The Legend of Ulenspiegel Volume Ii Part 47

"Monseigneur and Messires," exclaimed Katheline, "he saith he knows me not, but I know him well, I, and know that he hath upon his back a mole, brown, and of the size of a bean. Ah! thou didst love a girl at Heyst! Doth a good lover blush for his lover? Hans, am I not still fair?"

"Fair!" said he, "thou hast a face like a medlar and a body like a century of f.a.ggots: see the trash that would be loved by n.o.ble men! Give me to drink!"

"Thou didst not speak so, Hans, my sweet lord," said she, "when I was sixteen years younger than I am now." Then, beating her head and her breast: "'Tis the fire that is there," said she, "and dries up my heart and withers my face. Do not reproach me with it; dost thou remember when we ate salt meat to drink better, so thou saidst? Now the salt is in us, my beloved, and monseigneur the bailiff is drinking Romagna wine. We do not want wine: give us water. It runs among the gra.s.s, the streamlet that makes the clear spring; the good water, it is cold. Nay, it burns. It is water of h.e.l.l." And Katheline wept, and she said: "I have done ill to no one, and the whole world casteth me into the fire. Give me to drink; men give water to straying dogs. I am a Christian woman. Give me to drink. I have done no ill to any. Give me to drink."

An alderman then spoke and said:

"This witch is mad only in what concerns the fire she saith burns her head, but she is nowise mad upon other matters, since she helped us with a clear head to discover the remains of the dead man. If the mole is there upon the body of Joos Damman, that sign sufficeth to establish his ident.i.ty with the devil Hans, for whom Katheline was out of her wits; tormentor, let us see the mark."

The tormentor, uncovering Damman's neck and shoulder, showed the mole, brown and hairy.

"Ah!" said Katheline, "how white is thy skin! One would say a girl's shoulders; thou art goodly, Hans, my beloved: give me to drink!"

The tormentor then thrust a long needle into the mole. But it did not bleed.

And the aldermen said one to the other:

"This man is a devil, and he must have killed Joos Damman and taken his shape the more securely to deceive the poor world."

And the bailiff and the aldermen fell into fear.

"He is a devil and there is witchcraft in it."

And Joos Damman said:

"Ye know there is no witchcraft, and that there are such fleshy excrescences that can be p.r.i.c.ked without bleeding. If Hilbert hath taken this witch's money, for it is she that confesseth to have lain with the devil, he could well have done so by the good and free will of this foul hag. And was thus, being a man of rank, paid for his caresses even as bona robas are every day. Are there not in the world, the same as girls, gay fellows that make women pay for their strength and comeliness?"

The aldermen said one to another:

"See you his diabolical a.s.surance? His hairy wart hath not bled: being an a.s.sa.s.sin, a devil, and a magician, he would fain pa.s.s simply for a duellist, throwing his other crimes on to the devil his friend, whose body he has killed, but not his spirit.... And consider how pale his face is."--"Thus appear all the devils, red in h.e.l.l, and pale on earth, for they have none of the fire of life that giveth ruddiness to the countenance, and they are ashes within."--"We must put him in the fire that he may be red and that he may burn."

Then said Katheline:

"Yea, he is a devil, but a kind devil, a sweet devil. And Monseigneur Saint Jacques, his patron, has given him licence to come out of h.e.l.l. He prays Monseigneur Jesus for him every day. He will have but seven thousand years of purgatory: Madame Virgin wishes it, but Monsieur Satan is against it. None the less Madame does what she has a mind to. Will he go against her? If ye consider well, ye shall see he hath kept naught of his estate and condition as a devil, save the cold body, and also the face luminous as are the waves of the sea in August when it is like to thunder."

And Joos Damman said:

"Hold thy tongue, witch, thou wilt burn me." Then speaking to the bailiff and the aldermen: "Look at me, I am no devil; I have flesh and bones, blood and water. I drink and eat, digest and void like yourselves; my skin is like yours, my foot likewise; tormentor, take my boots off, for I cannot budge with my feet bound."

The tormentor did so, not without fear.

"Look," said Joos, showing his white feet: "are those cloven feet, devil's feet? As for my paleness, is there none of you that is pale like me? I see more than three among you. But the sinner is not I, but verily this ugly witch, and her daughter, the evil accuser. Whence did she have the money she lent to Hilbert; whence came those florins that she gave him? Was it not the devil that paid her to accuse and bring death to men of n.o.ble birth and guiltless? It is those twain that should be asked who killed the dog in the yard, who dug the hole and went off leaving it empty, doubtless to hide the stolen treasure in another place. Soetkin the widow had placed no trust in me, for she never knew me, but in them, and saw them every day. It is they that stole the Emperor's property."

The clerk wrote, and the bailiff said to Katheline:

"Woman, hast thou naught to say for thy defence?"

Katheline, looking upon Joos Damman, said most amorously:

"It is the hour of the sea-eagle. I have Hilbert's hand, Hans, my beloved. They say that thou wilt give me back the seven hundred carolus. Take away the fire! Take away the fire!" cried she after that. "Give me to drink! to drink! my head burns. G.o.d and the angels are eating apples in the sky."

And she lost consciousness.

"Loosen her from the bench of torment," said the bailiff.

The tormentor and his a.s.sistants obeyed. And she was seen staggering and with feet swollen out, for the tormentor had pulled the cords too tight.

"Give her to drink," said the bailiff.

Cold water was given her, and she swallowed it greedily, holding the goblet in her teeth as a dog does with a bone and not willing to let it go. Then they gave her more water, and she would have gone to take it to Joos Damman, but the tormentor took the goblet out of her hands. And she fell sleeping like a lump of lead.

Joos Damman cried out furiously:

"I, too, I thirst and am sleepy. Why do you give her to drink? Why do you leave her to sleep?"

"She is weak, a woman, and out of her wits," replied the bailiff.

"Her madness is a game," said Joos Damman, "she is a witch. I want to drink, I want to sleep!"

And he shut his eyes, but the tormentor's knechts struck him on the face.

"Give me a knife," he shouted, "till I cut these clowns to pieces: I am a man of rank, and I have never been struck in the face. Water, let me sleep, I am innocent. It was not I that took the seven hundred carolus, it was Hilbert. Give me to drink! I never committed sorceries or incantations. I am innocent. Let me go. Give me to drink!"

The bailiff then:

"How," he asked, "hast thou spent thy time since thou didst leave Katheline?"

"I know not Katheline; I have never left her," said he. "Ye question me on matters foreign to the case. I need not answer you. Give me to drink; let me sleep. I tell you it was Hilbert that did all."

"Untie him," said the bailiff. "Take him back to his prison. But let him thirst and have no sleep until he hath confessed his sorceries and incantations."

And that was a cruel torture to Damman. He cried out in his cell: "Give me to drink! Give me to drink!" so loud that the people heard him, but without any pity. And when his guardians struck him in the face as he was falling with sleep, he was like a tiger and cried:

"I am a man of rank and will kill you, ye clowns. I will go to the king, our head. Give me to drink." But he confessed nothing, and they left him alone.

VI

They were then in May, the lime tree of justice was green; green, too, were the turf seats upon which the judges placed themselves; Nele was called as witness. On this day sentence was to be p.r.o.nounced.

And the people, men, women, townsfolk, and artisans were all round about in the field; and the sun shone bright.

Katheline and Joos Damman were brought before the tribunal; and Damman appeared paler than ever by reason of the torture of the thirst and the nights spent without sleep.

Katheline, who could not maintain herself on her shaking legs, said, pointing to the sun: