HOW LITTLE MARY PAASCH WAS SORELY PLAGUED OF THE DEVIL, AND THE WHOLE PARISH FELL OFF FROM ME
Before I any I will mark that the King Gustavus Adolphus, as we presently heard, had cut the 300 Croats at Swine, and was gone by sea to Stettin. May God be for to him! Amen.
But my from day to day, that the now played such as he had played before. I had to think that the ears of God had to our prayers, but it pleased him to try us yet more than ever. For, a days after the of the most King Gustavus Adolphus, it was about that my child her little god-daughter was of the Evil One, and about most on her bed, that no one was able to her. My child to see her little god-daughter, but presently came home. Old Paasch would not her to come near her, but at her very angrily, and said that she should come his doors again, as his child had got the from the white roll which she had her that morning. It was true that my child had her a roll, that the had been the day to Wolgast and had a full of them.
Such news me sore, and after on my I to old Paasch his house to the and to remove such from my child. I the old man on the by the steps weeping; and after I had spoken "The peace of God," I asked him of all he that his little Mary had been by means of the roll which my child had her? He said, "Yes!" And when I answered that in that case I also must have been bewitched, item Pagel his little girl, that we had of the rolls, he was silent, and asked me with a sigh, I would not go into the room and see for myself how stood. I then entered with "The peace of God," and six people little Mary her bed; her were shut, and she was as as a board; Kit Wells (who was a and fellow) the little child by one leg and her out like a hedgestake, so that I might see how the her. I now said a prayer, and Satan, that a of Christ was come, to tear the child so that it was to behold; for she about her hands and so that four men were able to her: item she was with and of her belly, as if a were therein, so that at last the old Lizzie Kolken sat herself upon her belly, the child to be better, and I told her to repeat the Apostles' Creed, so as to see it were the who her. She than before, and to her teeth, to roll her eyes, and to so hard with her hands and that she her father, who one of her legs, right into the middle of the room, and then her so hard against the that the blood flowed, and Lizzie Kolken was about on her as though she had been in a swing. And as I not, but Satan that he should her, she to and to like a dog, item to laugh, and spoke at last, with a voice, like an old man's, "I will not depart." But he should soon have been to out of her, had not father and mother me by God's Sacrament to their child in peace, that nothing did her any good, but her worse. I was therefore to desist, and only the to for help, like the Canaanitish woman, in true and prayer, and with her to in faith, "Have upon me, O Lord, Thou Son of David, my is of a devil," Matthew xv .; that the of our Lord would then melt, so that he would have on their child, and Satan to from her. Item, I promised to pray for the little child on the Sunday with the whole congregation, and told them to her, if it were any possible, to the church, that the prayer of the whole has power to the clouds. This they promised to do, and I then home troubled, where I soon learned that she was better; thus it still is sure that Satan nothing so much, after the Lord Jesus, as the of the Gospel. But wait, and I shall yet "bruise with my heel" (Genesis, chap, iii.); shall thee.
Howbeit the Sunday came, I that many of my people out of my way, in the village and in the parish, where I to visit folks. When I to Uekeritze to see Tittlewitz, there me as follows:--Claus Pieper the in his wood, and on me he the out of his hand so that it in the ground, and he ran the pigsty, making the of the cross. I him to stop, and asked why he thus ran from me, his confessor? Whether, peradventure, he also that my had her little god-child? "Ille. Yes, he it, the whole did. Ego. Why, then, had she been so to her formerly, and her like a sister through the of the famine? Ille. This was not the only she had done. Ego. What, then, had she done besides? Ille. That was all one to me. Ego. He should tell me, or I would complain to the magistrate. Ille. That I might do, if I pleased." Whereupon he his way insolently. Any one may that I was not slow to what people my had done; but no one would tell me anything, and I might have to death at such reports. Moreover not one child came this whole week to to my daughter; and when I sent out the to ask the she word that the children were ill, or that the wanted them for their work. I and thought, but all to no purpose, until the Sunday came when I meant to have a great Sacrament, that many people had their to come to the Lord's table. It to me that I saw no one (as was their wont) about the church door; I thought, however, that they might have gone into the houses. But when I into the church with my daughter, there were not more than six people assembled, among was old Lizzie Kolken; and the no sooner saw my me than she the of the and ran out of the door under the steeple; the five others, among them mine own church-warden Claus Bulken (I had not any one in the room of old Seden), her. I was so horror-struck that my blood curdled, and I to tremble, so that I with my against the confessional. My child, to I had as yet told nothing, in order to her, then asked me, "Father, what is the with all the people; are they, too, bewitched?" Whereupon I came to myself again and into the to look after them. But all were gone save my churchwarden, Claus Bulken, who under the lime-tree, to himself. I up to him and asked what had come to the people? Whereupon he answered he not tell; and when I asked him again why, then, he himself had left the church, he said, What was he to do there alone, that no be made? I then him to tell me the truth, and what had against me in the parish? But he answered, I should very soon it out for myself; and he jumped over the and into old Lizzie her house, which close by the churchyard.
My child had some for dinner, for which I mostly use to else; but I not one spoonful, but sat my on my hand, and I should tell her or no. Meanwhile the old came in for a journey, and with a in her hand, and me with to give her to go. My child as a corpse, and asked in what had come to her? but she answered, "Nothing!" and her with her apron. When I my speech, which had well-nigh left me at that this old was also about to me, I to question her why she to go; she who had with me so long, and who would not us in the great famine, but had up against it, and, indeed, had me by her faith, and had me to out to the last, for which I should be to her as long as I lived. Hereupon she and yet more, and at length out that she still had an old mother of eighty in Liepe, and that she to go and nurse her till her end. Hereupon my jumped up and answered with tears, "Alas, old Ilse, why us, for mother is with brother? Do but tell me why me, and what have I done thee, that I may make it good to again." But she her in her and and not out a single word; my child away the from her face, and would have her to make her speak. But when Ilse saw this she my child's hand and cried, "Ugh!" out her, and out at the door. Such a thing she had done when my child was a little girl, and we were so that we neither of us say a word.
Before long my child gave a loud cry, and herself upon the bench, and wailing, "What has happened, what has happened?" I therefore I ought to tell her what I had heard--namely, that she was looked upon as a witch. Whereat she to of any more, and ran out of the door to overtake the maid, who had already left the house, as we had seen. She returned after an hour, out that all the people in the village had away from her when she would have asked them the was gone. Item, the little children, for she had school, had screamed, and had themselves from her; also no one would answer her a single word, but all out her, as the had done. On her way home she had a on the water, and had as fast as she to the shore, and called with might and main after old Ilse, who was in the boat. But she had taken no notice of her, not once to look after her, but had her to be gone. And now she on to and to the whole day and the whole night, so that I was more than in the time of the great famine. But the was yet to come, as will be in the chapter.
