The Hangman's Daughter

A groan passed through the council chamber. The patricians knew what was in store for them. The Elector’s secretary complete with his entourage would settle in the town for many days, if not weeks. It would cost the town a fortune! Not to mention the endless interrogations of suspicious burghers concerning witchcraft, and until the true perpetrators had been found, anyone here could really be in league with the devil. Even the aldermen and their wives…During the last great witch hunt, a number of respected burghers’ wives had been among the victims. The devil drew no distinction between a servant girl and a landlady or a midwife and a burgomaster’s daughter.

“What about that Augsburg wagon driver we arrested on account of the fire at the Stadel?” the second burgomaster Johann Püchner asked, nervously drumming his fingers on the table. “Is he involved in the matter at all?”

Johann Lechner shook his head.

“I interrogated him myself. He’s innocent. Therefore I released him this morning after giving him a severe warning. At least the Augsburgers won’t give us trouble anytime soon. They got what was coming to them. But the Augsburg wagon driver did see that soldiers were fooling around at the Stadel…”

“Soldiers? What kind of soldiers?” old Augustin asked. “This story is getting more confusing by the minute. Please explain yourself, Lechner.”

Johann Lechner briefly contemplated telling the aldermen about his discussion with the hangman down by the building site. Then he decided against it. Matters were complicated enough. He shrugged.

“Well, it seems as though a gang of marauding rogues have set fire to our storage shed. The same rogues also destroyed the building site for the leper house.”

“And now they’re roaming around killing little children and painting a witches’ mark on their shoulders,” old Augustin interrupted, impatiently rapping his stick on the expensive cherrywood floor. “Is this what you’re trying to tell us? Lechner, pull yourself together. We have the witch! All we need now is her confession!”

“You’re misunderstanding me,” the court clerk said, trying to calm the irate patrician. “These soldiers most likely caused the fires. But of course it’s the devil and his helpmate who are responsible for the death of our children. The evidence is clear. We have found magic herbs in the Stechlin woman’s house, the children frequently called on her, and there are burghers who will testify that she introduced the children to the art of sorcery…All we need is her confession. And you know as well as I that the Constitutio Criminalis Carolina stipulates that only someone who confesses may be sentenced.”

“You need not lecture me on the Criminal Code of Emperor Charles. I know it sufficiently well,” Matthias Augustin murmured, his blind eyes roaming in the distance and his nostrils dilating, as though he could perceive a distant stench. “I smell it again, the flesh of the burning women, just like it was seventy years ago. By the way, a district judge’s wife died at the stake then…”

Hawklike, the blind man swung suddenly around toward the court clerk. Lechner turned to his documents again and replied quietly, “As you know, my wife died three years ago, and she is beyond all suspicion. If that’s what you’re alluding to.”

“And what if we subject the witch to the water test?” suggested the superintendent of the almshouse, Wilhelm Hardenberg. “They did that in Augsburg a few years ago. The witch’s thumbs are tied to her toes and then she’s thrown into the water. If she floats to the surface, it’s because the devil is helping her, and she’s a witch. If she sinks, she’s innocent, but you’re rid of her anyway.”

“Damn it, Hardenberg,” old Augustin yelled. “Are you deaf? The Stechlin woman’s unconscious! She’ll sink like a stone! Who’s going to believe in this water test? Certainly not the Elector’s secretary!”

For the first time, young Jakob Schreevogl spoke now. “Why do you consider it such a bizarre idea, Augustin, that the soldiers might have murdered the children? Several witnesses observed a person leaping out of a window of my house at the time my Clara vanished. The man was wearing a bloodred doublet and a feathered hat, such as soldiers often wear. And he had a limp.”

“The devil!” Berchtholdt the baker started up, crossing himself. So far, it seemed, he had been sleeping off last night’s brandy. “Holy Virgin Mary, help us!”

Some other aldermen murmured quick prayers and crossed themselves.