CHAPTER I.
THE SATYRS.
Not until the shadows of night had settled around me did I learn intowhat an accursed region I had strayed. It was the notorious"_kempenei_"--the rendezvous of witches and all evil spirits.
When it became quite dark, the jack-o'-lanterns began to flit over themoor--as if the witches were dancing a minuet; and suddenly I heard atumult of shrieks and yells, and looking upward I beheld the mostrepulsive lot of females it has ever been the lot of man to see.
They had hairy chins; and huge warts on their noses. They came rushingthrough the air, seated on the shoulders of pallid-faced male forms.Each hag hung her mount by the bridle around his neck to a limb of oneof the dead trees, and clapped her heels three times together beforeshe descended to the ground. Then the witches held a council, and eachone detailed the evil she had perpetrated the past twenty-four hours.I heard one say boastfully:
"I sent an angry woman running after her cap, which her husband hadthrown on the quicksands, and I let her sink to her death. The manescaped--"
Here her sister-witches fell on her and beat her with switches,because she had allowed a man to escape from her.
"Let me alone! Let me alone!" she shrieked. "I'll find him yet--hewon't get away from me a second time!"
Terror seized me anew. I shuddered, and pressed as closely as possibleinto my mossy bed.
Then the hags began to arrange their plans for the next day. Theywould send the "Bocksritter" to attack a caravan that was coming toAntwerp.
I had heard a good deal about the Bocksritter, a mounted band offerocious robbers, who looked like satyrs, and were in league withSatan. They were even more to be dreaded than the Haidemaken. When thesatyrs committed an extensive robbery, they took good care not to leta single one of their victims escape alive--not even the infant in itscradle. They left no one to witness against them; and, as they fled atonce to another country, it was impossible to learn anything aboutthem. Where they committed their depredations and the officers of thelaw failed to find trace of them, it was concluded, and naturally,that the Bocksritter were a myth, and the story of their depredationsan idle fable.
When the witches had decided their plans for the next day, the mosthideous of the hideous crew began to peer about her, and sniff theair.
"I smell something!" she exclaimed; "something that doesn't belonghere."
"It smells like a human being," said a second, also sniffing aroundher.
"Ha, if only it were the fellow who escaped me this morning!" with asnort exclaimed a third. "It wouldn't take me long to prepare him fora bridle"--she glanced as she concluded toward the pallid creatureshanging on the trees.
I pressed still further into the moss and ferns; but the raven on myshoulder began to flutter his wings, as if to attract the witches'attention.
"Some one is hiding over yonder!" they cried as with one voice. "Comeon, sisters, let's tickle him!"
I heard them approach my hiding place, and in my despair I cried out:
"If God be with me, who can be against me!"
Hardly had the words left my lips when I received a blow on the earfrom the raven's wing that made it tingle, but the witches hadscattered in all directions, uttering frightful yells. When I liftedmy head to look after them, the wind sweeping over the moor wasdriving before it the glimmering jack-o'-lanterns, which looked like afleeing troop of torch-bearing soldiers.
Just then the moon rose above the horizon. It was in the last quarter,by which I knew it must be an hour after midnight.
I rose quickly, and prepared to set about performing the good deed Ihad determined on; I would hasten to meet the caravan travelling toAntwerp, and tell the leaders of the danger which threatened them fromthe Bocksritter.
I cast from me every fear that prompted me to avoid myfellow-creatures, and rejoiced that it was in my power to serve them agood turn.
Only after I had proceeded a considerable distance on my errand ofmercy did it occur to me that I was unarmed, that I had nothing todefend myself from the wolves which infest that region, but a knifewhich I carried in a sheath at my side.
On my way, I came upon a slender yew tree--a straight beautiful stem,and hard as iron. I cut it down with my knife, and soon had a cudgelthat would serve me well in an emergency. I could brain any wolf thatmight take a fancy to satisfy his appetite with my carcass.
I found my own hunger growing wolfish toward dawn, and when I came tothe highway I looked about for an inn. I saw smoke rising from achimney not far distant, and made my way toward the house, whichproved to be one of entertainment for man and beast.
The inn-keeper, from whom I ordered some bread and cheese, was busypreparing in a large kettle a savory stew of meat and cabbage. I askedhim to give me a dish of it, but he said he could not let me have any,as it was for a crowd of people who were coming with a large caravanthat morning.
