from my child. I found the old man standing on the floor by the cockloft
steps weeping; and after I had spoken "The peace of God," I asked him
first of all whether he really believed that his little Mary had been
bewitched by means of the roll which my child had given her? He said,
"Yes!" And when I answered that in that case I also must have been
bewitched, _item_ Pagel his little girl, seeing that we both had eaten of
the rolls, he was silent, and asked me with a sigh, whether I would not go
into the room and see for myself how matters stood. I then entered with
"The peace of God," and found six people standing round little Mary her
bed; her eyes were shut, and she was as stiff as a board; wherefore Kit
Wells (who was a young and sturdy fellow) seized the little child by one
leg and held her out like a hedgestake, so that I might see how the devil
plagued her. I now said a prayer, and Satan, perceiving that a servant of
Christ was come, began to tear the child so fearfully that it was pitiful
to behold; for she flung about her hands and feet so that four strong men
were scarce able to hold her: _item_ she was afflicted with extraordinary
risings and fallings of her belly, as if a living creature were therein,
so that at last the old witch Lizzie Kolken sat herself upon her belly,
whereupon the child seemed to be somewhat better, and I told her to repeat
the Apostles' Creed, so as to see whether it really were the devil who
possessed her. She straightway grew worse than before, and began to gnash
her teeth, to roll her eyes, and to strike so hard with her hands and feet
that she flung her father, who held one of her legs, right into the middle
of the room, and then struck her foot so hard against the bedstead that
the blood flowed, and Lizzie Kolken was thrown about on her belly as
though she had been in a swing. And as I ceased not, but exorcised Satan
that he should leave her, she began to howl and to bark like a dog, _item_
to laugh, and spoke at last, with a gruff bass voice, like an old man's,
"I will not depart." But he should soon have been forced to depart out of
her, had not both father and mother besought me by God's holy Sacrament to