The Legend of Ulenspiegel by Charles de Coster Book IV Chapter 4

On the next day the bailiff, the two clerks of the court, two aldermen, and a barber-surgeon went by Dudzeele to see if they might find in the field of Servaes van der Vichte the body of a man along by the dyke running through the field.
Nele had said to Katheline: “Hans, thy darling, asks for the severed hand of Hilbert: this evening he will cry like the sea-eagle; he will come into the cottage, and will bring thee the seven hundred florins carolus.”
Katheline had replied: “I will cut it off.” And indeed, she took a knife and went forth accompanied by Nele and followed by the officers of justice.
She walked swiftly and proudly beside Nele, whose pretty face the keen air made all rosy and glowing.
The officers of justice, old and coughing, followed her, frozen with cold; and they were all like black shadows on the white plain; and Nele carried a spade.
When they arrived in the field of Servaes van der Vichte and on the dyke, Katheline, walking up to the middle of it, said, pointing to the meadow on her right hand: “Hans, thou didst not know that I was hidden there, shivering at the noise of the swords. And Hilbert cried out: ‘This iron is cold.’ Hilbert was ugly; Hans is goodly. Thou shalt have his hand; leave me alone.”
Then she went down on the left hand, knelt in the snow and cried three times into the air to call the spirit.
Nele then gave her the spade, upon which Katheline made the sign of the cross thrice; then she traced upon the ice the shape of a coffin and three crosses reversed, one on the side of the east, one on the side of the west, and one on the south; and she said: “Three, it is Mars beside Saturn, and three is discovery under Venus, the bright star.” She traced after, about the coffin, a great circle, saying: “Begone, evil demon that guardest corpses.” Then falling on her knees in prayer: “Devil friend, Hilbert,” said she, “Hans, my master and lord, bids me come here and cut off thy hand and bring it to him. I owe him obedience: make not the earth-fire to leap out against me, because I disturb thy noble burying place: and forgive me in the name of God and of the Saints.”
Then she broke the ice, following the outline of the coffin: she came to the damp sword, then to the sandy soil, and monseigneur the bailiff, his officers, Nele, and Katheline beheld the body of a young man, chalk-white by reason of the soil. He was clad in a doublet of gray cloth with a cloak of the same; his sword was laid by his side. At his belt he had a chain purse, and a big poignard planted under his heart; and there was blood upon the cloth of the doublet; and that blood had flowed under his back. And the man was young.
Katheline cut off his hand and put it in her pouch. And the bailiff let her do what she would, then bade her to strip the body of all its insignia and clothing. Katheline having asked if Hans had thus commanded, the bailiff replied that he did nothing save by his orders; and Katheline then did what he wished.
When the body was stripped, it was seen to be dry as wood, but not decayed: and the bailiff and the officers of the commune departed, having covered it again with sand: and the constables carried the cloth.
Passing the front of the prison of the commune, the bailiff said to Katheline that Hans was awaiting her there; she went in joyously.
Nele wanted to prevent her, and Katheline always replied: “I would see Hans, my lord.”
And Nele wept on the threshold, knowing that Katheline was arrested as a witch for the conjurations and figures she had made upon the snow.
And in Damme men said there could be no pardon for her.
And Katheline was put in the western cellar of the prison.