"Unless we present them with the name of the person who really did order the murder of the children."

The court clerk laughed.

"Forget that! If he really belongs to the inner council of the town, then he is powerful enough to keep his activities secret."

Jakob Schreevogl buried his face in his hands and rubbed his temples.

"Then I can see no hope any more for the Stechlin woman..."

"Or you sacrifice the children," the court clerk added, as if in pa.s.sing. "Tell the Landgrave about the true origin of the witches' signs, and perhaps he'll let the midwife go. But the children? They've dabbled in witchcraft, and I don't think the Landgrave will let them off so easily."

There was silence for a short time.

"The midwife or your daughter. It's your choice," Johann Lechner said.

Then he went over to the window. From the north the call of a horn could suddenly be heard. The court clerk stuck his head out in order to hear exactly where it was coming from. He blinked.

"His Excellency, the Landgrave," he said, turning toward the patrician, who sat as if turned to stone at the council table. "It looks as if you'll have to make your decision quickly."

The boys playing down by the Hof Gate were the first to see the Landgrave. The Elector's deputy arrived by way of the Altenstadt Road traveling in a magnificent coach drawn by four horses. On each side rode six soldiers in full armor, with open helmets, pistols, and swords. The first soldier was carrying a horn, with which he announced the arrival of the Landgrave. Behind the coach came a second carriage, which was used for transporting the servants and the chests with the necessities that His Excellency required for the trip.

The gate had already been closed at this hour, but now it was quickly reopened. The horses' hooves clattered over the cobblestones, and most of the burghers who had gathered on the market square for the feast now ran down to the gate to see the arrival of the highborn man with a mixture of admiration and skepticism. Only rarely did such distinguished gentlemen come to visit little Schongau. Previously the Landgrave had visited the town more often, but that hadn't happened for a long time. Nowadays, any aristocrat who visited the town was a welcome spectacle and a change from the daily routine. At the same time the burghers were aware that the Landgrave and his soldiers would eat up their meager provisions. In the Great War, hordes of mercenaries had more than once descended on the town like locusts. But perhaps the Landgrave wouldn't stay all that long.

Crowds lined the streets, through which the procession advanced slowly toward the marketplace. The people chatted and whispered and pointed to the silver-bound chests in which the Landgrave, no doubt, carried his valuable household goods. The twelve soldiers looked straight ahead. The Landgrave himself was invisible behind a red damask curtain that covered the coach door.

Once they had arrived at the marketplace, the coach stopped directly in front of the Ballenhaus. Dusk had already fallen over the town, but the birch logs were still glowing in the braziers, so that bystanders could see a form in a green doublet descending from the coach. At the Landgrave's right dangled a dress sword. His beard was neatly trimmed, his long silky hair combed, and his high leather boots were brightly polished. He glanced briefly at the crowd, then strode toward the Ballenhaus, where the aldermen were already a.s.sembled at the entrance. Only a few of them had managed to don appropriate attire for the occasion on such short notice. Some had the corner of a shirt sticking out from under their doublet, and the coat b.u.t.tons had been put in the wrong b.u.t.tonholes. More than one pa.s.sed his fingers through his untidy hair.

Burgomaster Karl Semer stepped forward to greet the Landgrave and offered his hand rather hesitantly.

"It is with-um-joyous antic.i.p.ation that we have so long awaited your arrival, Your Excellency," he commenced, stuttering slightly. "How nice that your arrival coincides with the May Day festival. Schongau is proud to be permitted to celebrate the beginning of summer with you, and-"

The count interrupted him with a brusque gesture and surveyed, in a rather bored way, the coa.r.s.ely made tables, the maypole, the little fires, and the wooden stage. It was obvious that he had experienced more splendid feasts than this.

"Well, I am also pleased to see my Schongau once more," he said finally. "Even if the occasion is a sad one...Anyway, has the witch confessed?"

"No, unfortunately she very cleverly fell into a swoon at the last questioning," the court clerk Johann Lechner replied. With Jakob Schreevogl he had just emerged from the door of the Ballenhaus to join the group. "But we are quite confident that she will come to before tomorrow. Then we can proceed with the questioning."

The count shook his head disapprovingly.

