XXIV.

With stealthy step and wary bendeth o'er him bonny MARY,
And she grasps the little fairy with a grasp both firm and tight.-
"Ha! I have you now, and never from my power shall you sever-
I will hold you closely ever, nor permit you from my sight,
Till you lead me to the tower where your treasures glitter bright,
And with jewels as the day shines the night!"

XXV.

With fluttering heart and beating, in wailing tones entreating
Escape, the fairy, repeating all the reasons he can bring,
In pledges without measure, doth promise her each treasure,
To which Womanhood and Pleasure might wish to closely cling-
He promiseth the maiden each fair and beauteous thing,

And tells her he will make her the mate of a king

XXVI.

But his promises, so lavish, have no power her heart to ravish,
And his prospects are but slavish, and his soul is in despair.
Though he tells her she is fairer than of gems the noblest wearer.
That her beauty is far rarer than the fairest of the fair,

That with her earth's noblest, highest, could not venture to compare-
Yet his softest words are wasted upon air!

XXVII.

Now another mode he trieth. In her ear he shrilly crieth,
And he tells the maid where lieth a heap of glittering gold-
Gold and treasures most amazing, rich jewels bright and blazing,
Rare gems to win the gazing of the youthful and the old-
Gems of worth to soften a heart of sternest mould-

All these, he saith, her eyes shall beheld.

XXVIII.

Ah! her heart the maiden bendeth, a willing ear she lendeth,
And her steps she swiftly wendeth to the ruin'd castle's door,
Where, through the fissure creeping, the ivy green is peeping,
And the moonbeams soft are sleeping on the hard and rugged floor,
And their silver light is shedding its rich and beauteous store-
Thus it is, and thus it will be, evermore!

XXIX.

A word of magic spoken, and the binding spell is broken,
And the portal, at the token, flies open full and wide:

Gold, from floor to lofty ceiling, treasures worth a monarch's stealing,
Is that gentle moon revealing, when it pours its radiant tide-
Gems, far richer than e'er graced the brow of any mortal bride,
These clustre in lustre at her side.

xxx.

Too much for MARY's vision is the prospect so Elysian

A scream of fierce derision echoes wildly round and round;
And a mocking peal of laughter shakes each startled wall and rafter,
And a rapid moment after claps the door with fearful sound,

As with a cry of joy, and a swift and nimble bound,

From her arms springs the fairy to the ground.

XXXI.

There's a crushing and a crashing-there's a flaring and a flashing-
There's a rushing and a dashing, as if crowds were hurrying by-
There's a screaming and a shouting, as a multitude was routing,
And phantom forms are flouting the blackness of the sky,

And in mockery their voices are lifted wild and high,

As they lilt a merry measure while they fly.

XXXII.

Lo! a scene of dread and wonder!-Hark! a rattling peal of thunder!
And the walls seem rent asunder with a sharp and startling shock.
Hark! a rumbling and a tearing! See! the lambent lightning flaring.
Which the owls and bats is scaring from the castle in a flock-
And the gleaming flame is baring the ivy and the rock-

And the roaring of the thunder a thousand voices mock!

XXXIII.

'Mid the elemental battle-'mid the roaring thunder's rattle—
'Mid the lowings of the cattle, that in terror scorn the green-
Repentant of her error, in anguish, grief, and terror,

Poor MARY scarce can stir, or believe on what hath been-
Still she looks around her there with a strange and troubled mien,
As she gazes, wildly gazes on the scene!

XXXIV.

But see, yon cloud dividing, the moon again is gliding,

And smiling like a bride in the heaven's blue expanse ;

And the stars, her maids of honour, attendant wait upon her,

Though amongst them surely none are that can with their queen advance-
Thus again they sparkle brightly, thus again they smile and dance,
And MARY awaketh from her trance.

XXXV.

Like that calm and happy feeling, o'er the storm-toss'd sailor stealing,
When the ruddy dawn revealing shows the welcome port in view-
Like that peace, whose gentle traces are writ on angel faces,
Shedding beauty, shedding graces, ever radiant, ever new,
Is the joy which brightly races in MARY's bosom too—

Her heart and throbbing pulses races through.

XXXVI.

