ried;
"what in the name of goodness is going to be the outcome of this? Can
this little one ever be expected to tread in his father's steps? Was
there ever such a thing known as a Member of Council with a couple of
horns on his head, and chestnut brown all over?"

The stranger consoled Luetkens as much as ever he could. He pointed out
to him that a good education does a great deal; that though, as
concerned form and appearance, the new-born thing was really to be
characterized as a most arrant schismatic, still he ventured to say
that it looked about it very understandingly with its fat eyes, and
that there was room for a deal of wisdom between the two horns on its
forehead. Also that though it might, perhaps, never be fit to be a
Member of Council, it was perfectly capable of becoming a distinguished
_savant_, inasmuch as excessive ugliness is often a characteristic of
_savants_, and even causes them to be highly respected and much looked
up to.

However, Luetkens could not but ascribe his misfortune in the depths of
his heart to old Barbara Roloffin, particularly when he learned that
she had been sitting at the door of the room during his wife's
_accouchement_; and Frau Luetkens had declared, with many tears, that
the old woman's face had been before her eyes all the time of it, and
that she had not been able to get rid of the sight of her.

Now Mr. Luetkens's suspicions were not, it is true, enough to base any
legal proceedings upon in the matter; but Heaven so ordered things that
in a very short time all the infamous deeds which old Barbara had
committed were brought into the clear light of day.

For it happened that shortly after those events there came on one day,
about twelve at noon, a terrible storm, and a most violent wind, and
the people in the streets saw Barbara Roloffin (who was on her way to
attend a lady in need of her professional services) borne, rushing away
on the wings of a blast, high up through the air, over the housetops
and the church steeples, and set down, none the worse for the trip, in
a meadow close to Berlin.

After this, of course, there could be no more doubt about the "black
art" of Barbara Roloffin. Luetkens lodged his plaint before the proper
tribunal, and the woman was taken into custody. She denied everything
obstinately, till she was put to the rack. Upon that, unable to endure
the agony, she confessed that she had been in league with the Devil,
and had practised magical arts