"You are no doubt aware that the use of torture in your questioning requires approval from Munich. You had no right to begin before you have it." He waved a threatening finger, half seriously, half playfully.

"Your Excellency, we thought we could speed up the procedure by-" the court clerk began, but he was immediately interrupted by the Landgrave.

"No, you may not! First the approval. I'm not getting mixed up in arguments with the Munich court council! I'll send a messenger as soon as I've seen for myself what the situation is. But tomorrow..." He looked up at the clear, starry sky. "Tomorrow I should first like to go hunting. The weather looks promising. I'll see about the witch later."

The count chuckled.

"She's not going to fly away in the meantime, hey?"

Solicitously, burgomaster Semer shook his head. Johann Lechner's face became pale. He rapidly calculated the expenses that the town would incur if the count really intended to wait for the approval from Munich. The soldiers would stay for a good month, perhaps longer...That meant board and lodging for a month, and also inquiries, suspicion, spying! And the matter would not stop with one witch.

"Your Excellency," he began. But Count Sandizell had already turned to his soldiers.

"Unsaddle!" he commanded. "And then enjoy yourselves! We'll join in the feast. Let us greet the summer. I can see that fires are already burning. Let us hope that here in a few weeks a much larger fire will burn, and that the devilry in this town will at last come to an end!"

He clapped his hands and looked up at the stage.

"Play up, musicians!"

The minstrels strummed nervously at a country dance. At first hesitantly, but then more confidently, the first pairs stepped out to dance. The celebrations began. Witches, witchcraft, and murder were temporarily forgotten. But Johann Lechner knew that all this would drive the town to its ruin before many days had pa.s.sed.

The hangman knelt down before Martha Stechlin and changed the bandage on her forehead. The swelling had gone down. Where Georg Riegg's stone had struck her, there was an ugly black-and-blue bruise. And the fever seemed to have gone down. Jakob Kuisl nodded, satisfied. The brew of linden flowers, juniper, and elderberries that he had given her that morning seemed to help.

"Martha, can you hear me?" he whispered and patted her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked at him vacantly. Her hands and feet were swollen like balloons from the torture. Everywhere dried blood covered her body, which was only barely concealed by a dirty woolen blanket.

"The children are...innocent," she croaked. "I know now how it was. They..."

"Shhh," said the hangman, laying a finger on her dry lips. "You shouldn't talk so much, Martha. We know it too."

The midwife looked astonished.

"You know that they had looked at the sign at my house?"

Jakob Kuisl grunted in agreement. The midwife raised herself from her reclining position.

"Sophie and Peter were always interested in my herbs. Especially the magic ones. They wanted to know everything. I showed the mandrake to Sophie once, but that's as far as it went! I swear it to G.o.d! I know what can happen. How quickly the gossip spreads. But Sophie wouldn't leave me alone, and then she must have had a closer look at the signs on the jars..."

"The bloodstone. I know," the hangman interrupted her.

"But that is really quite harmless," the midwife began to sob. "I give the red powder to women when they bleed down there, infused in wine, nothing evil in it, by G.o.d..."

"I know, Martha, I know."

"The children drew the sign on their own bodies! And as to the murders, by the Holy Virgin Mary, I have nothing to do with them!"

Her body shook as she broke into a fit of sobbing.

"Martha," Jakob Kuisl said, trying to calm her down. "Just listen. We know who killed the children. We do not know who gave the murderer his orders, but I'm going to find him, and then I'll come and fetch you out of here."

"But the pain, the fear, I can't stand it anymore," she sobbed. "You'll have to hurt me again!"

The hangman shook his head.

"The Landgrave has just arrived," he said. "He wants to wait for approval from Munich before they question you any further. That'll take time. Till then you are safe."

"And then?" asked Martha Stechlin.

The hangman remained silent. Almost helplessly he patted her shoulder before going out. He knew that unless a miracle occurred, the death sentence was now only a formality. Even if the mastermind could be discovered, the fate of the midwife was sealed. Martha Stechlin would burn in a few weeks at the latest, and it was he, Jakob Kuisl, who would have to lead her to the stake.

When Simon arrived at the market square, the feast was already in full swing. He had been resting at home for a few hours, and now he wanted to see Magdalena again. He gazed over the square looking for her.

