_The Twenty-eighth Chapter_


HOW MY DAUGHTER WAS AT LENGTH SAVED BY THE HELP OF THE ALL-MERCIFUL, YEA,
OF THE ALL-MERCIFUL GOD

Meanwhile, by reason of my unbelief, wherewith Satan again tempted me, I
had become so weak that I was forced to lean my back against the constable
his knees, and expected not to live till even we should come to the
mountain; for the last hope I had cherished was now gone, and I saw that
my innocent lamb was in the same plight. Moreover, the reverend Martinus
began to upbraid her, saying that he, too, now saw that all her oaths were
lies, and that she really could brew storms. Hereupon, she answered with a
smile, although, indeed, she was as white as a sheet, "Alas, reverend
godfather, do you then really believe that the weather and the storms no
longer obey our Lord God? Are storms, then, so rare at this season of the
year, that none save the foul fiend can cause them? Nay, I have never
broken the baptismal vow you once made in my name, nor will I ever break
it, as I hope that God will be merciful to me in my last hour, which is
now at hand." But the reverend Martinus shook his head doubtingly, and
said, "The Evil One must have promised thee much, seeing thou remainest so
stubborn even unto thy life's end, and blasphemest the Lord thy God; but
wait, and thou wilt soon learn with horror that the devil 'is a liar, and
the father of it'" (St. John viii.). Whilst he yet spake this, and more of
a like kind, we came to Uekeritze, where all the people, both great and
small, rushed out of their doors, also Jacob Schwarten his wife, who, as
we afterwards heard, had only been brought to bed the night before, and
her goodman came running after her to fetch her back, in vain. She told