It was true then! I had really seen and heard the witches on the moor.It was not a dream.
I had not long to wait. A tinkling of bells announced the approach ofthe caravan while I was eating my breakfast.
There were vans and vehicles of all sorts, and all manner of traders;lace merchants, carpet dealers, weavers, goldsmiths, on their way tothe fair at Antwerp. They had an escort of soldiers, with red andyellow jackets, and armed with muskets and halberds; also severaldragoons with buff waistcoats.
Even the traders were armed with pistols and carbines. All were inhigh good humor when they entered the inn. The leader of the caravan,a pot-bellied thread dealer, ordered everything that was to be hadfrom kitchen and cellar, and produced from his knapsack a large hamwhich he shared with some of his companions. Toward the close of themeal, he noticed me, and kindly offered me the gnawed ham-bone.
"Thank you," said I. "In return for this bare bone I will do you akindness: Take my advice, and don't go any further today; or, if youcannot delay until tomorrow, send a strongly armed troop in advance ofyour caravan, and let one guard it in the rear, for you are in dangerof an attack from the Bocksritter, who will leave your bones as bareas you have left this one you offer me!"
Then I repeated to the entire company what I had heard the witchessay. But, a curse rested on me! No one believed me; they laughed atme, ridiculed my "witch-story," said I had dreamed it; and theinn-keeper threatened to cast me out of his house for trying to bringdisrepute on it.
He averred that robbers were unknown in that neighborhood--there wereno such disreputable characters anywhere but in Brabant and Spain,where they lurked in subterranean caverns like the marmots. Moreover,who was afraid of robbers? Not he!
The caravan's valiant escort were delighted with the prospect of askirmish with the notorious Bocksritter--let them begin their attack!Everyone of the rascals would soon find himself spitted on an honestbayonet! There was so much boasting about the escort's prowess that atlast I concluded the safest way for me to get to Antwerp would be tojoin the caravan; which I did.
All went well with us until late in the afternoon, when, as we werepassing through a pine forest, the robbers suddenly fell upon us.
They appeared so suddenly that one might almost believe they sprangfrom the earth. They were masked; their clothing was of black buffaloskin, laced with crimson cord. A black cock's feather adorned everyhat.
The first salvo from their muskets laid low at least half of ourcompany; then the villains fell on us with their swords and began afrightful butchery. The leader of the caravan tumbled from his steedbefore he received an injury, and had I not been in such haste to savemy skin, I should have stopped to say to him:
"Why don't you laugh at me now, Mynheer Potbelly?"
But it was no time for jesting. I ran swiftly toward the road, on thefurther side of which was a dense growth of young firs, and beyondthem a stretch of undulating moorland, where, I imagined, I mighteffect my escape. The long yew staff I carried served me well; by itsaid I could jump from hillock to hillock, and thus make swifterprogress than had I been on horseback.
"Let him run!" cried the robber captain, who was distinguished fromthe rest by the crimson ostrich plume on his hat. "Let him go; we willafter him when we have finished here. He won't go very far."
I soon found he was right. I had not gone more than a hundred paces,when I came to a mound from which there was neither retreat, noradvance. It was made up of pebbles, sand and the gravelly soil of thehighway, from which a narrow path led to the mound. On all sides weredeep ditches filled with stagnant water, rank vines and noxious weeds;so that no one could cross them without risk to life or limb.
I was caught!
Out on the highway, my companions of the caravan were beingexterminated to a man. None were allowed to escape.
When the work of carnage was completed there, the butchers turnedtheir attention to me.
I was alone, and defenseless on my islet. The demons came toward me,laughing brutally, and in my despair I laughed too.
I said to myself: "I too will have some fun before I die!"
I loosed the leather belt from my waist, and made a sling of it.Pebbles lay at my feet in plenty for my David's battle with Goliath.
The robbers soon found they had to do with a skilled bombardier; myshots struck them and their horses with a force and regularity thatbegan to tell on their ranks. Many were thrown from their saddles withskulls and ribs crushed.
The fun was not all on their side. Finding at last that I was not tobe taken alive, they concluded to use me as a target for theirmuskets. One of them dismounted, lifted the musket from his shoulder,thrust the bayonet into the ground, and rested the gun on it. After hehad arranged the priming in the pan, he called to me:
"Surrender, fellow, or I'll shoot you!"
