Sidonia, the Sorceress Volume I Part 40

"Ah, they would yet see who was right. He was still of the same opinion."

But I shall leave these arguments at once, for the result will fully show which party was in the right.

_Summa._--Sidonia, next day, drove in her one-horse cart again to the convent gate at Marienfliess, accompanied by another old hag as her servant. Now the peasants had just arrived with the salmon, which the Duke despatched every fortnight as a present to the convent, and the letter of his Grace had arrived also. So, many of the nuns were a.s.sembled on the great steps looking at the fish, and waiting for the abbess to divide it amongst them, as was her custom. Others were gathered round the abbess, weeping as she told them of the Duke's letter, and the good mother herself nearly fainted when she read it.

So Sidonia drove straight into the court, as the gates were lying open, and shouted--

"What the devil! Is this a nuns' cloister, where all the gates lie open, and the carls come in and out as if it were a dove-cot?

Shame on ye, for light wantons! Wait; Sidonia will bring you into order. Ha! ye turned me out; but now ye must have me, whether ye will or no!"

At such blasphemies the nuns were struck dumb. However, the abbess seemed as though she heard them not, but advancing, bid Sidonia welcome, and said--

"It was not possible to receive her into the cloister, until she had command from his Grace so to do, which command she now held in her hand."

This softened Sidonia somewhat, and she asked--

"What are the nuns doing there with the fish?"

"Dividing the salmon," was the answer.

Whereupon she jumped out of the cart, and declared that she must get her portion also, for salmon was a right good thing for supper.

Whereupon the sub-prioress, Dorothea von Stettin, cut her off a fine large head-piece, which Sidonia, however, pushed away scornfully, crying--

"Fie! what did she mean by that? The devil might eat the head-piece, but give her the tail. She had never in her life eaten anything but the tail-piece; the tail was fatter."

So the abbess signed to them to give her the tail-end; after which, she asked to see her cell, and, on being shown it, cried out again--

"Fie on them! was that a cell for a lady of her degree? Why, it was a pig-sty. Let the abbess put her young litter of nuns there; they would be better in it than running up and down the convent court with the fish-carls. She must and will have the refectory."

And when the abbess answered--

"That was the prayer-room, where the sisters met night and morning for vespers and matins," she heeded not, but said--

"Let them pray in the chapel--the chapel is large enough."

And so saying, she commanded her maid, who was no other than Wolde Albrechts, though not a soul in the convent knew her, to carry all her luggage straight into the refectory.

What could the poor abbess do? She had to submit, and not only give her up the refectory, but, finding that she had no bed, order one in for her. _Item,_ seeing that Sidonia was in rags, she desired black serge for a robe to be brought, and a white veil, such as the sisterhood wore, and bid the nuns st.i.tch them up for her, thinking thus to win her over by kindness. Also she desired tables, stools, &c., to be arranged in the refectory, since she so ardently desired to possess this room. But what fruit all this kindness brought forth we shall see in _liber tertius_.

END OF SECOND BOOK.

BOOK III.

FROM THE RECEPTION OF SIDONIA INTO THE CONVENT AT MARIENFLIESS UP TILL HER EXECUTION, AUGUST 19th, 1620.

CHAPTER I.

_How the sub-prioress, Dorothea Stettin, visits Sidonia and extols her virtue--Item, of Sidonia's quarrel with the dairywoman, and how she beats the sheriff himself, Eggert Sparling, with a broom-stick._

MOST EMINENT AND ILl.u.s.tRIOUS PRINCE!--Your Serene Highness will surely pardon me if I pa.s.s over, in _libra tertio_, many of the quarrels, bickerings, strifes, and evil deeds, with which Sidonia disturbed the peace of the convent, and brought many a goodly person therein to a cruel end; first, because these things are already much known and talked of; and secondly, because such dire and Satanic wickedness must not be so much as named to gentle ears by me.

I shall therefore only set down a few of the princ.i.p.al events of her convent life, by which your Grace and others may easily conjecture much of what still remains unsaid; for truly wickedness advanced and strengthened in her day by day, as decay in a rotting tree.

