The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Volume 2 (of 2)

by Charles de Coster

  "When men go to the stake, they carry a tallow candle on the waythither; would you like to have one now?"

  "Drink up!" said Ulenspiegel.

  "Drink up," said the seven.

  Said Gilline:

  "Ulenspiegel has eyes shining like a swan about to die."

  "Suppose they were given to the pigs to eat?" said the Stevenyne.

  "That would be a feast of lanterns; drink up!" said Ulenspiegel.

  "Would you like," said the Stevenyne, "when you are on the scaffold,to have your tongue thrust through with a red-hot iron?"

  "It would be the better of that for whistling; drink up," answeredUlenspiegel.

  "You would talk less if you were hanged," said the Stevenyne, "andyour darling might come to look at you."

  "Aye," said Ulenspiegel, "but I should weigh heavier, and would fallon your lovely muzzle: drink up!"

  "What would you say if you were beaten with cudgels, branded on theforehead and on the shoulder?"

  "I would say they had made a mistake in the meat," replied Ulenspiegel,"and that instead of roasting the sow Stevenyne, they had scaldedthe young porker Ulenspiegel: drink up!"

  "Since you do not like any of these," said the Stevenyne, "you shall betaken on to the king's ships, and there condemned to be torn asunderby four galleys."

  "Then," said Ulenspiegel, "the sharks will have my four quarters,and you shall eat what they reject: drink up!"

  "Why do you not eat one of these candles," said she, "they wouldserve you in hell to light your eternal damnation."

  "I see clear enough to behold your shiny snout, O ill-scalded sow,drink up!" said Ulenspiegel.

  Suddenly he struck the foot of the glass on the table, imitating withhis hands the noise an upholsterer makes beating rhythmically thewool of a mattress upon a frame of sticks, but very gently, and saying:

  "'Tis (tydt) van te beven de klinkaert" (it is time to make theclinker shiver--the glass that rings).

  This is in Flanders the signal for the angry outbreak of drinkersand for the sacking of houses with the red lantern.

  Ulenspiegel drank, then made the glass quiver on the table, saying:

  "'Tis van te beven de klinkaert."

  And the seven imitated him.

  All kept very still. Gilline grew pale, the Stevenyne appearedastonished. The catchpolls said:

  "Are the seven on their side?"

  But the butchers, winking, reassured them, at the same time continuallyrepeating in louder and louder tones with Ulenspiegel:

  "'Tis van te beven de klinkaert; 'tis van te beven de klinkaert."

  The Stevenyne drank to give herself courage.

  Ulenspiegel then struck the table with his fist, with the rhythmand measure of upholsterers beating mattresses; the seven did as hedid; glasses, jugs, bowls, quart pots, and goblets came slowly intothe dance, overturning, breaking, rising on one side to fall on theother; and still there rang out more threatening, sombre, warlike,and in monotone: "'Tis van te beven de klinkaert."

  "Alas!" said the Stevenyne, "they are going to smash everything here."

  And in her fear her two tusks stuck farther still out of her mouth.

  And the blood lit up with wrath and fury in the minds of the sevenand Lamme and Ulenspiegel.

  Then without stopping their monotonous threatening chant all the menat Ulenspiegel's table took their glasses, and breaking them on thetable, keeping time together, they got astride their chairs and drewtheir cutlasses. And they made such a din with their song that all thewindow-panes in the house were quaking. Then like a ring of devils theywent round about the chamber and all the tables, saying continually:"'Tis van te beven de klinkaert."

  And the catchpolls then rose up quaking with terror, and took out theirropes and chains. But the butchers, Ulenspiegel, and Lamme, thrustingtheir cutlasses back into their sheaths, got up, seized their chairs,and brandishing them like cudgels, they ran nimbly through the roomhither and thither, striking right and left, sparing only the girls,smashing all the rest, furniture, windows, chests, dishes, quart pots,bowls, glasses, and flasks, beating the catchpolls without pity andalways singing to the time of the sound of the upholsterer beatingmattresses: "'Tis van te beven de klinkaert; "'tis van te beven deklinkaert," while Ulenspiegel had given a blow on the face with hisfist to the Stevenyne, had taken her keys from her bag, and by forcemade her eat her candles.