Couples were dancing arm in arm around the maypole. Wine and beer were flowing from well-filled jugs. Some drunken soldiers were already staggering around the edge of the fires or chasing screaming maidens. The Landgrave was sitting at the aldermen's table, obviously in high spirits. Johann Lechner must have just told him a funny story. The clerk knew how to keep the bigwigs in a good mood. They were all having a grand time. Even the parish priest, sitting a little to one side, sipped calmly on a half pint of red wine.

Simon looked over at the stage. The minstrels were playing a country dance that became faster and faster until the first dancers, laughing, fell to the ground. The squealing of women and the deep laughter of the men mixed with the music and the clinking of mugs to form one single sound ascending into the starry night sky.

That morning, when Simon, at the end of a long night, had climbed out of the tunnels, he had believed that nothing could ever be the same as it had been before. But he had been wrong. Life was going on, at least for a little while longer.

Jakob Schreevogl had taken Clara and also, for the time being, Sophie under his care. The council had decided not to interrogate the children until the following morning. By then Simon, in consultation with the young patrician, would have to consider what to tell the aldermen. The truth? But would that not deliver the children to a terrible fate? Children who played at witchcraft could end up at the stake as well as adults. Simon knew this from earlier trials he had heard of. Probably the Landgrave would question the children until they named the midwife as a witch. And then a lot of other witches would be added too...

"h.e.l.lo, what's going on? Would you like to dance?"

Simon wheeled around, startled out of his gloomy thoughts. Before him stood Magdalena, laughing. She had a bandage around her head but otherwise looked well. The physician couldn't help smiling. It was only this morning that the hangman's daughter had fled from two soldiers. Two nights of horror and unconsciousness lay behind her, and nevertheless she was inviting him to dance. She seemed to be indestructible. Just like her father, Just like her father, thought Simon. thought Simon.

"Magdalena, you should go and rest," he began. "In any case, the people..." He pointed to the tables, where the first maidservants were beginning to whisper and point at them.

"Oh, the people," Magdalena interrupted him. "What do I care about them?"

She took him by the arm and drew him onto the dance floor, which was built out in front of the stage. Closely embracing, they danced to the music of a slow folk dance. Simon felt the other pairs draw away from them, but he didn't care. He looked into Magdalena's dark eyes and felt himself sinking into them. Everything around merged into a sea of lights with them in the very middle. Worries and dark thoughts were far away. He could only see her smiling eyes, and slowly his lips approached hers.

Suddenly a shape appeared in the corner of his eye. It was his father hurrying toward him. Bonifaz Fronwieser gripped his son hard by the shoulder and turned him around to face him.

"How dare you?" he hissed. "Can't you see how the people are beginning to talk? The physician with the hangman's wench! What a joke!"

Simon tore himself free.

"Father, I must ask you..." he tried to calm him down.

"No!" snapped his father and pulled him a little away from the dance floor, without even casting a single glance at Magdalena. "I order you..."

Suddenly Simon felt himself engulfed in a black cloud. The severe trials of the past few days, the deadly fear, the worry for Magdalena. He pushed his father violently away from him, causing the astonished man to gasp. At this very moment the music stopped, so that his words were clearly audible to all the bystanders.

"You've no right to give me orders! Not you!" he panted, still out of breath from dancing. "What are you anyway? A dubious little field surgeon, an opportunistic yes-man! Purging and p.i.s.s smelling, that's all you can do!"

The slap hit him hard on his cheek. His father stood before him, white as a sheet, his hand still raised. Simon felt that he had gone too far. But before he could apologize, Bonifaz Fronwieser had turned away and disappeared into the darkness.

"Father!" he called after him. But the musicians struck up again, and the couples resumed their dancing. Simon looked at Magdalena, who shook her head.

"You shouldn't have done that," she said. "He's your father, after all. My father would have knocked your head off for that."

"Has everyone here something against me?" Simon mumbled. The brief moment of happiness between himself and Magdalena had evaporated. He turned away and left her standing on the dancing floor. He needed a mug of bock beer.

