The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 50

"I am poor. Leave me alone."

Then, since he would not say anything of his own free will, he was condemned to be tortured until he should confess how he had committed the murders, whence he came, and where he had hidden the remains of the victims and their money.

So now he was brought to the torture chamber, and on his feet were put the iron shoes of torture, and the bailiff asked him how it was that Satan had inspired him with designs so black and crimes so abominable. Then at last he made answer:

"Satan is myself, my essential nature. Even as a child, ugly as I was and unskilled in all bodily exercises, I was regarded as a simpleton by every one and was continually being beaten. Neither girl nor boy had any pity for me, and as I grew up no woman would have anything to do with me, not even for payment. So I conceived a hatred for the whole human race, and for this reason I betrayed the man Claes who was beloved by all. Thereafter I was attracted more than ever by the idea of living like a wolf, and I dreamed of tearing flesh with my teeth. And I killed two wolves in the woods of Raveschoet and Maldeghem, and I sewed together their two skins as a covering. And by day and by night I wandered along the sand-dunes, and especially on Sat.u.r.days--the day of the market at Bruges."

Then the bailiff said:

"Repent and pray to G.o.d."

But the fishmonger blasphemed, saying:

"It is G.o.d himself who willed me to be as I am. I did all in spite of myself, led on by the will of nature. Evil tigers that you are, you will punish me unjustly."

But he was condemned to die the death, and Toria cried aloud: "Justice is done. He shall pay the penalty."

And all the people cried:

"Lang leve de Heeren van de wet!--Long live the Officers of the Law!"

The next morning at early dawn, as they were bringing him to the place of punishment, he saw Ulenspiegel standing near the pile and he pointed his finger at him, crying:

"There is a man who ought to die no less than I. For ten years ago it was that he threw me into the Damme ca.n.a.l because I had denounced his father. But in that I had acted as a loyal subject to His Most Catholic Majesty."

And the bells of Notre Dame tolled for the dead.

"For you also the bells are tolling," said he to Ulenspiegel. "You will be hanged. For you have committed murder."

"Is this true?" demanded the bailiff.

Ulenspiegel answered:

"I threw into the water the man who denounced Claes and was the cause of his death. The ashes of my father beat upon my heart."

And the women that were in the crowd said to him:

"Why confess it, Ulenspiegel? No one saw the deed. But now you also will die the death."

And the prisoner laughed aloud, leaping in the air with a bitter joy.

"He will die," he said. "He will leave this earth for h.e.l.l. He will die. G.o.d is just."

"He shall not die," said the bailiff, "for after the lapse of ten years no murderer can lawfully be brought to punishment in the land of Flanders. Ulenspiegel did a wicked act, but it was done for love of his father: and for such a deed as that Ulenspiegel shall not be summoned to trial."

"Long live the law!" cried the crowd. "Lang leve de wet!"

And the bells of Notre Dame tolled for the dead. And the prisoner ground his teeth and hung his head, and now for the first time he let fall a tear. And his hand was cut off and his tongue pierced with a red-hot iron, and he was burned alive in a slow fire in front of the Town Hall.

And Toria cried out:

"He is paying the penalty! He is paying the penalty! See how they writhe--those arms and those legs which helped him to his murdering! See how it smokes, the body of this brute! Burning is the hair of him, all pallid like the hair of a hyena, and burning is his pallid face. He pays! He pays!"

And the fishmonger died, howling like a wolf.

And the bells of Notre Dame tolled for the dead.

And once more did Lamme and Ulenspiegel ride away on their donkeys. And Nele stayed behind in sorrow with Katheline, who never stopped her ceaseless refrain:

"Put out the fire! My head is burning! Come back, come back to me, Hanske, my pet."

XXVII

Ulenspiegel and Lamme had come to Heyst-on-the-Dunes, and behold a fleet of fis.h.i.+ng-boats that were come hither from Ostend and from Blankenberghe and Knokke. Filled they were with men-at-arms, the followers of the Beggarmen of Zeeland, who carried on their hats a silver crescent with this inscription: "Serve rather the Turk than the Pope."

Ulenspiegel is glad; he whistles like the lark and from every side there comes to answer him the warlike c.o.c.kcrow. And Lamme and Ulenspiegel go aboard one of the s.h.i.+ps and are carried to Emden and thence to Wieringen, where their s.h.i.+p is hemmed in by the ice. For by now it is the month of February.

Now all around the s.h.i.+p there was to be seen the most joyous sight imaginable: men all clad in velvet, sledging and skating on the ice; and women skating too, with skirts and jackets broidered with pearl and gold, blue and scarlet. And the boys and girls came and went hither and thither, laughing and following one another in line, or two by two in couples, singing the song of love upon the ice, and running to eat and drink at the stalls decorated with flags, where one could buy all kinds of brandy-wine and oranges and figs and eggs and hot vegetables with heete-koeken--pancakes, that is, with vegetables flavoured with vinegar. And all around them the sailing sledges made the ice to resound under the press of their sharp runners.

Lamme, who was still searching everywhere for his wife, wandered about on his skates like the rest of that happy crowd, but he kept falling down time and again.

Ulenspiegel, meanwhile, to satisfy his hunger and thirst, was wont to resort to a little tavern on the quay where the prices were not high, and where he used to have many a talk with the old lady who kept it.

One Sunday about nine o'clock he went to the inn and asked them to give him some dinner. A charming-looking young woman came forward to serve him.

"Dear me," he cried, "you rejuvenated hostess! Where-ever are those old wrinkles of yours gone to? And your mouth has found all its teeth again, and they are white with the whiteness of youth itself! And your lips are red like cherries! Is it for me this smile of yours so sweet and roguish?"

"Nay, nay," she said. "But what can I get you?"

"Yourself," he said.

The woman answered:

"That would be too big a meal for a lean little man like you. Will not some other kind of meat do for you?"

When Ulenspiegel made no answer:

"What have you done," she said, "with that handsome, well-set-up, but rather corpulent gentleman I have so often seen in your company?"

"Do you mean Lamme?" queried Ulenspiegel.

"Yes. What have you done with him?" she repeated.