Thunder, lightning, no more frighten-hope and joy her eyes now brighten
As the moon's soft beams enlighten once more her homeward path.
Now sits throned smiling gladness, where of late was nought but sadness,
Where of late well-nigh was madness, with the fear of fairy wrath-
And a happy heart and joyous brow the merry maiden hath,

As she, scatheless, treads again the meadow path!

SORCERY IN GERMANY IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: THE MALLEUS MALEFICARUM.

BY THOMAS WRIGHT, M.A.

BEING A FIFTH CHAPTER FROM THE HISTORY OF SORCERY AND MAGIC.

Ir was in Germany that the belief in witchcraft seems to have first taken that dark, systematical form which held so fearful a sway over men's minds in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. There the wilder superstitions of the ancient Teutonic creed have been preserved in greater force than in any other part of Europe. The pious legends of Cæsarius of Heisterbach, who flourished in the earlier part of the thirteenth century, are little better than a mass of stories of magic and sorcery. The imaginative feelings of the people, and the wild character of many parts of the country, were peculiarly calculated to foster superstitions of this character.

In fact, we may there trace back distinctly most of the circumstances of the earlier belief relating to witchcraft to the mythology of the anteChristian period. The grand night of meeting of the German witches was the night of St. Walpurgis, which answered to one of the great religious festivals of the Teutonic tribes before their conversion. In aftertimes two other nights of annual assembly were added, those of the feasts of St. John and St. Bartholomew. It is probable that, as Christianity gained ground, and became established as the religion of the state, the old religious festivals, to which the lower and more ignorant part of the people, and particularly the weaker sex (more susceptible of superstitious feelings), were still attached, were celebrated in solitary places and in private, and those who frequented them were branded as witches and sorcerers who met together to hold communication with demons, for as such the earlier Christians looked upon all the heathen gods. This gives us an easy explanation of the manner in which the heathen worship became transformed into the witchcraft of the middle ages. At an early period it was commonly believed that the witches (unholde) rode through the air to the place of rendezvous on reeds and sticks, or on besoms, which latter were the articles readiest at hand to women of this classic society. The chief place of meeting, at the great annual witch-festivals in Germany, appears to have been, from an early period, the Brocken mountain, the highest part of the wild Hartz chain; but there were several other favourite places of resort. The persons believed to have been initiated at their assemblies were looked upon with dread, for they were supposed to be capable of injuring people in various ways, both in their persons and in their possessions, and their malice was especially directed against little children. One of the earliest trials for witchcraft, unconnected with other offences, on the continent, is that of a woman in the bishopric of Novara, on the northern borders of Italy, about the middle of the fourteenth century; and it illustrates the general belief in Germany at that period. It appears, from the slight account which remains of this trial (which is printed in a collection of criminal cases in Latin, by Joh. Bapt. Ziletti, fol. Franck. 1578), that the belief then held by the church was, that women of this class could, by their touch or look fascinate men, or children, or beasts, so as to produce sickness and death; and they believed further, that they had devoted their own souls to the

demon, to whom also they had done personal homage, after having trampled under foot the figure of the cross. For these offences they were judged by the most learned theologians to be worthy of being burnt at the stake. In the earlier period of the history of witchcraft in Germany, we find no traces of the more repulsive details of the Sabbath of the sorcerers ; and it is, therefore, probable that they were introduced there, perhaps not before the fourteenth century, and that even during that century they did not constitute an article of the general belief. These appear to have originated in France and Italy, where there is reason for believing, that down to a late period some of the worst sects of the ancient Gnostics retained a footing. These sects appear to have been justly accused with the celebration of infamous rites, or rather orgies, which the Popish church found it convenient to lay to the charge of all whom it thought right to class under the title of heretics. The church, it is well known, claimed the right of judging witchcraft, by considering it as a heresy, or as akin to heresy, and it is probable that, by the confusion of ideas thus produced, the orgies of the Gnostics were transferred to the Sabbath of the witches.