On his way across to where the beer barrel was set up on its trestles he pa.s.sed the aldermen's table. There sat the patricians in cozy familiarity: Semer, Holzhofer, Augustin, and Puchner. The Landgrave had gone over to his soldiers to see if everything was all right. At last the patricians had the opportunity to talk about the coming days and weeks. They anxiously put their heads together and the clerk Johann Lechner sat firm as a rock between them lost in his own thoughts.

Simon stopped and from his position in the shadows observed the scene in front of him.

It reminded him of something.

The four patricians. The clerk. The table...

His head was hot from dancing. The efforts of the previous night still ached in his bones. He had already drunk two mugs of beer at home. He needed a moment before it came to him.

But then he felt as if the last stone of the mosaic had been put into its place.

They had simply not listened properly.

Hesitantly, Simon turned away. The parish priest was sitting alone at a table a little farther back and was observing the dancers. His expression alternated between disapproval and relaxation. As a representative of the church he could not of course approve of this wild, heathen activity. But he was obviously enjoying the warm night, the flickering flames, and the rhythm of the music. Simon went over and sat down beside him, not waiting for an invitation. The priest looked at him in surprise.

"My son, you're not coming to confession now, are you?" he asked. "Although...as I have just seen, you certainly seem to be in dire need of it."

Simon shook his head.

"No, Father," he said. "I need some information. I think I just didn't listen properly the last time."

After a short conversation Simon stood up again and returned thoughtfully to the dancers. On the way there he had to pa.s.s the aldermen's table once more. Abruptly he stopped.

One seat was now empty.

Without stopping to think, he hurried to a house at the edge of the marketplace. Behind him the sounds of laughter and music faded. He had heard enough.

Now he must act.

The man sat in a heavy armchair upholstered in velvet and looked out the window. On the table in front of him was a bowl full of walnuts and a jug of water. He could no longer tolerate any other kind of food. It was difficult for him to breathe, and stabs of pain went through his abdomen. He could hear the sounds of the revelry outside, and there was a gap in the drawn curtains through which he could have observed the activity below. But his eyes were going bad, and the fires and dancers all blurred into a misty picture without contours. His hearing, however, was excellent, and so he was aware of footsteps behind him, even when the intruder was endeavoring to enter the room unnoticed.

"I've been expecting you, Simon Fronwieser," he said, without turning around. "You are a nosy little know-it-all. I was against you and your father obtaining burghers' rights back then, and I have since been proved right. You bring nothing but unrest to our town."

"Unrest?" Simon no longer took the trouble to be quiet. With quick steps he hurried to the table, while he continued to speak. "Who has brought unrest to this town, then? Who ordered the soldiers to kill small children who had seen too much? Who caused the Stadel to be burned? Who saw to it that fear and hate returned to Schongau and that witches should burn at the stake again?"

He had worked himself up into a rage. With one more step he reached the chair and spun it round toward him. He looked into the blind eyes of the old man, who just shook his head as if he pitied him.

"Simon, Simon," said Matthias Augustin. "You still haven't understood. All this happened only because you and that wretched hangman interfered. Believe me, I don't wish to see any more witches burned. I saw too many people burned at the stake when I was a child. I only wanted the treasure. It belonged to me. Everything else that happened is the responsibility of you two."

"The treasure, that d.a.m.ned treasure," Simon muttered as he let himself fall into the chair next to the old man. He was tired, simply tired out. He spoke on, almost as if in a trance.

"The parish priest gave me the decisive clue in the church, but I didn't understand him correctly. He knew that you were the last one to speak to old Schreevogl before he died. And he told me that you and he were friends." Simon shook his head before he went on. "When I went to him for confession at that time, I asked him if anyone else had recently shown any interest in the site," he said. "Until today he had forgotten that you had indeed asked him about it shortly after old Schreevogl's death. It wasn't until today, at the May feast, that he suddenly remembered."

The gray-headed patrician bit his bloodless lip.

"The old fool. I had offered him a lot of money, but no, he just had to build that d.a.m.ned leper house...But the property should have been mine, mine alone! Ferdinand should have left the site to me. It was the least that I expected of the old miser! The very least!"

He took a walnut from the table and cracked it with a practiced hand. Fragments of sh.e.l.l scattered over the tabletop.