The priest now was more astonished at her manner than even at the coincidence of the dreams, and he started back from the bed. Whereupon, perceiving the mistake she had made, the horrible witch threw herself down again, and letting her head fall upon the pillow, murmured, "Oh! my head! my head! She must have locked up the moon in the cellar. How will the poor people see now by night?—why did the prioress lock up the moon? Oh! my head! my head!" Then she thanked the priest for coming—it was so good of him; but she was worse—much worse. "Ah! her head! her head! Better go now—but let him come again in the morning to see her." So the good priest believed in truth that the detestable hag was very ill, and evidently suffering from fever; so he went his way pitying her much, and without the least suspicion of her wicked purposes.
Scarcely, however, had he closed the door, when Sidonia sprang like a cat from her bed, and called out, "Wolde, Wolde!" And as the old witch hobbled in with her lame leg, Sidonia raged and stamped, crying out, "The accursed abbess has lied to me. Ernest Ludovicus' brat was married to-day at Berlin. Oh! if I am too late now, as on his father's marriage, I shall hang myself in the laundry. Where is Chim—the good-for-nothing spirit?—he should have seen to this." And she dragged him out and beat him, while he quaked like a hare.
Whereupon Wolde called out, "Bring the padlock from the trunk." The other answered, "What use now?—the bridal pair are long since wedded and asleep." To which the old witch replied, "No; it is twelve o'clock here, but in Berlin it wants a quarter to it yet. There is time. The Berlin brides never retire to their apartment till the clock strikes twelve. There is time still."
"Then," exclaimed Sidonia, "since the devil cannot tell me on what day they hold bridal, I will make an end now of the whole accursed griffin brood, in all its relationships, branch and root, now and for evermore, in Wolgast as in Stettin; be they destroyed and rooted out for ever and for ever." Then she took the padlock, and murmured some words over it, of which Anna Apenborg could only catch the names, Philip, Francis, George, Ulrich, Bogislaff, who were all sons to Duke Bogislaff XIII., and, in truth, died each one without leaving an heir. And, during the incantation, the light trembled and burned dim upon the table, and the thing which she had beaten seemed to speak with a human voice, and the bells on the turret swung in the wind with a low sound, so that Anna fell on her knees from horror, and scarcely dared to breathe. Then the accursed sorceress gave the padlock and key to Wolde, bidding her go forth by night and fling it into the sea, repeating the words:—
"Hid deep in the sea
Let my dark spell be,
For ever, for ever!
To rise up never!"
Then Wolde asked, "Had she forgotten Duke Casimir?" Whereat Sidonia laughed and said, "The spell had long been on him." And immediately after, Anna Apenborg beheld three shadows, in place of two, thrown upon the white wall opposite the little window. So she strengthened her heart to look in, and truly there was another form present now. And the three danced together, and chanted strange rhymes, while the shadows on the wall danced up and down likewise. Then a deep bass voice called out, "Ha! there is Christian flesh here! Ha! there is Christian flesh!" Whereupon Anna, though nearly dead with fright, crept up to her garret on her knees, while loud laughter resounded behind her; and it seemed as if old pots were flung up the stairs after her. [Footnote: Note of Duke Bogislaff XIV.—Incredibile sane, et tamen verum. Cur, mi Deus?—(It seems impossible, and yet how true. Wherefore, my God?)
The spell by knotting the girdle is noticed by Virgil, 8th eclogue:
"Necte tribus nodis ternos Amarylli colores;
Necte Amarylli modo, et Veneris die vincula necto."
[In three knots Amaryllis weaves three different colours;
Amaryllis knots and says: I knot the girdle of Venus.]
The use of the padlock is not mentioned until the Middle Ages, when it seems to have been so much employed that severe ordinances were directed against its use.] For the rest of that night she could not close her eyes.