"On Wednesday, after vespers, the suffering of the sick person became so great, that they hastened to fetch the Dean, for if she did not obtain help, she would be torn to a thousand pieces by the evil one. When the said Dean, and some of us arrived, we found such a wretched state of things as will be present to us all our lives; for although the more than miserable woman was extended on the ground, on a wretched little bed, fastened by two chains so that she could not move hand or foot, and had also two men holding her arms whilst her brother sat astride on her legs, and some women on her body, thinking thus effectually to hold her down, yet all was of no avail. The evil spirit reared himself up, and raised all that were over him in such a manner, that any one could have slipped under her back. But the most horrible of all was, that the evil spirit raised himself up between the skin and the flesh, in the form of a great adder or serpent, so that we could see and lay hold of him. Swiftly as by nature they glide along the earth, so did he glide backwards and forwards in the body; at one moment into the head, afterwards into one arm, then into the other, or suddenly into the feet; and when in the body, it became hot, as if burning with pure fire; finally the evil one glided into the heart, which swelled up like a twopenny loaf, and crept and coiled himself round it, just as a viper does round a tree; he shook and squeezed her heart together, so that it began to crack, and we one and all thought that the fierce and infuriated spirit would have entirely suffocated and destroyed her, for in her whole body not the smallest vein could stir. The Dean cried out and called continually upon God in heaven. Meanwhile they opened her mouth with a spoon, but for a long time she showed no signs of life, till they poured something down her throat; then her heart began to beat again. That was a great comfort to us, and we all did our best to revive her, till she came a little to herself. Then the Dean commanded that they should cut her hair clean off her head, for it was all overrun with blood; he ordered also that the women should wash her clean with lye, and said he would return again forthwith.