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Ludwig Tieck
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"Heaven only knows, what may be the meaning of all this," began the priest, "we live at least in times when events occur, which formerly would have been deemed impossible. Now there is something incomprehensible in these prophecying children. It was said, some years ago, that here, and there, in the Cevennes, in Dauphiné, and in the neighbouring Beauvarais that such things were practised, and people travelled to hear and see them. At present whole villages are full of them, they are to be seen in the market-places, in the public houses and like the diseases, incidental to childhood formerly, it seems that all children must undergo the gift of prophecy. Government has thus sharply reprimanded them, by making the parents responsible, thrown those into prison and sending the fathers to the galleys, for it was conjectured that from these alone proceeded the delusion. A peasant, one of my parishoners, came to me, saying 'for God's sake sir, help me! my little girl, six years old, began yesterday to prophecy, I am a dead man if the thing becomes known; my wife and I are certainly of the true faith as you can testify, but now they will arrest us as rebels, as they have done to so many others.'
"Only use the whip," said I, "let the girl hunger and she will soon forget to prophecy. 'All that has been tried, reverend sir,' groaned the old man, 'and more than my conscience will justify; the child is ill from my ill-treatment, for as soon as she begins to prophecy, or to sing psalms, which she has never heard from me, I have chastised her severely; I have not given her a morsel of bread for three days, yet she does not give up, but goes on still worse. Come, I pray, to my house and see yourself; if she is possessed by a devil, you can conjure, is it any thing else, you can exhort.' I had never seen such prophecying creatures, I went therefore out of curiosity with the old man. As we entered the house, the child was sitting at a spinning wheel, she was pale and thin, and seemed half silly, she complained of hunger and pain. I can see nothing in the child, said I, 'oh, if she was always reasonable like that,' exclaimed the peasant. Presently the worm was seized with a sobbing in the throat: 'there we have the gift,' said the old man, 'the disorder is breaking out now--exorcise, reverend sir!' as the little creature was thus struggling, her body dilated, she fell on the ground, her bosom throbbed and heaved, and suddenly we heard as it were quite a strange tone, which did not belong to the child. 'I tell thee, my child, if thy parents repent and follow the spirit, all will be right and good, and thou shalt partake of liberty and of my word.' I was terrified, especially as the devil spoke as pure French as the child of persons of rank; I sprinkled her with holy water, I vehemently conjured that the devil, if it was one, might come out of her; all in vain, the little thing cried out, 'I tell you, the idolaters shall not prevail against you, and this evil one shall find the reward of his misdeeds,' thereby meaning myself: the unfortunate child, because I was so zealous in my calling; then followed exhortation and singing, and pure fear of God and admonition to repentance. I could scarcely do it better myself: she then arose and seemed just as miserable and foolish as before. I cannot help you, said I to my penitent, you see that the word of God and holy water have no effect on her; hunger and chastisement just as little, nor has your persuasion, nor the fear of rendering you unhappy had any weight with her, leave it to herself. In short, the child ate and drank again, and became more zealous than ever in preaching repentance; so that at length the father was converted, or, at least, he ran to the mountains to the Camisards, and said: 'if he were to be punished, or executed, he should at least know wherefore.' Thus you see, I lost many penitents the preceding year, for when they have drawn suspicion on themselves, they prefer becoming rebels to avoid suffering anxiety, ill-treatment, and even death without a cause, as one may say. The case of the shepherd from my adjoining village is still more singular. He was a wild, reckless fellow, and as strong in the right faith as need be wished; he had already delivered more than one Camisard and suspected person up to the executioner. He came running to me one morning at a very early hour, crying out, 'Help, help, reverend sir!' 'what is the matter now,' said I, 'have the Camisards set fire to your house, as they have always threatened to do, on account of your zeal?' 'Ah, much worse, much worse,' cried the knave, wringing his brown, bony hands. 'Speak out shepherd,' said I, 'Do you know,' he began, 'my son, the tall Michael,--who does not know the lanky looby--he is known to almost all the mountaineers, it is indeed the cross of your house, that the idiot is so useless: he will neither work, nor mind the herds; he is so stupid, that he is scarcely considered a member of the church, yet he often enough disturbs the congregation; he is only fit to carry burdens, and prefers living with the dogs, which he frequents as if they were his equals: Is he departed this transitory life? rejoice, for you have one burden less.' 'It is not that indeed,' exclaimed the old man, incensed, 'Oh, I should not grieve for that: But think, who in the world would have supposed that the long broom-stick would have become a prophet?' 'How?' cried I, my mouth and eyes wide open with amazement; 'so, a blockhead, who is good for nothing else in the world, may become one of their prophets?' I went therefore with the old man, but the affair turned out still more strangely. As we entered the house, the thin, bony man was just in the act of prophecying, speaking in a pure dialect about the deliverance of France, of liberty, of faith, of better times, encouraging them to fight. I tried to pray, and to exorcise, but the father seized his great shepherd's stick, brandished it over him, so that he would have killed him, had I not stopped his arm. We then listened for a short time, and what ensued? suddenly something gurgled in the old man's throat, he groaned, turned up his eyes, fell against the wall and then on the ground, and after a few mighty heavings of the breast, he too began; he sang psalms, exhorted to repentance, prophecied the fall of Babel; nothing could equal it: as the old one sang, the young one twittered; I thought I was bewitched, my priestly vestments fell from my hands, I could only listen to those two possessed ones, who were howling out pure piety, and texts from the Bible, and as I gazed at the astounding wonder with agitation and fear, I felt a shock through all my limbs, and sir, as true as heaven is above us, a desire arose within me to be seized with similar fits, and to take a part in this unhappy affair. I rushed out into the open, blessed air of heaven. I thought on all dignitaries, of my bishop, of the great church and organ of Montpellier, of the letter which I possessed from the murdered Abbot of Chably, of our illustrious Marshal of Montrevel, of his dress-uniform, and of such things,--and God be praised, the trembling left my body, and I am now a reasonable man and a christian priest again. Ever since that time, I look upon the whole affair with terror. Be it witchcraft, that they are possessed with devils, bodily and infectious diseases, or the unknown, new fanaticism of the learned doctors, I have at least discovered that mankind is easily entrapped, and that the Spaniard is right with his proverb: 'No man can say of this water I will not drink.' The two shepherd knaves have now also run into the wilds after Cavalier, and have become great heroes of the faith."
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