CHAPTER XLIV
SENTENCE OF DEATH
And there, standing by the place of pleading, with his foot on the firststep, I saw Dessauer, in his black doctorial gown, leaning reverentlyupon a long staff.
He made a courteous salutation to Duke Otho upon the high seat.
"I am a stranger, most noble Duke," he began, "and as such have nostanding in this your High Court of Justice. But there is a certaincourtesy extended to doctors of the law--the right of speech in greattrials--in many of the lands to which I have adventured in the search ofwisdom. I am encouraged by my friend, the most venerable prelate, BishopPeter, to ask your forbearance while I say a word on behalf of theprisoner, in reply to that learned and most celebrated jurisconsult,Master Gerard von Sturm, who, in support of his cause, has spoken thingsso apt and eloquent. This is my desire ere judgment be passed. For in amultitude of councils there is wisdom."
He was silent, and looked at the Duke and his tool, Michael Texel.
They conferred together in whispers, and at first seemed on the point ofrefusing. But the folk began to sway so dangerously, and the voice oftheir muttering sank till it became a growl, as of a caged wild beastwhich has broken all bars save the last, and which only waits anopportunity to put forth its strength in order to shiver that also.
"You are heartily welcome, most learned doctor," said Duke Otho,sullenly. "We would desire to hear you briefly concerning this matter."
"I shall assuredly be brief, my noble lord--most brief," said Dessauer."I am a stranger, and must therefore speak by the great principles ofequity which underlie all law and all evidence, rather than according tothe statutes of the province over which you are the distinguished ruler.
"The crime of witchcraft is indeed a heinous one, if so be that it can beproven--not by the compelled confession of crazed and tortured crones,but by the clear light of reason. Now there is no evidence that I haveheard against this young girl which might not be urged with equal justiceagainst every cup-bearer in the Castle of the Wolfsberg.
"The Duke Casimir died indeed after having partaken of the wine. But somay a man at any time by the visitation of God, by the stroke which, fromthe void air, falleth suddenly upon the heart of man. No poison has beenfound on or about the girl. No evil has been alleged against her, savethat which has been compelled (as all must have seen) by torture, and thefear of torture, from the palsied and reluctant lips of a frantic hag."
"Hear him! Great is the Stranger!" cried the folk in the hall. And theshouting of the guards commanding silence could scarce be heard for theroar of the populace. It was some time before the speech of Dessauer wasagain audible.
Ho was beginning to speak again, but Duke Otho, without rising, calledout rudely and angrily:
"Speak to the reason of the judges and not to the passions of the mob!"
"I do indeed speak from the reason to the reason," said Dessauer, calmly;"for in this matter there is no true averment, even of witchcraft, butonly of the administration of poison--which ought to be proven by theordinary means of producing some portion of the drug, both in thepossession of the criminal and from the body of the murdered man. Thishas not been done. There has been no evidence, save, as I have shown,such as may be easily compelled or suborned. If this maid be condemned,there is no one of you with a wife, a daughter, a sweetheart, who may nothave her burned or beheaded on just as little evidence--if she have asingle enemy in all the city seeking for the sake of malice or thwartedlust to compass her destruction.
"Moreover, it indeed matters little for the argument that this damsel isfair to the eye. Save in so far as she is more the object of desire, andthat when the greed of the lustful eye is balked" (here he paused andlooked fixedly between his knees), "disappointment oft in such a heartturns to deadly poison. And so that which was desired is the morebitterly hated, and revenge awakes to destroy.
"But if beauty matters little, character matters greatly. And what, bycommon consent, has been known in the city concerning this maid?
"I ask not you, Duke Otho, who have lived apart in your castle or in farlands, a stranger to the city like myself. But I ask the people amongwhom, during all these; past months of the plague, she has dwelt. Is shenot known among them as Saint Helena?"
"Aye," cried the people, "Saint Helena, indeed--our savior when there wasnone to help! God save Saint Helena!"
Dessauer waved his hand for silence.
"Did she not go among you from house to house, carrying, not thepoison-cup, but the healing draught? Was not her hand soft on the brow ofthe dying, comfortable about the neck of the bereaved? Day and night,whose fingers reverently wrapped up the poor dead bodies of yourbeloved? Who quieted your babes in her arms, fed thorn, nursed them,healed them, buried them--wore herself to a shadow for your sakes ?"
"Saint Helena!" they cried; "Saint Helena, the angel of the Red Tower!"
"Aye," said Dessauer, in tones like thunder, "hear their voices! Thereare a thousand witnesses in this house untortured, unsuborned. I tellyou, the guilt of innocent blood will lie on you, great Duke--on youcounsellors of evil things, if you condemn this maid. Your throne,Duke Otho, shall totter and fall, and your life's sun shall set in asea of blood!"
He sat down calm and fearless as the Duke raged to Michael Texel, as Ithink, desiring that the fearless pleader could be seized on the instant,and punished for his insolence. But as the folk shouted in the hall, andthe thunder of cheering came in through the open windows from the greatconcourse without, Michael Texel calmed his master, urging upon him thatthe temper of the people was for the present too dangerous. And also,doubtless, that they could easily compass their ends by other means.
I saw Texel despatch a messenger to the lictors who stood on either sideof Helene. The body-guard of the Duke stood closer about her as the DukeOtho himself stood up to read the sentence.
I saw that the form of it had been written out upon a paper. Doubtless,therefore, all had been prearranged, so that neither evidence noreloquence could possibly have had any effect upon it.
"We, the Court of the Wolfmark, find the prisoner, Helene, calledGottfried, guilty of witchcraft, and especially of compassing andcausing the death of our predecessor, the most noble Duke Casimir, andwe do hereby adjudge that, on the morning of Sunday presentlyfollowing, Helene Gottfried shall be executed upon the common scaffoldby the axe of the executioner. Of our clemency is this sentencedelivered, instead of the torture and the burning alive at the stakewhich it was within our power to command. This is done in considerationof the youth of the criminal, and as the first exercise of our ducalprerogative of high mercy."
With an angry roar the people closed in.
"Take her!" they cried; "rescue her out of their hands!"
And there was a fierce rush, in which the outer barriers were snappedlike straw. But the lictors had pulled down the trap-door on the instant,and the people surged fiercely over the spot where a moment before Helenehad stood. Before them were the levelled pikes and burning matches of theDuke's guard.
"Have at them!" was still the cry. "Kill the wolves! Tear them topieces!"
But the mob was undisciplined, and the steady advance of the soldierssoon cleared the hall. Nevertheless the streets without continued angryand throbbing with incipient rebellion. Duke Otho could scarce winscathless across the court-yard to his own apartments. Tiles from thenearest roofs were cast upon the heads of his escort. The streets wereimpassable with angry men shaking their fists at every courier andsoldier of the Duke. Women hung sobbing out of the windows, and all thecity of Thorn lamented with uncomforted tears because of the cruelcondemnation of their Saint of the plague, Helena, the maiden of theRed Tower.