  The beauteous Gilline, tearing at the doors, the shutters, the windows,and the glass panes with her nails, seemed to want to scratch herway through everything, like a terrified cat. Then, all livid, shecrouched down in a corner, with haggard eyes, showing her teeth,and holding her viol as if she must needs protect it at all costs.

  The seven and Lamme said to the girls: "We will do you no hurt";with their help tied up with their own chains and cords the catchpollsshivering in their shoes and not daring to resist, for they perceivedthat the butchers, picked out among the strongest by the baes of theBee, would have chopped them to pieces with their cutlasses.

  At every candle he made the Stevenyne eat Ulenspiegel said:

  "This is for the hanging; that for the cudgelling; this other forthe branding; this fourth for my pierced tongue; these two excellentand extra fat ones for the king's ships and the quartering by fourgalleys; this for your den of spies; that one for your damsel in thebrocade dress, and all these others just to please me."

  And the girls laughed to see the Stevenyne sneezing with anger andtrying to spit out her candles. But in vain, for she had her mouthtoo full of them.

  Ulenspiegel, Lamme, and the seven never ceased singing in time withone another: "'Tis van te beven de klinkaert."

  Then Ulenspiegel stopped, making sign to them to murmur the refrainsoftly. They did so while he held this conversation with the girlsand the catchpolls:

  "If any one of you cries for help, he will be cut down immediately."

  "Cut down!" said the butchers.

  "We will hold our tongues," said the girls, "do not hurt us,Ulenspiegel."

  But Gilline, huddled in her corner, her eyes starting out of her head,her teeth out of her mouth, could not speak, and clasped her violtightly to her.

  And the seven still were murmuring: "'Tis van te beven deklinkaert!" in measure.

  The Stevenyne, pointing to the candles she had in her mouth, madesigns that she would hold her tongue likewise. The catchpolls promisedthe same.

  Ulenspiegel continued his discourse:

  "Ye are here," said he, "in our power; the night has fallen, we arenear the Lys where you drown easily if you are thrust in. The gatesof Courtrai are closed. If the night watch have heard the uproar,they will never budge, being too lazy and thinking it is simply goodFlemish folk who as they drink are singing merrily to the sound ofpots and flasks. Wherefore stay ye still, both men and girls, beforeyour masters."

  Then, speaking to the seven:

  "Are you going to Peteghem to find the Beggars?"

  "We made ready for this at the news of thy coming."

  "From thence ye will go to the sea?"

  "Aye," said they.

  "Do you know among these catchpolls one or two that might be let goto serve us?"

  "Two," said they, "Niklaes and Joos, who never hunted down the poorReformed folk."

  "We are faithful!" said Niklaes and Joos.

  Then Ulenspiegel said:

  "Here are twenty florins carolus for you, twice more than you wouldhave had if ye had taken the vile reward of the informer."

  Suddenly the five others exclaimed:

  "Twenty florins! We will serve the prince for twenty florins. The kingpays ill. Give each of us the half; we will tell the judge whateveryou wish."

  The butchers and Lamme murmured low:

  "'Tis van te beven de klinkaert; 'tis van te beven de klinkaert."

  "So that ye may not talk too much," said Ulenspiegel, "the seven willbring you bound as far as Peteghem, to the Beggars. Ye shall have tenflorins when ye are on the sea; we shall be certain till then t
hatthe camp victual will keep you faithful to bread and soup. If ye arevaliant men, ye shall have your share in the booty taken. If ye tryto desert, ye shall be hanged. If ye escape, thus avoiding the rope,ye shall find the knife."

  "We serve who pays us," said they.

  "'Tis van te beven de klinkaert! 'Tis van te beven de klinkaert!" saidLamme and the seven striking upon the table with shards of brokenpots and glasses.

  "Ye shall take with you also," said Ulenspiegel, "Gilline, theStevenyne, and the three damsels. If one of them tries to escape,ye shall sew her up in a sack and throw her into the river."

