“But we got distracted,” I went on. “From the first day I walked into this place, I kept losing track of the shrine in my preoccupation with the people who had been involved with it back in fifteen hundred twenty-five. Irma’s uncanny resemblance to her ancestress was one reason for my interest, but it was more than that; as time went on, these people came alive for me. Konstanze and her tragic death; the steward, who had been foully murdered; and the count, Burckhardt.

“He was no worse than many of his peers, but he was not an appealing character. Nothing we learned about him made him any more attractive—his defense of the autocratic bishop, his participation in the torture of Riemenschneider, his murder of the steward. All these things were perfectly in character—as we saw his character. I was prejudiced against him from the start, and my prejudice kept me from seeing the truth.”

Tony’s face relaxed into a half smile as he listened. I knew what he was thinking. He was thinking that I was also prejudiced against Burckhardt because he was a lousy male. Konstanze was a woman—intelligent, repressed, and persecuted. I would automatically take her part.

It was quite true. But there was no need to say so.

“I was also biased,” I continued, “by our modern view of the witchcraft persecution. We know witchcraft was nonsense. The countess’s trial was a repetition of the classic features—the curse, the evil eye, the Black Man who came on cloven hooves to lie with his mistress. Bilge, all of it—familiar from dozens of historical cases, but still bilge.

“But in one sense the witchcraft trials were not nonsense. Many of the victims believed. Most were innocent, forced into false confessions by the agony of the torture. But enough of them went to the stake swearing eternal loyalty to their Dark Master to assure us that the belief was genuine. Witches and warlocks really did try to render cattle and people infertile, cause storms, kill and curse. They failed to do evil, not through lack of intent, but through lack of power. And when supernatural means proved ineffective, they might turn to practical methods. One element in the witchcraft cult was the use of poison.”

Tony’s breath caught.

“One of the oldest and most commonly used poisons is arsenic,” I went on. “It’s mentioned by Roman authors, if I remember correctly, and in the thirteenth century the properties of arsenicum were discussed by no other than Albertus Magnus. We found a copy of his well-known work in the library. I think I know now who owned it….”

I turned to Blankenhagen.