The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 10

"I'll make 'em pay--I'll make 'em pay for their Ma.s.ses for the dead!"

"What Ma.s.ses are those you speak of?" Nele inquired. "And who is to pay for them?"

Ulenspiegel answered:

"All the deans, cures, clerks, beadles and the rest, both superior and inferior, who feed us with their trash. See now, if I had happened to be a strong working man they would have robbed me of the value of three years' labour by making me thus to go on this pilgrimage. But as things are, it is the poor Claes who pays. Ah, but they shall give me back my three years a hundredfold, and with their own money I myself will sing for them their Ma.s.ses for the dead!"

"Alas, Tyl!" said Nele, "be prudent, or they will have you burnt alive."

"I am fireproof," answered Ulenspiegel.

And they parted from one another, she all in tears, he heart-broken and angry.

XXIV

Once in the open country, Ulenspiegel shook himself like a dog, or like a bird that has regained its liberty, and his heart was cheered by the trees and fields and the bright suns.h.i.+ne.

When he had walked on thus for three days he came to the outskirts of Brussels, and to the wealthy towns.h.i.+p of Uccle. And there, pa.s.sing in front of the inn with the sign of the Trumpet, his attention was drawn to a most heavenly odour of frica.s.see. A little urchin who stood by was also sniffing the delightful perfume of the sauce, and Ulenspiegel asked him in whose honour it was that there rose to heaven such odour of festal incense. The boy made answer that the Guild of the Jolly Face was to meet at the inn that evening after vespers, to celebrate the deliverance of the town by the women and girls of olden time.

Now in the distance Ulenspiegel saw a high pole with a popinjay on the top of it, and the pole was set in the ground, and round it were a company of women armed with bows and arrows. He asked the boy if women were become archers nowadays?

The boy, still sniffing greedily the savour of the sauces, replied that in the days of the Good Duke the very bows that were now being used by those women had been the means of killing over a hundred brigands.

Ulenspiegel desired to know further concerning this matter, but the boy said that he could tell no more, so hungry was he, unless forsooth Ulenspiegel would give him a patard with which he might buy food and drink. This Ulenspiegel did, for he felt sorry for him.

No sooner had the boy received the patard than he rushed into the tavern like a fox to the hen-house, and presently reappeared in triumph with half a sausage and a large loaf of bread.

And now Ulenspiegel was suddenly aware of a sweet sound of viols and tabors, and soon he saw a number of women dancing together, and among them a woman of great beauty with a chain of gold hanging round her neck.

The boy, who had by this time a.s.suaged his hunger and was grinning with delight, informed Ulenspiegel that the beautiful woman was the Queen of Archery, that her name was Mietje, and that she was wife to Messire Renonckel, alderman of the parish. Then he asked Ulenspiegel to give him six liards for a drink. Ulenspiegel gave him the money, and when he had thus eaten and drunk his fill the urchin sat himself down in the sun and fell to picking his teeth with his nails.

When the women archers noticed Ulenspiegel standing there in his pilgrim's habit, they came and began to dance round him in a ring, crying:

"Hail pilgrim, hail! Do you come from far away, you handsome pilgrim boy?"

Ulenspiegel, thinking sadly of Nele, thus made answer:

"I come from Flanders, a lovely land and filled with lovesome girls."

"What crime have you committed?" asked the women, stopping in their dance.

"I dare not confess it, so great it was," said he.

They asked him the reason why it was needful for him to journey thus with a pilgrim's staff and wallet, and those scalloped oysters that are the sign of the pilgrim.

"The reason is," he replied, not quite truthfully, "that I said that Ma.s.ses for the dead are advantageous to the priests."

"True, they bring many a sounding denier to the priests," they answered; "but are they not also of advantage to the souls in purgatory!"

"I have never been there," answered Ulenspiegel.

"Will you come dine with us?" said the prettiest of the archers.

"Willingly would I dine with you," said he, "and dine off you into the bargain! You and all your companions in turn, for you are morsels fit for a king, more delicate to swallow than any ortolan or thrush or snipe!"

"Nay," they answered, "but we are not for sale."

"Then perhaps you will give?" he asked them.

"Yea, verily," they laughed, "a good box on the ear to such as are too bold. And if needs were we would beat you now like a bundle of corn!"

"Thank you," he said, "I will go without the beating."

"Well then," they said, "come in to dinner."

So he followed them into the inn yard, glad for their fresh young faces. And thereafter he saw the Brethren of the Jolly Face themselves, who were now entering the yard with great ceremony, and by their own jolly appearance living up most conspicuously to the name of their Guild.

They scrutinized Ulenspiegel with some curiosity, till one of the women informed them who he was--a pilgrim they had picked up on the road, and whom, being a good red-face like unto their husbands and their sweethearts, they had invited to share in the entertainment. The men were agreeable to this proposal, and one of them addressed himself to Ulenspiegel:

"Pilgrim on pilgrimage, what say you now to continuing your pilgrimage across some sauce and frica.s.see?"

"I shall have need of my seven-league boots," answered Ulenspiegel.

Now as he was following them into the festal hall, he noticed twelve blind men coming along the Paris road. And as they pa.s.sed they were lamenting most piteously their hunger and thirst. But Ulenspiegel said to himself that they should dine that night like kings, and all at the expense of the Dean of Uccle himself, and in memory of the Ma.s.ses for the dead.

He accosted them, saying:

"Here are nine florins for you. Come in to dinner. Do you not smell the good smell of frica.s.see?"

"Ah!" they cried, "for the last half-league, and without hope!"

"Now you can eat your fill," said Ulenspiegel, "for you have nine florins."

But he had not really given them anything.

"The Lord bless you," they said. For being blind, each man believed his neighbour had been given the money. And shown the way by Ulenspiegel, they all sat down at a small table while the Brethren of the Jolly Face took their seats at a long one, together with their wives and their daughters.

Then, with the complete a.s.surance that comes from the possession of nine florins:

"Mine host," cried the blind men insolently, "give us now to eat and to drink of your best."

The landlord, who had heard tell of the nine florins and thought that they were safe in the blind men's purse, asked them what they would like for their dinner.