XXX
On the morrow there came a soft wind blowing from Brabant. The snow began to melt and the meadows were all flooded.
And the bell that is called Borgstorm summoned the judges to the tribunal of the Vierschare. And they sat under the penthouse, because the grassy banks where they were accustomed to sit were too damp. And round about the tribunal stood the people of the town.
Joos Damman was brought before the judges. He was not in bonds, and he still wore the dress of a nobleman. Katheline was also brought there, but her hands were tied in front of her, and she wore a grey dress, the dress of a prisoner.
On being examined, Joos Damman pleaded guilty to the charge of having killed his friend Hilbert with a sword in single combat; and this he confessed willingly because, as he said, he was protected by the law of Flanders, which made a murderer safe from conviction after the space of ten years.
Then the bailiff asked him if he was a sorcerer.
“No,” replied Damman.
“Prove it,” said the bailiff.
“That I will do at the right time and in the proper place,” said Joos Damman, “but not now.”
Then the bailiff began to question Katheline. She, however, paid no attention to his questions, but kept her eyes fixed on Hans, saying:
“You are my green master. Beautiful you are as the Sun himself. Put out the fire, my pet!”
Then Nele spoke on Katheline’s behalf.
“She can tell you naught, my Lord, that you do not know already. She is not a sorceress. She is only out of her mind.”
Then the bailiff said his say:
“A sorcerer, I would remind you, is one who knowingly employs a devilish art, or devilish arts, for the attainment of a certain object. Well, these two persons, the man and the woman, I find to be sorcerers both in intention and in fact; the man because, as the evidence states, he gave to this woman the balm of the Witches’ Sabbath, and made his visage like unto Lucifer so as to obtain money from her and the satisfaction of his wanton desires. And the woman also I find to be a sorceress because she submitted herself to the man, taking him for a devil and abandoning herself to his will. I ask, therefore, if the gentlemen of the tribunal are agreed that it is a case where the prisoners should both be sent to the torture?”
The aldermen did not answer, but showed clearly enough that such was not their desire, so far at any rate as Katheline was concerned.
Then the bailiff spake again:
“Like you I am moved with pity and compassion for the woman, but mad as she undoubtedly is and obedient in all things to the devil, is it not probable that at the behest of her leman she might have committed the most horrible crimes and abominations, as do all those who resign themselves to the devil’s will? No. Since Joos Damman has refused to acknowledge any crime save that of murder, and since Katheline has not told us anything at all, it is clear that by the laws of the Empire we are bound to proceed in the manner I have indicated.”
And the aldermen gave sentence to the effect that the two prisoners were to be committed to torture on the following Friday, which was the day but one following.
And Nele cried out for mercy upon Katheline, and the people joined with her in supplication, but all in vain. And the prisoners were taken back into the gaol.
There, by order of the tribunal, the keeper of the gaol was ordered to provide a couple of guards for each prisoner, and these guards were commanded to beat them whenever they looked like going off to sleep. Now the two guards that were allotted to Katheline suffered her to sleep during the night; but they that were assigned to Joos Damman beat him unmercifully every time that he closed his eyes or even hung his head down. And neither of the prisoners was given anything to eat through all that Wednesday, and through all the night and day which followed. But on the Thursday evening they were given food and drink—meat, that is to say, which had been soaked in salt and saltpetre, and water which had been salted in a similar fashion. And this was the beginning of their torture. And in the morning, crying out with thirst, they were led by the sergeants into the chamber of doom.
There they were set opposite to one another, bound as they were, each to a separate bench which itself was covered with knotted cords that hurt them grievously. And they were both made to drink a glass of water saturated with salt and saltpetre.
Joos Damman began to fall off to sleep where he was, but the sergeants soon beat him awake again. And Katheline said:
“Do not beat him, kind sirs. He has committed but a single crime, when he killed Hilbert—and that was done for love’s sake. Oh, but I am thirsty! And you also are thirsty, Hans, my beloved! Pray give him something to drink first of all. Water! Water! My body is burning me up. But spare him. I will die for him. Water!”
Joos said to her:
“Ugly old witch that you are, go and die for all I care! Throw her into the fire, my Lords! Oh, but I am thirsty!”
Meanwhile the clerks of the court were busy writing down every word that was being said. And the bailiff asked him:
“Have you nothing to confess?”
“I have nothing more to say,” replied Damman. “You know all that there is to know.”
“Forasmuch as he persists in his denials,” said the bailiff, “let him remain where he is until he shall have made a complete avowal of his crimes. Let him neither eat nor drink nor go to sleep.”
“So be it,” said Joos Damman. “And I will amuse myself by watching the sufferings of this old witch here.”
And Katheline answered him, saying:
“Cold arms, warm heart, Hans, my beloved! I am thirsty, my head is burning!”
The clerk of the court wrote down what she said, and the bailiff asked her:
“Woman, have you nothing to say in your own defence?”
But Katheline only gazed at Joos Damman, and said very amorously:
“It is the hour of the sea-eagle, Hans, my pet. They say that you will give me back the seven hundred caroluses. Put out the fire! Put out the fire!” Then she began to cry out most horribly: “Water! Water! My head is burning! God and His angels are eating apples in heaven!”
And she lost consciousness.
Thereupon the bailiff ordered her to be released from the bench of torture; which was done, and thereafter she was seen to stagger to and fro because of her feet, which were all swollen from the cords that had been bound too tight.
“Give her to drink,” said the bailiff.
And they gave her some fresh water which she swallowed greedily, holding the goblet between her teeth as a dog holds a bone and refusing to let it go. Then they gave her more water, and this she would have carried over to Joos Damman had not the torturer wrested the goblet from her hand. And she fell down asleep, like a piece of lead.
But Joos Damman cried out in his fury:
“I also am thirsty and sleepy. Why do you give her to drink? Why do you let her fall asleep?”
“She is a woman,” answered the bailiff. “And she is weak and out of her mind.”
“Her madness is only pretence,” said Joos Damman. “She is a witch. I want to drink, and I want to sleep.”
And he closed his eyes, but his tormentors struck him in the face.
“Give me a knife,” he cried, “that I may cut these varlets in pieces. I am a nobleman; no one has ever struck me in the face before! Water! Let me sleep. I am innocent. It is not I that took the seven hundred caroluses, it was Hilbert. Water! I have never committed any sorceries nor any incantations. I am innocent. Leave me alone and give me something to drink.”
But the bailiff only asked him how he had passed the time after he left Katheline.
“I do not know Katheline at all,” he said, “therefore I never left her. You have asked me an unfair question, and I am not bound to answer it. Give me something to drink. Let me go to sleep. I tell you it was Hilbert who was responsible for everything.”
“Take him away,” said the bailiff, “put him back into his prison. But see that he has nothing to drink, and that he does not fall asleep until he has admitted his sorceries and incantations.”
And now Damman suffered the most cruel torture of all, and he cried out continually in his prison: “Water! Water!” And so loudly did he cry that the people outside could hear him, nevertheless they felt no pity for him. And when he began to fall off to sleep the guards struck him in the face, and he cried out again, like a tiger:
“I am a nobleman, and I will kill you, you varlets! I will go to the King our master. Water!”
But he would confess nothing at all, and they left him where he was.