it seemed the pyres of the witches were burning from one end of europe to the other , and so i had been sent out early from my studies to accompany junius paulus keppelmeister , our old witch scholar , on his travels throughout europe , and he had only just begun to show to me his few poor methods of trying to save the witches , by defending them where he could and inclining them in private to name as accomplices their accusers as well as the wives of the most prominent citizens of the town so the entire investigation might be discredited , and the original charges be thrown out .