hree Oaks, the hollow Chestnut,
the Linsenteich, and wherever the fiends besport themselves, where you
drank in the sensuous love of the Devil, and where you last Saint
John's day were baptized with blood, sulphur and salt, and after the
baptism the devil assumed the shape of a goat, on whom you all had to
jump in turn with out-stretched legs."

"And those gentlemen could believe all that nonsense!" replied Erastus
with a sad bend of his head.

"They believed it so firmly that nothing but the martyr-courage of the
young Jesuit could save you. A veritable hero! The protocol of which I
will however spare you the perusal seems to be describing the
sufferings of some martyr. I am an old man, but I wept like a child,
when I read here, what the poor man endured. Though they poured
aquavitae on his back, which they then lit, and wrenched his limbs out
of their sockets, he maintained his account that the old witch had
recanted to him all that she had stated before her death. She had only
accused you all to please the members of the Commission. He moreover
stated that the executioner entered the room in the middle of the night
and twisted the head of the old woman quite round, so as to be able to
say that the Devil killed her. He however had recognized Master Ulrich
and distinctly heard the wrenching of the bones. The Theologians were
so check-mated that they wished to torture him still more, but finally
the order of trial occurred to the Jurists and they declared that he
should not be tortured any further till new evidence should be brought
against him, I then heard for the first time how the matter stood. I
naturally at once deprived Hartmann of his office and ordered
Pigavetta's arrest. The officers caught the Italian in his room as he
was packing up. He must have remarked that there was an end to his
latin. But they foolishly permitted him to change his clothes in a
neighboring room. He very naturally did not return, and in his room
they discovered a shaft with a pulley, which let him down in a moment
to the lowest flight nearest to the front door. He is said to have
played all sorts of pranks by means of this pulley, moreover the
officers found other secret apparatus and magic books. If he be caught
let him look out for the stake. He will not have tortured Laurenzano to
pieces in vain if I can only lay my hand on him."

"The poor young man," sighed Erastus.

"There is something I wished to beg of you. The young Lazarus