Lieutenant.

When Clement had read aloud to the people his warrant of authority he
called up the village magnate and asked him these questions:

"Are there any wizards or sorcerers among you who can call on the
devil for help?"

At this question there was a timid whispering throughout the company,
and after a long pause the priest answered:

"In former years, great and good lord, there was a godless reprobate
in our midst who had liver spots on his neck and body; since these are
sent by the devil, they did not pain him, even if they were burned
with hot coals. We sent him before the Council at Weissenburg, and as
he could not stand the test of water he was burned to death."

"Are there any among you who are witches, vampires, people who can
harm the children of others, go through the air, turn milk red, hatch
out serpents' eggs or find grasses that open locks; or, in short, know
how to do anything supernatural?"

To this question there were a hundred answers at once. Everybody
strove to tell the questioner his experiences. The young married women
in particular crowded about the Lieutenant.

"One at a time," said the Lieutenant, authoritatively. "The judge
shall tell what he knows."

"Yes, there was an old witch in the village," said the judge, slily,
"we called her Dainitza. For a long time she practiced her evil among
us, for her eyes were red. When she chose she could bring on a storm,
so that the wind would take the roofs off. Once when she went out to
get a hail storm the lightning struck the village in three places. At
that the women grew furious, caught her and threw her in the pool. But
even there the witch still cried out, 'Take care, you will yet ask me
for the water, that you are now giving me to drink.' Then the women
fished the body out of the water, where it had caught on a stone,
thrust an arrow through her heart, buried her in the valley and rolled
a great stone over her grave. But the witch's curse against us still
held, all summer long not a drop of rain fell in our boundaries.
Everything dried up and pestilence carried off our cattle. Dainitza
had drunk up all the rain and all the dew. So we went to her grave,
saying, 'Drink, drink your fill, cursed vampire; don't lap up all the
water and dew away from us;' and at last the drought ended."

The priest testified that this was true and Clement wrote it down
carefully on his parchment.

Now came the third question:

"Is there anybody among