Infamous Lady: The True Story of Countess Erzsébet Báthory (29 page)

Help, oh help, you clouds! Help, clouds, give health, give Erzsébet Báthory health! Send, oh, send forth, you clouds, 90 cats! I command you, Leader of the Cats, that you hear my command and assemble them together, from wherever they may be, whether they are on the other side of the mountain, beyond the water, beyond the sea—that these 90 cats come to you and, from you, should go straight into the heart of King Mátyás and also the heart of the Palatine! In the same way should they chew to pieces the heart of the Red Megyeri and the heart of Mózes Cziráky, so that Erzsébet Báthory shall not suffer any grief. Holy Trinity, so it is done!

Similarly, I have also heard from the report that our Provisional Master has more in written form. You see, Your Grace, how the devil hides his presence, and how and what he seduces. Before the same scribe came and reported the magic words (and he was ordered under penalty of death to faithfully write out everything that was said), she had already been caught and brought into the keep. Another wicked woman named Torkoss, who resides miles beyond Sárvár, gave the following advice: "Find a black cat, kill it with a white stick, keep the blood, and smear it on your enemies. And if not their body, then at least the clothes - and not so stained with blood that your enemy can hurt you more."

You see, Noble Sir, that this wicked heroine is accused of many crimes. Nevertheless, she is still confident in her case and named the priests as the cause of her imprisonment, even as the heathens accused the messengers of faith to be the reason for severe weather and unrest. Yesterday, we spoke of many things with her in the dungeon. Among other things, said the venerable Mr. Zacharias: "Do you believe that Christ was born for you, died and rose for the forgiveness of sins?" She replied: "I also know Peter Faber (Catholic priest, co-found of the Jesuit order, who worked to bring Protestants back to the Church)." Immediately Mr. Zacharias gave her the Holy Bible and asked her to read it in prison, but she answered: "I need it not." Then I said: "I want to know who has caused Your Grace to have so much contempt for me, by claiming that I am the cause of your detention." She replied: "I will not tell you. Now you have angered me and soon both of you will have angered me." I said that I did not wish to anger her, but rather, to clear myself of the accusation of having been the reason for her detention. She replied: "I have been a mistress and mother to all my staff. I have never been treated right, neither in the small nor the large. By either of you." I insist that she think well of me, because I prayed to God for forgiveness of her sins. She replied: "To ask God for the salvation of someone else – especially in a special case—is a good work." So many words were exchanged. But it would be better to speak rather than write them.

But coming to the end, I write that only those three old women as well as the young Ficzkó were taken away and thoroughly interrogated: they confessed that this despicable woman felt delight in such killings, and that they had nurtured a monster. Specifically, we have heard from the virgins who were still alive by then, that they were forced to eat their own flesh, roasted in the fire. Other girls had virgin flesh placed before them, served with mushrooms, chopped into pieces and boiled. Without knowing this, they ate it. O what a Thyestian banquet! (From Thyestes of Greek mythology) What outrageous cruelty! No butcher under heaven was, in my opinion, more cruel. Here I could go on, except for the pain it causes my senses. Soon I will have many enemies, so I commend your venerable jurisdiction immediately and ask that His Highness deign to support me, unworthy as I am, including the Lord Homonnay as well as the mighty son or daughters, and not to refuse the protection of his power. Preferably, the truth is, that for the past ten years or longer now, Erzsébet Báthory has been a witch, or better, that she acted as a murderess. Even my predecessor in Christ, Andreas Barosius, who was 90 years of age, was in the church at night secretly burying virgins, as our fellow citizens probably know. Also, the venerable Mr. István Magyari, a priest in Christ some eight years after the death of Lord Ferenc Nádasdy, frequently accused Erzsébet Báthory publicly (in the church) of sins and murder, witnessed by the existing domestic servants.

The situation will take its course. But I commend my God, because the good always wins. I eagerly greet Mr. Samuel Hammelius and Mr. Balthasar Grelnercius and the servant of your Gracious Highness. Live well and happy in the Lord. Csejthe, 1 January, 1611.

Always willing to serve your venerable Highness. Janós Ponikenusz, priest of the church at Csejthe and citizen.

