“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.