  "He has not killed me," said Gilline, leaping out from her corner,and brandishing her viol in the air. And she sang:

  "Of blood was all my dream The dream so near my heart, Of Eve the child I seem, Of Satan, too, a part."

  The Stevenyne and the others were like to weep.

  "Fear nothing, darlings," said Ulenspiegel, "you are so soft andsweet, that everywhere they will love you, feast you, and caressyou. At every war capture ye shall have your share in the booty."

  "They will give nothing to me, for I am an old woman," wept theStevenyne.

  "A sou a day, crocodile," said Ulenspiegel, "for thou shalt beserving woman to these four beauteous damsels; thou shalt wash theirpetticoats, blankets, and chemises."

  "I, Lord God!" said she.

  Ulenspiegel replied:

  "Thou hast ruled them long, living on the earnings of their bodiesand leaving them poor and hungry. Thou mayst whine and bellow, itshall be as I have said."

  Thereupon the four girls began to laugh and mock at the Stevenyne,and say to her, putting out their tongues:

  "To each her turn in this world. Who would have said it of Stevenynethe miser? She shall work for us as a servant. Blessed be the lordUlenspiegel!"

  Then the three turned to Gilline:

  "Thou wast her daughter, her support; thou didst share with her thefruits of thy foul spydom. Wilt thou ever dare again to strike andinsult us with thy brocade dress? Thou didst scorn us because wewere but fustian. Thou art clothed so richly only with the blood ofvictims. Let us take her dress so that she may be even like ourselves."

  "I will not have it," said Ulenspiegel.

  And Gilline, leaping on his neck, said:

  "Blessed be thou that hast not killed me, and wouldst not haveme ugly!"

  And the girls, jealous, looked at Ulenspiegel, and said:

  "He has lost his wits for her like all the men."

  Gilline sang to her viol.

  The seven set out towards Peteghem, taking with them the catchpolls andthe girls along by the Lys. As they went on their way they murmured:

  "'T is van te beven de klinkaert; 't is van te beven de klinkaert!"

  As the sun was rising they came to the camp, sang like the lark, andthe clarion of the cock made them answer. The girls and the catchpollswere closely guarded. For all that, on the third day Gilline was founddead, her heart pierced through with a great needle. The Stevenyne wasaccused by the three girls and brought before the captain of the band,his dizeniers and sergeants formed into a tribunal. There, withouttheir having to put her to the torture, she confessed that she hadkilled Gilline through jealousy of her beauty and rage because thedamsel treated her as her servant pitilessly. And the Stevenyne washanged, and afterwards buried in the wood.

  Gilline, too, was buried, and the prayers for the dead were saidabove her sweet body.

  Meanwhile, the two catchpolls instructed by Ulenspiegel had gone beforethe castellan of Courtray, for the tumult, uproar, and pillage made inthe Stevenyne's house must needs be punished by the said castellan, asthe Stevenyne's house was in the castle ward, outside the jurisdictionof the town of Courtray. After having narrated to the lord castellanwhat had taken place, they told him with great conviction and humblesincerity of language:

  "The murderers of the preachers are in no wise Ulenspiegel andhis trusty and well-beloved Lamme Goedzak, who went to the Rainbowpurely for their repose and refreshment. They even have passes fromthe duke, and we have seen these ourselves. The real culprits are twoGhent merchants, one a lean man and the other very fat, who went awaytowards France, after breaking everything at Stevenyne's, taking heraway with her four girls along with them for their pleasure. We hadthem well and duly taken prisoners, but there were in the house sevenbutchers, the strongest in the town, who took their side. They tiedus all up and only let us go when they were far away on the Frenchsoil. And here are the marks of the ropes. The four other catchpollsare on their tracks, waiting for a reinforcement to lay hands on them."

  The castellan gave each of them two carolus and a new coat for theirloyal services.

  He then wrote to the Council of Flanders, to the Sheriff's Court atCourtray, and to other courts of justice to announce to them thatthe real murderers had been discovered.

