Sidonia, the Sorceress Volume Ii Part 8

Think now of the horror of the nuns. Still they thanked G.o.d that such a _scandalum_ had happened during the singing, and not at the blessed sermon. Then they seized her by the arms, and drew her away to her cell. But woe, alas! scarcely had she reached it, when she threw herself upon her bed in strong convulsions. Her eyes turned so that only the whites were to be seen, and her face grew so drawn and strange that it was a grief to look upon it, and still she kept on screaming in the deep, gruff man's voice--"For a bridegroom! a bridegroom!" she that was so modest, and had such a delicate, gentle voice. Whereupon all the sisters rushed in to hear her the moment the sermon was over; _item_, the priest in his surplice.

But the unfortunate maiden no sooner beheld him, than she cried out in the deep ba.s.s voice--"David, I must marry; wilt thou be my bridegroom?" And when he answered, "Alas, poor girl! when was such speech ever heard from you before? Satan himself must have possessed you!" she cried out again, "Hold your chatter--will you, or will you not?"

"How can I take you?" replied the priest; "you know well that I have a wife already." Whereupon the gruff ba.s.s voice answered, with mocking laughter, "Ha! ha! ha! what matter for that? Take more wives!"

Here some of the young novices laughed, but others who had never wept _bis dato_, now broke out in violent weeping, and the abbess exclaimed, "Oh, merciful G.o.d! who hath ever heard the like from this our chaste sister, whom we have known from her youth up?

Oh! deliver her from this wicked devil who reigns in her soul and members!"

But at the mention of the holy name, the evil one raged more furiously than ever within her. He tore her, so that she foamed at the mouth, and--ah! woe is me that I must speak it--uttered coa.r.s.e and shameful words, such as the most shameless groom or jack-boy would scarce p.r.o.nounce.

These sent all the novices flying and screaming away; but the abbess remained, with some of the nuns, also the priest, who prepared now to exorcise the devil with the most powerful conjurations. Yet ere he began, a strange thing happened; for the possessed maiden became suddenly quite still, all her members relaxed, and her eyes closed heavily as if in sleep. But it was not so, for she then began, in her own soft, natural voice, to chant a hymn in Dutch, although they all knew she never had learned one word of that language. The words were these:--

"Oh, chaste Jesu! all whose being Was so lovely to our seeing, Thoughts and speech, and soul and senses, Filled with n.o.blest evidences.

Oh! the G.o.d that dwelt in Thee, In His sinless purity!

Oh, Christ Immanuel, Save me from the sinner's h.e.l.l!

Make my soul, with power divine, Chaste and holy, ev'n as Thine!"

Then she added in her own tongue--"Ah! ye must pray much before this devil is cast out of me. But still pray, pray diligently, and it will be done.

"Guard, Lord Christ, our deepest slumber, Evil thoughts may come in dreams; And the senses list the murmur, Though the frail form sleeping seems.

Oh! if Thy hand do not keep us, Even in sleep, from pa.s.sion's flame, Though our eyes close on temptation, We may fall to sin and shame!

Amen."

"Yes, yes, oh, pray for me; be not weary, her judgment is p.r.o.nounced."

"What mean you?" spake the abbess, "whose judgment hath been p.r.o.nounced?"

_Illa_.--"Know you not, then? Sidonia's."

_Haec_.--"How could she have bewitched you? She is far from here."

_Illa_.--"Spirits know no distance."

_Haec_.--"How then hath she done this?"

_Illa_.--"Her spirit Chim summoned another spirit last evening, who entered into me as I gasped for air, after that strife between you and your maid, for I was shocked to hear this faithful creature called a thief."

_Haec_.--"And is she not a thief?"

_Illa_.--"In no wise. She is as innocent as a new-born child."

_Haec_.--"But there was no one else in the chamber when I laid down my purse, and when she went away it was gone."

_Illa_.--"Ah! your dog Watcher was there, and the purse was made of calf's skin, greased with your hands, for you had been rolling b.u.t.ter; so the dog swallowed it, having got no dinner.

Kill the dog, therefore, and you will find your purse."

_Haec_.--"For the love of Heaven! how know you aught of my rolling b.u.t.ter?"

_Illa_.--"A beautiful form like an angel sits at my head, and whispers all to me."

_Haec_.--"That must be the devil, who has gone out of thee, for fear of the priest."

_Illa_.--"Oh, no! He sits under my liver. See!--there is the angel again! Ha! how terribly his eyes are flas.h.i.+ng!"

_Haec_.--"Canst thou see, then? Thine eyes are close shut"

(opening Dorothea's eyes by force, but the pupil is not to be seen, only the white).

_Illa_.--"I see, but not through the eyes--through the stomach."

_Haec_.--"What? Thou canst see through the stomach?"

_Illa_.--"Ay, truly! I can see everything: there is Anna Apenborg peeping under the bed; now she lets the quilt drop in fright. Is it not so?"

The abbess clasps her hands together, looks at the priest in astonishment, and cries, "For the love of G.o.d, tell me what does all this betoken?"

