The Midwife's Apprentice Read Online Free PDF Page A

be chased away. Suddenly the whole village saw witches and devils everywhere, and fear lived in every cottage.
    Alyce, who had slept alone outside in the dark for most of her years, even at fearful times like All Hallows’ Eve and Walpurgis Night, had never yet seen the Devil and had nothing to fear from the night. It was she, then, who was sent to fetch and carry and deliver messages after dark, while the villagers stayed in their smoky cottages. So it was that she saw much of what went on in the village and how people lived their lives and spent their time.
    It was so quiet for a few days, with all the villagers inside and idle, that Alyce even had a little time to herself, to wander and think and plan, to watch and learn from old Gilbert Gray-Head about the carving and polishing of wood, and to ask questions of the priest about sin and evil and the Devil, humming to herself all the while.
    Then, one damp autumn morning, Robert Weaver found strange footprints, which wound about the village and stopped suddenly at the door of the church. He called Thomas At-the-Bridge, who knew the ways of the woods and the tracks of the animals, to help him discover what sort of beast had been prowling about while they slept.
    “Were it a weasel, Thomas?”
    “No, that is a hoof. A weasel has toes.”
    “A goat, Thomas?”
    “No, those prints are much too big for a goat.”
    “A pig?”
    “No pig has dewclaws like that.”
    “A boar, Thomas?”
    “With that delicate arch? Never a boar, Robert.”
    “What then, Thomas? What has hooves, is larger than a goat, and more delicate than a boar, and walks our village by night but stops outside the door of the church?”
    By dinnertime all the village was talking of the strange animal that even Thomas At-the-Bridge could not identify. It only took a few incautious words and fearful whispers to convince them that the Devil had found their village and was looking for souls to lead into sin.
    The next day, the strange delicate hoofprints were found walking around Dick’s granny’s cottage and through the barley field. Robert and Thomas and the priest, whispering paternosters, followed the prints all the way to the mill where, crossing themselves, they unlatched the door. The startled miller looked up, caught in the act of putting some of Dick’s granny’s grain into his own sacks.
    “The Devil has indeed been here,” cried the priest, “and he has tempted our miller into theft! But let us deal with this thief mercifully, for which of us could withstand the Devil?”
    The villagers agreed, and so the miller who had listened to the Devil did not have his hands chopped off, but only stood one day in the rain with his millstone tied about his neck.
    The next day all was quiet and it was hoped that the Devil had moved on to tempt another village, but as day passed into evening, Kate the weaver’s daughter ran to the priest with her tale of seeing the Devil’s prints leading to Walter Smith’s barn. The priest and a brave band of villagers armed with rakes and pitchforks and sticks tied into crosses hurried to the barn. The priest sprinkled the door with holy water and threw it open. There, cuddled in the haymow, were Grommet, the smith’s lardy daughter, and the pockmarked pig boy from the manor. The boy gathered his breeches and flung himself out the barn window. Grommet, being larger, moved more slowly and was caught.
    For listening to the Devil, Grommet was made to spend the night in prayer and fasting. She wept, though for loss of pride or loss of supper none could say.
    As the villagers sat down to their dinners the next day, Wat with the runny nose hurried down the road, calling, “I have seen him, a hairy demon with horns and claws and a great thrashing tail. He is on the road to the manor, looking for souls to take to Hell.” Fully half the villagers ran away from the manor road, but the other half ran toward it, making sure the priest and the holy water preceded them.
    There