The Servant Girl Who Came Back from the Bier

Jan Jiří Harant of Polžice relates in his memoirs: in 1625, on the Monday of Saint Michael's day, in Prague in Široká Street, a baker's servant girl lay ill of the plague, and as she lay behind the stove it seemed that she had died; the master therefore sent for her to be carried out for burial. But when they were laying her on the bier and her head hung down over it, she raised her head; then they sat her up and brought her into the room, and she told strange things. She said she had seen the beheaded lords in heaven, clothed in white robes and holding green palms in their hands, and others, such as the imperial magistrate, hanging in hell by their spurs; and what a great sin it is when someone goes over to another faith, for such people go to hell. For this she was taken to the gaol.