The Hangman's Daughter

“You’re just taking the easy way out blaming it all on that devil of yours,” said Jakob Schreevogl amid the general grumbling. “He’s a solution for it all,” he interjected. “But one thing I know for certain!” He rose to his feet and looked around angrily. “My Clara wasn’t abducted by a monster with cloven feet but by a flesh-and-blood human being. The devil wouldn’t be stopped by a locked door, nor does he jump out of windows. He doesn’t wear a cheap soldier’s hat, and he doesn’t meet soldiers in Semer’s inn for a mug of beer.”

“Whatever gives you the idea that the devil frequents my house?” cried burgomaster Semer, jumping up. His face had turned bright red, and beads of sweat stood out on his forehead. “That is an insolent lie, and you’re going to pay for it!”

“The young physician told me. He saw the man who abducted my Clara going up the stairs in your establishment and into one of the conference rooms.” Jakob Schreevogl looked the burgomaster calmly in the eye. “He met someone there. Might that have been you?”

“I’ll shut that Fronwieser up, and you at the same time!” shouted Semer, slamming his fist on the table. “I won’t have my inn reviled in such cock-and-bull stories.”

“Pull yourself together, Karl, and sit down again.” Blind Augustin’s voice was low and yet quite cutting. Stunned, Semer resumed his seat.

“And now tell us,” Matthias Augustin continued. “Is there any truth in these…insinuations?”

Burgomaster Semer rolled his eyes and took a deep swig from his wineglass. He was obviously struggling for words.

“Well, is it true?” the second burgomaster Johann Püchner insisted. And Wilhelm Hardenberg, the superintendent of the almshouse, now turned to the respected landlord of the Stern Inn. “Karl, tell us the truth! Were there meetings of soldiers under your roof?”

There was a general murmuring at the council table. Some members of the outer council on the back benches began talking.

“This is a perfidious lie,” burgomaster Semer finally snapped. Sweat was streaming down his face and into his lace collar. “It’s possible that a few former soldiers were at the Stern. I have no way of checking that. But none of them went upstairs, and they certainly didn’t meet anyone there.”

“Well, that settles it,” Matthias Augustin said. “Let’s therefore turn to more important things again.” His blind eyes turned toward the clerk. “What are you going to do now, Lechner?”

Johann Lechner looked at the undecided faces of the aldermen to his right and his left.

“To tell you the truth, I don’t know. Count Sandizell will arrive here tomorrow morning. If the midwife hasn’t talked by then, may God have mercy on us all. I fear…we should pray tonight.”

He rose, packing away his quill and ink. The others rose, too, hesitantly.

“I’ll go now and prepare everything for the count’s arrival. Each of you will have to contribute. And as for the trial of the witch…we can only hope.”

Lechner hurried out without a goodbye. The aldermen, talking animatedly, followed in groups of two and three. Only two patricians remained in the council chamber. They still had some urgent matters to clear up.

Slowly, the devil ran his bony hand over Magdalena’s dress, brushing over her breasts and following the line of her neck up to her slender chin. As he reached her lips, she turned away, rolling her eyes. The devil smiled and pulled her head toward him again. The hangman’s daughter was lying in front of him on the ground, tied up and gagged with a dirty rag. Her eyes flashed angrily at the man above her. The devil blew her a kiss.

“Very well. Very well. Just carry on being fresh, and we’ll both have more fun later on.”

A man appeared in the clearing behind them. He stood there for a moment, cautiously, then cleared his throat. It was the soldier Hans Hohenleitner.

“Braunschweiger, we should get out of here. Christoph was over in the town. People say the count’s going to show up in person tomorrow on account of the witch. Then the place’s going to be crawling with troops. Let’s have some fun with the girl, and then off we go. It’s enough that André is dead.”

“And the treasure? What about the treasure?”

The devil whom they called Braunschweiger turned around. The corners of his mouth were twitching, as if he hadn’t got full control of his face.

“You seem to have forgotten the treasure! Besides, Moneybags still owes us a whole lot of money!”

“To hell with the money. He gave us another twenty-five guilders yesterday for the destroyed building site and the Stadel fire. That’s more than enough. There’s nothing more to be gotten here.”

Christoph Holzapfel, the third soldier, approached them. Long, shaggy black hair hung in his face. Furtively, he glanced at Magdalena, who was lying on the ground, struggling with her shackles. “Hans is right, Braunschweiger. Let’s go. There is no treasure. We’ve searched the entire damned building site, we’ve turned over every single rock, and by tomorrow the count’s men may be combing the forest here.”