after her repentant confession, to speak forgiveness of her sins, and to
give her the Lord's Supper; for that her spirit stood there behind the
stove, grinning like a rogue, because he saw that it was all up with her
now. But I answered, "I would sooner give the sacrament to an old sow than
to thee, thou accursed witch, who not only didst give over thine own
husband to Satan, but hast likewise tortured me and my poor child almost
unto death with pains like those of hell." Before she could make any
answer, a loathsome insect, about as long as my finger, and with a yellow
tail, crawled in under the door of the prison. When she espied it she gave
a yell, such as I never before heard, and never wish to hear again. For
once, when I was in Silesia, in my youth, I saw one of the enemy's
soldiers spear a child before its mother's face, and I thought that a
fearful shriek which the mother gave; but her cry was child's play to the
cry of old Lizzie. All my hair stood on end, and her own red hair grew so
stiff that it was like the twigs of the broom whereon she lay; and then
she howled, "That is the spirit Dudaim, whom the accursed Sheriff has sent
to me--the sacrament, for the love of God, the sacrament!--I will confess
a great deal more--I have been a witch these thirty years!--the sacrament,
the sacrament!" While she thus bellowed and flung about her arms and legs,
the loathsome insect rose into the air, and buzzed and whizzed about her
where she lay, insomuch that it was fearful to see and to hear. And this
she-devil called by turns on God, on her spirit Kit, and on me, to help
her, till the insect all of a sudden darted into her open jaws, whereupon
she straightway gave up the ghost, and turned all black and blue like a
blackberry.

I heard nothing more save that the window rattled, not very loud, but as
though one had thrown a pea against it, whereby I straightway perceived
that Satan had just flown through it with her soul. May the all-merciful
God keep every mother's child from such an end, for the sake of Jesus