The morning after her arrival in the convent, while it was yet quite early, and Wolde Albrechts, her lame maid, was sweeping out the refectory, the sub-prioress, Dorothea Stettin, came to pay her a visit. She had a piece of salmon, and a fine haddock's liver, on a plate, to present to the lady, and was full of joy and grat.i.tude that so pious and chaste a maiden should have entered this convent. "Ah, yes! it was indeed terrible to see how the convent gates lay open, and the men-folk walked in and out, as the lady herself had seen yesterday. And would sister Sidonia believe it, sometimes the carls came in bare-legged? Not alone old Matthias Winterfeld, the convent porter, but others--yea, even in their s.h.i.+rt-sleeves sometimes--oh, it was shocking even to think of! She had talked about it long enough, but no one heeded her, though truly she was sub-prioress, and ought to have authority. However, if sister Sidonia would make common cause with her from this time forth, modesty and sobriety might yet be brought back to their blessed cloister."

Sidonia desired nothing better than to make common cause with the good, simple Dorothea--but for her own purposes. Therefore she answered, "Ay, truly; this matter of the open gates was a grievous sin and shame. What else were these giddy wantons thinking of but lovers and matrimony? She really blushed to see them yesterday."

_Illa._--"True, true; that was just it. All about love and marriage was the talk for ever amongst them. It made her heart die within her to think what the young maidens were nowadays."

_Haec._--"Had she any instances to bring forward; what had they done?"

_Illa._--"Alas! instances enough. Why, not long since, a nun had married with a clerk, and this last chaplain, David Grosskopf, had taken another nun to wife himself."

_Haec._--"Oh, she was ready to faint with horror."

_Illa _ (sobbing, weeping, and falling upon Sidonia's neck).--"G.o.d be praised that she had found one righteous soul in this Sodom and Gomorrah. Now she would swear friends.h.i.+p to her for life and death! And had she a little drop of wine, just to pour on the haddock's liver? it tasted so much better stewed in wine! but she would go for some of her own. The liver must just get one turn on the fire, and then the b.u.t.ter and spices have to be added. She would teach her how to do it if she did not know, only let the old maid make up the fire."

_Haec_.--"What was she talking about? Cooking was child's play to her; she had other things to cook than haddocks' livers."

_Illa_ (weeping).--"Ah! let not her chaste sister be angry; she had meant it all in kindness."

_Haec_.--"No doubt--but why did she call the convent a Sodom and Gomorrah? Did the nuns ever admit a lover into their cells?"

_Illa_ (screaming with horror).--"No, no, fie! how could the chaste sister bring her lips to utter such words?"

_Haec_.--"What did she mean, then, by the Sodom and Gomorrah?"

_Illa_.--"Alas! the whole world was a Sodom and Gomorrah, why, then, not the convent, since it lay in the world? For though we do not sin in words or works, yet we may sin in thought; and this was evidently the case with some of these young things, for if the talk in their hearing was of marriage, they laughed and t.i.ttered, so that it was a scandal and abomination!"

_Haec_.--"But had she anything else to tell her--what had she come for?"

_Illa_.--"Ah! she had forgotten. The abbess sent to say, that she must begin to knit the gloves directly for the canons of Camyn. Here was the thread."

_Haec_.--"Thousand devils! what did she mean?" _Illa_ (crossing herself).--"Ah! the pious sister might let the devils alone, though (G.o.d be good to us) the world was indeed full of them!"

_Haec_.--"What did she mean, then, by this knitting--to talk to her so--the lady of castles and lands?"

_Illa_.--"Why, the matter was thus. The reverend canons of Camyn, who were twelve in number, purchased their beer always from the convent--for such had been the usage from the old Catholic times--and sent a waggon regularly every half-year to fetch it home. In return for this goodness, the nuns knit a pair of thread gloves for each canon in spring, and a pair of woollen ones in winter."

_Haec_.--"Then the devil may knit them if he chooses, but she never will. What! a lady of her rank to knit gloves for these old fat paunches! No, no; the abbess must come to her! Send a message to bid her come."