P.S. Paper cannot capture what I wish to communicate verbally with your Venerable Grace. Whether it is honor or burden, I add this confidential note: After I came from the dungeon on the last day of December and the two brothers, the pastors of Leszetice and Verbo, were sent home, I formed my opinion: Soon I will be feasting in another fire; that when the family had prepared to pray, from there I returned from my study to hot prayers to God to judge. Soon, my wife was following me and telling me about the signs and wonders which happened in this situation. Still, I do not know if signs from the highest vault will guide me. Perhaps I can express myself better by being simple: I know that the voice of malice is not natural. From everything I have experienced, nothing is invented: I say what I, along with my family, have heard, and write:

"This was no ordinary cat voice." I go look, but find nothing. I call my servant, whom I had taken with me, and tell him: "Jano, if you see cats running in the yard, beat them dead! Fear nothing!" But we have found nothing. My servant says: "My Lord, in this chamber, many mice are whistling." I run out, but find nothing there. I cry: "There is nothing in here either!" And as I went down the staircase from the house, just two steps from me, suddenly six cats - on my honor – started biting my right foot, and I cried then: "Go to hell, you devil!" And I beat them with a wooden stick next to my foot. As they all pushed from the lowest level in the crowded courtyard, my servant, who came up from behind, was unable to see or find anything.

You see, Your Highness, Satan’s works. But they will be undone.

On Christmas Eve, the House Mistress of Miawa had the Countess bathe in various herbs, and then she desired, as I have heard, to bake bread with this bathwater so that her opponents and enemies should eat it, but in this endeavor, she was betrayed. So Satan fell into his own trap.

Above all else may Your Grace, along with God and myself, expect that they are going to want to harm us; or, should they want to convert, that they are converted, let us pray. The Lord be with us, Amen.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned House Mistress, as I have heard, is already completely shriveled up.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE WITNESS INTERROGATIONS REGARDING THE CRUEL DEEDS WITH ERZSÉBET BÁTHORY, WIFE OF COUNT FERENC NÁDASDY, IS ACCUSED. 1611.

(Published in 1817; originally written in Hungarian and Latin. In some places, natural context and logical order are missing, and written in the curial (abbreviated) style of the time.)

Confessions given below in order by specific persons against Erzsébet Báthory, married name of Nádasdy.

In the year 1611 on January 2
^nd
in the market town of Bitcá, an assembly was held.

First. Janós Ujváry, otherwise called Ficzkó, was interviewed on the following points by his own admission:

First. How long has he been in the service of that Lady, and how did he come to her court?

Answer: Sixteen years, if not longer, he lived with the Lady, having been brought there to Csejthe by the wife of the teacher, Martin Deak, taken there by force.

Second: Since that time, how many girls and women has she killed?

Answer: He does not know of women, but girls, he knows 37, while he was with her. In addition, when the Lord Palatine traveled to Bratislava, they buried five in a pit and two in the small garden under the eaves. A girl who they found there and she placed before them, and two others were taken to Leszetice in the church, where they buried the same; they brought down the same from the castle, because Mrs. Dorkó (Dorottya Szentes) killed them.

Third: Who were those which they killed, and where?

Answer: He does not know to whom the girls belonged.

Fourth: How were those, the same women and girls, enticed and brought to the court?
Answer: Six times, the declarant went looking for girls with Mrs. Dorkó; they attracted them with the promise that they would either marry a merchant or that they would be brought somewhere as a chambermaid. The now-deceased girl was brought from a Croatian village beyond Rednek; the girl worked for (the Lady) for a month, and then they killed her. Others who looked for girls, along with Mrs. Dorkó were: The (wife of) Janós Barsony, residing in Taplanfalva next to the Gyöngyös, except for once at Sárvár, they found a Croatian woman living with Mátyás Otvos, across from Janós Szalay. Also, (the wife of) Janós Szabo brought girls, even her own, who was also killed, and though she certainly knew it, she still gave more and brought them. The wife of György Szabo gave (the Lady) her own daughter at Csejthe, who also was murdered, but she did not bring anymore. The (wife of) István Szabo, however, brought many there. Mrs. Ilona brought enough. Ms. Katalin never brought any, but only buried those murdered by Dorkó.
Fifth: By what torture and what manner did they kill these poor (unfortunates)?