To which the priest answers, "My reason is overwhelmed here, and I might almost believe what the ancients pretended, and Cornelius Agrippa also maintained, that two _daemones_ or spirits attend each man from infancy to the grave; and that each spirit strives to blend himself with the mortal, and make the human being like unto himself, whether it be for good or evil. [Footnote: Cornelius Agrippa, of the n.o.ble race of Nettersheim, natural philosopher, jurist, physician, soldier, necromancer, and professor of the black art--in fine, learned in all natural and supernatural wisdom, closed his restless life at Gren.o.ble, 1535. His princ.i.p.al work, from which the above is quoted (cap. xx.), is ent.i.tled _De Occulta Philosophia_. That Socrates had an attendant spirit or demon from his youth up, whose suggestions he followed as an oracle, is known to us from the _Theages_ of Plato. But of the nature of this genius, spirit, or voice, we have no certain indications from the ancients, though the subject has been much investigated in numerous writings, beginning with the monographs of Apulejus and Plutarch. The first (Apulejus), _De Deo Socratis_, makes the strange a.s.sertion, that it was a common thing with the Pythagoreans to have such a spirit; so much so, that if any among them declared he had _not_ one, it was deemed strange and singular.]

"However, I esteem this apparition to be truly Satan, who has changed himself into an angel of light to deceive more easily, as is his wont; therefore, as this our poor sister hath also a prophesying spirit, like that maiden mentioned, Acts xvi. 16, let us do even as St. Paul, and conjure it to leave her. But first, it would be advisable to see if she hath spoken truth respecting the dog."

So my dog was killed, and there in truth was the purse of gold found in his stomach, to the wonderment of all, and the great joy of the poor damsel who had been accused of stealing it.

Immediately after, the poor possessed one turned herself on the couch, sighed, opened her eyes, and asked, "Where am I?" for she knew nothing at all of what she had uttered during her sleep, and only complained of a weakness through her entire frame. [Footnote: That poor Dorothea was in the somnambulistic state (according to our phraseology) is evident. A similar instance in which the demoniac pa.s.sed over into the magnetic state is given by Kerner, "History of Possession," p. 73. I must just remark here, that Kieser ("System of Tellurism") is probably in error when he a.s.serts, from the att.i.tudes discovered amongst some of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, that the ancients were acquainted with the mode of producing the magnetic state by manipulation or pa.s.ses, for Jamblicbus enumerates all the modes known to the ancients of producing the divining crisis, in his book _De Mysteriis aegyptorium_, in the chapter, _Insperatas vacat ab actione propria_, page 58, and never mentions manipulation amongst them, of which mode, indeed, Mesmer seems to have been the original discoverer. The ancients, too, were aware (as we are) that the magnetic and divining state can be produced only in young and somewhat simple (_simpliciores_) persons. Porphyry confirms this in his remarkable letter to the Egyptian priest of Anubis (to which I earnestly direct the physiologists), in which he asks, "Wherefore it happens that only simple (_aplontxronz kai nxonz_) and young persons were fitted for divination?" Yet there were many even then, as we learn from Jamblich and the later Psellus, who maintained the modern rationalistic view, that all these phenomena were produced only by a certain condition of our own spiritual and bodily nature; although all somnambulists affirm the contrary, and declare they are the result of external _spiritual_ influences working upon them.] After this, the evil spirit left her in peace for two days, and every one hoped that he had gone out of her; but on the third day he began to rage within the unfortunate maiden worse than ever, so that they had to send quickly for the priest to exorcise him. But behold, as he entered in his surplice, and uttered the salutation, "The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon this maid," the evil spirit with the man's coa.r.s.e voice cried out of poor Dorothea's mouth--

"Come here, parson, I'll soon settle for you."

Then it cursed, swore, and blasphemed G.o.d, and raged within the poor maiden, so that the foam gathered on her pale lips. But the reverend David is not to be frightened from his duty by the foul fiend. He kneeled down first, with all present, and prayed earnestly to G.o.d; then endeavoured to make the possessed maiden repeat the Lord's Prayer and the Creed after him; but the devil would not let her. He raged, roared, laughed scornfully, and abused the priest with such unseemly words that it was a grief and horror to hear them.

"Wait, parson," it screamed, "in three days thou shalt be as I am.

(Namely, a spirit; though no one knew then what the devil meant.) I will make thee pay for this, because thou tormentest me."

But neither menaces nor blasphemies could deter the good priest.

He lifted his eyes to heaven, and prayed that beautiful prayer from the Pomeranian liturgy, page 244, which he had by heart:--

"O Lord Jesu Christ, Thou Son of the living G.o.d, at whose name every knee must bend, in heaven, upon the earth, and under the earth; G.o.d and man; our Saviour, our brother, our Redeemer; who hast conquered sin, and death, and h.e.l.l, trod on the devil's head and destroyed his works--Thou hast promised, Thou holy Saviour, 'that whatever we ask the Father in Thy name, Thou wilt grant unto us.' Therefore, by that holy promise, we pray Thee, Lord Christ, to look with pity upon this our sister, who hath been baptized in Thy holy name, redeemed by Thy precious blood, washed from all sin, anointed by Thy Holy Spirit, and made one with Thee, a member of the living temple of Thy body. Relieve her from the tyranny and power of the devil; graciously cast out this unclean spirit, that so Thy holy name may be praised and glorified, for ever and ever.

Amen."

Then he laid his hand upon the sick maiden's head, while the h.e.l.lish fiend raged and roared more furiously than ever, so that all present were seized with trembling, and exclaimed--

"In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the strength of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bid, desire, and command thee, thou unclean spirit, to come forth, and give place to the Holy Spirit of G.o.d! Amen."

Whereupon the convulsions ceased in the sick maiden's limbs, and she sank down gently on her bed, as a sail falls when the cords are loosed and the wind ceases; and thus she lay for a long time quite still.

After which, she said in her own natural voice--

"Now I see him no more!"