighted, and changed colour when she saw the young lord
come in with me, and heard that he was to lie there that night, seeing
that as yet we had no more beds than we had bought for our own need from
old Zabel Nehring the forest ranger his widow, at Uekeritze. Wherefore
she took me aside: What was to be done? My bed was in an ill plight, her
little god-child having lain on it that morning; and she could nowise
put the young nobleman into hers, although she would willingly creep in
by the maid herself. And when I asked her why not? she blushed scarlet
and began to cry, and would not show herself again the whole evening, so
that the maid had to see to everything, even to the putting white sheets
on my child's bed for the young lord, as she would not do it herself. I
only tell this to show how maidens are. For next morning she came into
the room with her red silk bodice, and the net on her hair, and the
apron; _summa_, dressed in all the things I had bought her at Wolgast,
so that the young lord was amazed, and talked much with her over the
morning meal. Whereupon he took his leave, and desired me to visit him
at his castle.

[Illustration: The Gallows Ghost]

_The Twelfth Chapter_

WHAT FURTHER JOY AND SORROW BEFELL US:
_ITEM_, HOW WITTICH APPELMANN RODE TO DAMEROW TO THE WOLFHUNT, AND WHAT HE
PROPOSED TO MY DAUGHTER

The Lord blessed my parish wonderfully this winter, inasmuch as not only a
great quantity of fish were caught and sold in all the villages, but in
Coserow they even killed four seals: _item_, the great storm of the 12th
of December threw a goodly quantity of amber on the shore, so that many
found amber, although no very large pieces, and they began to buy cows and
sheep from Liepe and other places, as I myself also bought two cows;
_item_, my grain which I had sown, half on my own field and half on old
Paasch's, sprang up bravely and gladly, as the Lord had till _datum_
bestowed on us an open winter; but so soon as it had shot up a finger's
length, we found it one morning again torn up and ruined, and this time
also by the devil's doings, since now, as before, not the smallest trace
of oxen or of horses was to be seen in the field. May the righteous God,
however, reward it, as indeed he already has done. Amen.

Meanwhile, however, something uncommon happened. For one morning, as I
have heard, when Lord Wittich saw out of the window that the daughter of
his fisherman, a child of sixteen, whom he had diligently pursued, went
into the coppice to gather dry sticks, he went thither too; wherefore, I
will not say, but every one may guess for himself. When he had gone some
way along the convent mound, and was come to the first bridge, where the
mountain-ash stands, he saw two wolves coming towards him; and as he had
no weapon with him, save a staff, he climbed up into a tree; whereupon the
wolves trotted round it, blinked at him with their eyes, licked their
lips, and at last jumped with their fore-paws up against the tree,
snapping at him; he then saw that one was a he-wolf, a great fat brute
with only one eye. Hereupon in his fright he began to scream, and the
long-suffering of God was again shown to him, without, however, making him
wiser; for the maiden, who had crept behind a juniper-bush in the field
when she saw the Sheriff coming, ran back again to the castle and called
together a number of people, who came and drove away the wolves, and
rescued his lordship. He then ordered a great wolf-hunt to be held next
day in the convent wood, and he who brought the one-eyed monster, dead or
alive, was to have a barrel of beer for his pains. Still they could not
catch him, albeit they that day took four wolves in their nets, and killed
them. He therefore straightway ordered a wolf-hunt to be held in my
parish. But when the fellow came to toll the bell for a wolf-hunt, he did
not stop a while, as is the wont for wolf-hunts, but loudly rang the bell
on, _sine mora_, so that all the folk thought a fire had broken out, and
ran screaming out of their houses. My child also came running out (I
myself had driven to visit a sick person at Zempin, seeing that walking
began to be wearisome to me, and that I could now afford to be more at
mine ease); but she had not stood long, and was asking the reason of the
ringing, when the Sheriff himself, on his grey charger, with three
cart-loads of toils and nets following him, galloped up and ordered the
people straightway to go into the forest and to drive the wolves with
rattles. Hereupon he, with his hunters and a few men whom he had picked
out of the crowd, were to ride on and spread the nets behind Damerow,
seeing that the island is wondrous narrow there, and the wolf dreads the
water. When he saw my daughter he turned his horse round, chucked her
under the chin, and graciously asked her who she was, and whence she came?
When he had heard it, he said she was as fair as an angel, and that he had
not known till now that the parson here had so beauteous a girl. He then
rode off, looking round at her two or three times. At the first beating
they found the one-eyed wolf, who lay in the rushes near the water. Hereat
his lordship rejoiced greatly, and made the grooms drag him out of the net
with long iron hooks, and hold him there for near an hour, while my lord
slowly and cruelly tortured him to death, laughing heartily the while,
which is a _prognosticon_ of what he afterwards did with my poor child,
for wolf or lamb is all one to this villain. Just God! But I will not be
beforehand with my tale.