"Try it," I called back, whirling the sling around my head. "AfterwardI'll have a shot at you."
"Do you throw first," he called again.
"No, thank you--you are the challenger; do you shoot first."
He fired, and missed me.
Then I hurled my stone; it struck him on the jaw, and broke off histeeth.
Then a second, and a third, had a try at me without effect, buteveryone of my shots inflicted serious injury.
I was not an expert gunner for nothing; I knew that when one is thetarget for a gunshot, one has but to watch closely when the match isapplied to the priming; if two flashes are seen, then the aim will befaulty, the ball will fly wide of the mark, and it will not benecessary to dodge. If but one flash is seen, then it will be well tostep to one side.
I had the advantage of the robbers; for, while they were preparingtheir muskets to fire, I could hurl five or six stones, and not one ofthem missed its mark. I hoped that one of the bullets whistling pastmy ears might hit the raven on my shoulders; but he was too shrewd abird; he rose in the air, and I could hear the fluttering of his wingsabove my head.
At last the robbers were obliged to acknowledge that I had the betterof them. Only one of them at a time could approach my islet over thenarrow path; or wade up to his horse's neck through the weed-entangledmorass, and that one would fall an easy prey to my sling.
"Stop!" now cried the wearer of the crimson plume. "This valiantfellow's life must be spared. He will be a valuable addition to ourband. Let no one molest him--I will talk with him myself," sayingwhich, he got off his horse, and came toward me unarmed. "Have nofear," he called to me. "You are a brave lad, and just the sort weneed. We kill only cowards. If you will join us you shall not rue it."
What could I do? I was a fugitive, excluded from all honest andrespectable society. I knew not where to turn. If I refused to jointhe robbers, I should have to flee from country to country; I might aswell fly in company with others. The desire for revenge also promptedme to accept the leader's offer. I would punish the people who hadridiculed me, and condemned me because of a dream.
"Who are you?" I asked. "Are you Satan? I will not enter into a leaguewith him."
"No, I am not Satan; I am the leader of the Bocksritter. If you willjoin us, you shall be corporal, and in time you may become theleader."
"Thank you," said I, "but I think I should prefer to remain simply aprivate. I have heard that the man who leagues himself with the'satyrs,' binds his body to pain and death; and that he who becomestheir leader must bond his soul to the devil--and that I will neverdo."
"Very well," he growled in response; "I regret to hear so brave a laddecide thus. Then bind yourself only to pain and death."
Our compact was sealed, and I was given the horse and outfit of one ofthe robbers I had killed in defending myself, and when the black maskhad been adjusted over my face, I felt that I had ceased to belong tothis world. I had no name--was nobody. I was a satyr, a foe tosociety. Whatever I might do thenceforth, whatever crime I mightcommit, no one would hear of it. The mask did not speak! TheBocksritter committed their horrible deeds of pillage and murder inthe Netherlands; in Wurtemberg; along the Rhine; in Alsace andLorraine. In which of them, or in how many, I took part--who can say?The mask does not speak!
Where we roved, what we did, who can say? Not I. Whether the satyrsrobbed churches, whether they destroyed caravans, burned cities,desecrated convents and routed their inmates, plundered mines,devastated estates--who can say?
Whether I assisted at all the crimes they committed, or at onlyone--or whether I took part in none--who can say?
Was I the satyr that flung back into his burning house the usuriousJew who had escaped from it? or was I the one that rescued a babe fromthe flames and bore it on his saddle to the mother's arms?
Was I the satyr who placed the mine under the convent and exploded it?or was I the one who warned the nuns in time for them to escape--whocan say? The mask does not speak.
"Well," observed the prince, "if you don't know; and the mask won'ttell, then this entire chapter of your confession must be eliminatedfrom the index."
Then he added further, in order to propitiate the chair: "Why, don'tyou see, that the prisoner did not become a satyr of his own freewill? That he was forced to join the band under pain of death? If,while he was with the robbers, he committed good deeds, or evil,who--as he says himself--can say?"
"Aye, who indeed?" satirically responded the chair. "The mystery ofthe whole affair is so clear that no one will be able to say whetherthis valiant and pious Christian ought to be hanged, or thisconscienceless reprobate ought to be canonized!"