Answer: The same were tortured as follows: the arms were bound were Viennese cord (woven cotton?); when she lived at Sárvár, Anna Darvolia tied their hands backwards, they were deathly pale, they were beaten until their bodies burst. On the soles of the feet and the flat of the hands, these imprisoned women were given 500 strikes in a row; they learned this torturing first from Darvolia, and beat the same so long, until they died. Dorko cut with the hands of the girls with sheers, which at Csejthe is no different.

Sixth: Who were the instruments of this torture and murder?

Answer: In addition to these three women, is one from Csejthe, Mrs. Ilona, (wife of the one) called the Bald Coachman, who also martyred girls. The woman herself pricked them with needles when they were not finished with their stichery. If they didn’t take off their hair covering, if they did not start the fire, if they did not lay the apron straight: they were immediately taken to the torture-chamber by the old women, and tortured to death. The old women burned them with the curling iron and she herself the mouth, the nose, the chin of the girls. She stuck her fingers in the mouth and tore it apart. If they were not finished with their needlework by 10:00 p.m., so were they also brought into the torture chamber. They were taken to be tortured even ten times in a day, like sheep. Sometimes there were four to five girls standing naked there, and in this way they had to sew or knit. The Sittkey girl was killed, because she had stolen a pear; in the same way, she was tortured and murdered in Piastány with an emaciated old woman, and Ilona. The milliner Modli from Vienna was killed at Keresztúr.

Seventh: Where were the dead bodies buried or where were they were taken? Who hid the same corpses and where were they buried?

Answer: These old women hid and buried the girls. He, Confessor, had himself helped bury four here and in Csejthe, in Leszetice two, one in Keresztúr, and also one in Sárvár; the others were buried with singing at the three last-named places. When the old women murdered a girl, they were given gifts by the Lady. She herself even tore the girl's face and scratched it all over. Then, the tortured girl was made to stand in the frost and splashed with water by the old women; also, the Lady herself poured water on her until she froze and died. When she was here at Bitcá, she was ready to depart when one of her girls escaped to Ilava, but was brought back, put up to her neck in water, and doused; she died afterward at Csejthe.

Eighth: The Lady herself also tortured and murdered? And how did she torture the poor (ones) and kill them?

Answer: When she herself did not torture them, she transferred them to the old women who tortured the girls, whom they put in the coal storage for a week without food, and whoever gave them something to eat in secret was immediately punished.

Ninth: In what sort of places at Csejthe, Sárvár, Keresztúr, Beckov and elsewhere, were the poor (ones), tortured and killed?

Answer: At Beckov, the same were tortured in the chamber next to the (wash)-kitchen; at Sárvár, this happened in the interior of the palace, where not everyone had access; at Keresztúr, in the toilet area; at Csejthe, in the kitchen. Even while we were traveling, she tortured the girls in the carriage, and beat them and stuck them in the mouth with needles.

Tenth: Who, of important people, knew or saw the same deeds of the Lady?

Answer: The Courtmaster Benedikt Deseö knew best over the others; however, no one ever heard him say anything about the Lady. Also, the other servants knew about it in general, even the riff-raff. A certain “Obstinate István,” now beyond the Danube, who recently left the Lady’s service, knows everything better than even the witness; he also talked freely with the Lady, and carried several dead bodies away but, where? The witness does not know.

Eleventh: For how long have they known or learned of, that the Lady began committing these cruel deeds?

Answer: She had tortured the girls even during the lifetime of the late Lord, but not so often murdered them, as now. The poor Lord had spoken to her about it, but did not forbid it. But when the woman, Anna Darvolia, came to her, she (Anna) killed the girls, and also the Lady became more cruel. Something like a pretzel was kept in a box, with a mirror in the middle, before which she prayed for two hours. - Item: The Mistress of Miava made some sort of water in the morning, and at approximately four clock the lady bathed in a baking trough, then she poured the water in the creek. She wanted to bake two cakes in the trough, of which she wanted to poison both the King, the Lord Palatine and Imre Megyeri. But these gentlemen became aware of it and bested the Lady with the physical; because once they had eaten the first baked item, they all got stomach aches, and so she dared not permit the second backed item to be prepared.