Next day came old Seden his squint-eyed wife, limping like a lame dog, and
put it to my daughter whether she would not go into the service of the
Sheriff; praised him as a good and pious man; and vowed that all the world
said of him were foul lies, as she herself could bear witness, seeing that
she had lived in his service for above ten years. _Item_, she praised the
good cheer they had there, and the handsome beer-money that the great
lords who often lay there gave the servants which waited upon them; that
she herself had more than once received a rose-noble from his Princely
Highness Duke Ernest Ludewig; moreover, many pretty fellows came there,
which might make her fortune, inasmuch as she was a fair woman, and might
take her choice of a husband; whereas here in Coserow, where nobody ever
came, she might wait till she was old and ugly before she got a curch on
her head, etc. Hereat my daughter was beyond measure angered, and
answered, "Ah! thou old witch, and who has told thee that I wish to go
into service to get a curch on my head? Go thy ways, and never enter the
house again, for I have nought to do with thee." Whereupon she walked away
again, muttering between her teeth.

Scarce had a few days passed, and I was standing in the chamber with the
glazier, who was putting in new windows, when I heard my daughter scream
in the kitchen. Whereupon I straightway ran in thither, and was shocked
and affrighted when I saw the Sheriff himself standing in the corner with
his arm round my child her neck; he, however, presently let her go, and
said: "Aha, reverend Abraham, what a coy little fool you have for a
daughter! I wanted to greet her with a kiss, as I always use to do, and
she struggled and cried out as if I had been some young fellow who had
stolen in upon her, whereas I might be her father twice over." As I
answered nought, he went on to say that he had done it to encourage her,
seeing that he desired to take her into his service, as indeed I knew,
with more excuses of the same kind which I have forgot. Hereupon I pressed
him to come into the room, seeing that after all he was the ruler set over
me by God, and humbly asked what his lordship desired of me. Whereupon he
answered me graciously that it was true he had just cause for anger
against me, seeing that I had preached at him before the whole
congregation, but that he was ready to forgive me, and to have the
complaint he had sent in _contra me_ to his Princely Highness at Stettin,
and which might easily cost me my place, returned to him if I would but do
his will. And when I asked what his Lordship's will might be, and excused
myself as best I might with regard to the sermon, he answered that he
stood in great need of a faithful housekeeper whom he could set over the
other women-folk; and as he had learnt that my daughter was a faithful and
trustworthy person, he would that I should send her into his service. "See
there," said he to her, and pinched her cheek the while, "I want to lead
you to honour, though you are such a young creature, and yet you cry out
as if I were going to bring you to dishonour. Fie upon you!" (My child
still remembers all this _verbotenus_; I myself should have forgot it a
hundred times over in all the wretchedness I since underwent.) But she was
offended at his words, and, jumping up from her seat, she answered
shortly, "I thank your lordship for the honour, but will only keep house
for my papa, which is a better honour for me"; whereupon he turned to me
and asked what I said to that. I must own that I was not a little
affrighted, inasmuch as I thought of the future and of the credit in which
the Sheriff stood with his Princely Highness. I therefore answered with
all humility that I could not force my child, and that I loved to have her
about me, seeing that my dear huswife had departed this life during the
heavy pestilence, and I had no child but only her. That I hoped therefore
his lordship would not be displeased with me that I could not send her
into his lordship's service. This angered him sore, and after disputing
some time longer in vain he took leave, not without threats that he would
make me pay for it. _Item_, my man, who was standing in the stable, heard
him say as he went round the corner, "I will have her yet, in spite of
him!"

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