During the period of which we have been speaking, men of sense in Germany, and the better educated and less bigoted portion of the clergy, appear to have looked upon the whole as a delusion; witchcraft was a crime, inasmuch as it was an act of vulgar superstition. Some of the early councils forbid the belief in it, and consequently the partaking in any of its practices and ceremonies. It only rose to higher estimation in the age of inquisitors. Towards the middle and during the latter half of the fifteenth century, the question of witchcraft began to be much agitated. The wholesale persecutions of witches had commenced with the celebrated council of Constance (1414 to 1418), which had proscribed the doctrines of Wycliffe, and condemned John Huss and Jerome of Prague to the flames. One of the inquisitors of this period, a Swiss friar preacher, named John Nider, published a work on the various sins and crimes against religion, under the title of Formicarium (or the Ant-hill), the fifth book of which is devoted to the subject of sorcery. This book was published towards the year 1440, for it speaks of the latter events of the life of Joane of Arc as having occurred within ten years; and the author's information, relative to sorcerers, appears to be mainly derived from the inquisitor of Berne, named Peter, who had distinguished himself by his activity in the pursuit of witches and sorcerers, and had caused a great number of them to be burnt.

According to John Nider, the injury done by the witches was manifold, and difficult to be guarded against; and we are amused with the various absurd formula of exorcism which he recommends against their various effects, as though, if their object were to drive away the Evil One, or to call upon Divine interference, one proper formula would not be sufficient for every case that could occur. They raised at will destructive storms; they caused barrenness, both of living beings and of the fruits of the earth: a man at Poltingen, in the diocese of Lausanne, by placing a charmed lizard under the doorstead of a house, is stated to have caused the good woman of the house to have abortive births during seven years, and to have produced the same effect on all living creatures of her sex which remained within her dwelling; when the sorcerer was seized, and made a full confession of his evil practices, no lizard was found in the spot indicated, but as it was supposed during so long a period of time to

have been entirely decomposed by decay, all the dust under the door was carefully carried away, and from that time the inmates were relieved from this severe visitation. They sometimes raised illicit love ;* and at others, hindered the consummation of marriage, excited hatred between man and wife, and raised dissensions between the dearest friends. They drove horses mad, and made them run away with their riders. They conveyed away the property of others into their own possession; though, in most of the examples cited, the property thus conveyed away consisted of articles of small value. They made known people's secrets, were endowed with the power of second sight, and were able to foretell events. They caused people to be struck with lightning, or to be visited with grievous diseases; and did many other "detestable things." Their enmity appears to have been especially directed against little children. There were persons of both sexes who confessed to having transformed themselves into wolves and other ravenous beasts, in order to devour them more at their ease. They watched opportunities of pushing them into rivers and wells, or of bringing upon them other apparently accidental deaths. Their appetite for children is said to have been so great, that when they could not get those of other persons, they would devour their own. They watched more especially new-born infants, which, if possible, they killed before baptism, in such a manner as to make the mothers believe that they had died naturally, or been overlain. When buried, the witches dug the bodies out of the graves, and carried them to the scene of their secret rites, where, with various charms, they boiled them in cauldrons, and reduced them to an unguent, which was one of their most efficient preparations. The liquor in which they were boiled was drawn off, and carefully preserved in flasks. Any one who drank of it, became in an instant a perfect master of the whole art of magic.

Such were the Swiss witches of the beginning of the fifteenth century. The large proportion of the children which died in the middle ages, from want of cleanness and improper treatment, may account, in some measure, for the readiness with which people believed in the agency of witchcraft to cause their destruction. John Nider makes not the slightest allusion to the witches' Sabbath meetings, a circumstance which naturally leads us to suppose that this was not then an article of popular belief in the districts with the superstitions of which he was acquainted. They had sometimes meetings at which the demon appeared in person, either to initiate new converts, or to obtain his aid in the perpetration of some great mischief.

A young man, named Stadelin, was seized at Berne, on suspicion of being a sorcerer, and submitted to the most cruel tortures, until at last he was compelled to make a confession. He gave the following account of the mode in which a new sorcerer was initiated. He must first in a church, before witnesses who were already of the order, make a full denial of his faith and baptism. He was then taken to a meeting, and made to do homage to the " little master," as the demon was called. A flask was next brought forth, and he drank of the liquor above-mentioned; after which, without further instruction, he became fully and intimately acquainted with the whole art, and all the customs and practices of the sorcerers. "I and my wife," said Stadelin, were thus seduced and

66

This singular writer, among his remedies, indicates as the most effective one against the goadings of the passion of love in young men, to frequent the company of old women! Vetularum aspectus et colloquia amorem excutiunt.