  And he recounted to them the whole adventure in detail and at length.

  Whereat the people of the Council of Flanders and the other courtsof justice shuddered.

  And the castellan was greatly praised for his perspicacity.

  And Ulenspiegel and Lamme journeyed in peace upon the road fromPeteghem to Ghent, along the Lys, wishing to arrive at Bruges, whereLamme hoped to find his wife, and at Damme, where Ulenspiegel, alla-dream, would have wished to be already, to see Nele, who lived insadness with Katheline the madwife.

  XXXVI

  During a long while, in the country of Damme and round about, therehad been committed several abominable crimes. Lasses, young men, oldmen, who had been known to go forth carrying money in the direction ofBruges, Ghent, or some other town or village of Flanders, were founddead, naked as worms and bitten in the back of the neck by teeth solong and so sharp that they all had the bones of their necks broken.

  Physicians and barber-surgeons declared that these were the teeth ofa huge wolf. "Robbers," said they, "had doubtless come up, after thewolf, and had stripped the victims."

  Despite all search, no man could ever discover who were therobbers. Soon the wolf was forgotten.

  Several townsmen of note, who had proudly set forth on their waywithout an escort, disappeared without any one knowing what hadbecome of them, save that at times some country fellow, going outin the morning to plough the earth, found wolf tracks in his field,while his dog, digging in the furrows with his paws, brought tolight a poor dead corpse carrying the marks of the wolf's teeth onthe nape or under the ear, and oftentimes on the leg, too, and alwaysbehind. And always the neckbone and legbone were broken.

  The peasant, affrighted, would go off at once to give information tothe bailiff, who would come with the clerk of the court, two aldermen,and two surgeons to the place where lay the body of the murderedman. Having visited it diligently and carefully, having sometimes whenthe face was not eaten by worms recognized its quality, even its nameand lineage, they were nevertheless always astonied that the wolf,a beast that kills for hunger, should not have carried off some partof the dead man.

  And the folk of Damme were sore terrified, and no woman dared to goout by night without an escort.

  Now it came that several valiant soldiers were sent out to look forthe wolf, with orders to hunt for it day and night in the dunes,along by the sea.

  They were then near Heyst, among the great dunes. Night had come. Oneof them, confident in his strength, wanted to leave them to go alone onthe hunt, armed with a musket. The others allowed him, certain that,valiant and armed as he was, he would kill the wolf if he dared toshow himself.

  Their comrade having gone, they lit a fire and played at dice whiledrinking brandy out of their flasks.

  And from time to time they called out:

  "Now, then, comrade, come back; the wolf is afraid; come and drink!"

  And he made no answer.

  Suddenly, hearing a great cry as of a man that is at the point ofdeath, they ran in the direction whence the cry came, saying:

  "Hold on, we are coming to the rescue!"

  But they
were long before they found their comrade, for some said thecry came from the valley, others that it came from the highest dune.

  At length, when they had well searched dune and valley with theirlanterns, they found their comrade bitten in the leg and in the arm,from behind, and his neck broken like the other victims.

  Lying on his back, he was holding his sword in his clenched fist;his musket was on the sand. By his side were three severed fingers,which they carried off, and which were not his fingers. His pouchhad been taken.

  They took up on their shoulders their comrade's body, his good sword,and his gallant musket, and grieved and angry, they carried the corpseto the bailiff's where the bailiff received them in the company ofthe clerk of the court, two aldermen, and two surgeons.

  The severed fingers were examined and recognized as the fingers ofan old man, who was no worker at any trade, for the fingers werelong and tapering, and the nails were long as the nails of lawyersand churchmen.

  Next day the bailiff, the aldermen, the clerk, the surgeons, and thesoldiers went to the place where the poor slain man had been bitten,and saw that there were drops of blood upon the grass and footmarksthat went as far as the sea, where they ceased.

  XXXVII

  It was at the time of the ripened grapes, in the wine month and thefourth day of it, when in the city of Brussels they throw, from thetop of the tower of Saint Nicholas after high mass, bags of walnutsdown to the people.