The Legend of Ulenspiegel Volume Ii Part 55

"Three hundred Walloon soldiers have been hanged in the marketplace,"

said they. "It will soon be your turn. There was always a matrimony between the Beggars and the Gallows."

The next night they came again with their bread for six men.

"Four high burgesses," said they, "have been beheaded. Two hundred and forty-nine soldiers have been bound together two by two and cast into the sea. The crabs will be fat this year. You do not look well, you folk, since the seventh of July that saw you come here. They are gluttons and drunkards, these dwellers in the Low Countries; we Spaniards, we have enough with two figs for our supper."

"That is why, then," replied Ulenspiegel, "you must needs, everywhere in the townsfolks' houses, have four meals of meats, poultry, creams, wines, and preserves; that ye must have milk to wash the bodies of your mustachos and wine to bathe your horses' feet?"

On the eighteenth of July, Nele said:

"My feet are wet; what is this?"

"Blood," said Ulenspiegel.

At night the soldiers came again with their bread for six.

"Where the rope is no longer enough," said they, "the sword does the work. Three hundred soldiers and twenty-seven burghers who tried to flee out of the town are now walking about the streets of h.e.l.l with their heads in their hands."

The next day the blood came again into the cloister; the soldiers came not to bring the bread, but merely to contemplate the prisoners, saying:

"The five hundred Walloons, Englishmen, and Scotsmen that were beheaded yesterday looked better. These are hungry, no doubt, but who then should die of hunger if not the Beggar!"

And indeed, they were like phantoms, all pale, haggard, broken, trembling with cold ague.

On the sixteenth of August, at five in the evening, the soldiers came in laughing and gave them bread, cheese, and beer. Lamme said:

"It is the feast of death."

At ten o'clock four companies came; the captains had the doors of the cloister opened, ordering the prisoners to march four abreast behind fifes and drums, to the place where they would be told to halt. Certain streets were red, and they marched towards the Gallows Field.

Here and there shallow pools of blood defiled the meadows; there was blood all about the walls. The ravens came in clouds on every hand; the sun hid in a bed of mists; the sky was still clear, and in its depths awoke the shy stars. Suddenly they heard lamentable howlings.

The soldiers said:

"They that are crying there are the Beggars of the Fuycke Fort, without the town; they are being left to die of hunger."

"We, too," said Nele, "we are going to die." And she wept.

"The ashes beat upon my heart," said Ulenspiegel.

"Ah!" said Lamme in Flemish--for the soldiers of the escort understood not that proud speech--"Ah!" said Lamme, "if I could catch that duke of blood and make him eat, until his skin burst, each and all ropes, gallows, torture benches, wooden horses, weights, and boots; if I could make him drink the blood he has shed, if there came out of his torn skin and opened bowels splinters of wood and pieces of iron, and still he did not give up the ghost, I would tear out his heart from his breast and make him eat it raw and poisoned. Then for certain would he fall from life to death into the sulphur pit, where may the devil make him eat it and eat it again without ceasing. And thus through all long eternity."

"Amen," said Ulenspiegel and Nele.

"But dost thou see naught?" said she.

"Nay," said he.

"I see in the west," she said, "five men and two women seated in a circle. One is clad in purple and wears a crown of gold. He seems the chief over the rest, all ragged and tattered. I see from the east another band of seven coming: one commands them also who is clad in purple, without a crown. And they come against those of the west. And they fight against them in the clouds, but I see nothing more now."

"The Seven," said Ulenspiegel.

"I hear," said Nele, "near by us in the foliage, a voice like a breath of wind saying:

"By war and fire By pikes and swords Seek; In death and blood Ruins and tears.

Find."

"Others than we shall deliver the land of Flanders," replied Ulenspiegel. "Night grows black, the soldiers are lighting torches. We are near the Gallows Field. O sweet beloved, why didst thou follow me? Dost thou hear nothing more, Nele?"

"Aye," said she, "a noise of arms among the corn. And there, above that ridge, surmounting the way in which we are entering, seest thou the red light of the torches gleam upon steel? I see sparks of fire gleaming upon the matches of arquebuses. Are our guardians asleep, or are they blind? Dost thou hear that clap of thunder? Seest thou the Spaniards fall pierced with bullets? Hearest thou 'Long live the Beggar!'? They climb the path running, musket in hand; they come down with axes all along the slope. Long live the Beggar!"

"Long live the Beggar!" cry Lamme and Ulenspiegel.

"Lo," said Nele, "here are soldiers that give us arms. Take, Lamme, take, my beloved. Long live the Beggar!"

"Long live the Beggar!" cry the whole troop of prisoners.

"The arquebuses cease not from firing," said Nele, "they fall like flies, lit up as they are by the light of the torches. Long live the Beggars!"

"Long live the Beggar!" cry the band of rescuers.

"Long live the Beggar!" cry Ulenspiegel and the prisoners. "The Spaniards are in a ring of fire. Kill! kill! There is not one left on his feet. Kill! no pity, war without mercy. And now let us be off and run to Enckhuyse. Who hath the butchers' clothes of cloth and silk? Who hath their weapons?"

"All! all!" they cry. "Long live the Beggar!"

And indeed, they went off for Enckhuyse by boat, and there the Germans delivered with them remained to guard the town.

And Lamme, Nele, and Ulenspiegel found their s.h.i.+ps again. And lo once more they are singing upon the free sea: "Long live the Beggar!"

And they cruise in the roadstead of Flessingue.

XIII

There once again was Lamme joyous. He was always ready to go on sh.o.r.e, hunting oxen, sheep, and fowl like hares, stags, and ortolans.

And he was not alone in this nouris.h.i.+ng hunting. Good was it then to see the huntsmen return, Lamme at their head, dragging the big beasts by the horns, driving the small cattle before them, directing flocks of geese with long wands, and carrying slung from their boathooks hens, pullets, and capons in spite of their struggling.

Then it was revel and feasting on the s.h.i.+ps. And Lamme would say: "The fragrance of the sauces mounts up to the very sky, there delighting their wors.h.i.+ps the angels, which say: ''Tis the best part of the meat'."

While they were cruising there came a fleet of merchantmen from Lisbon, whose commander knew not that Flessingue had fallen into the hands of the Beggars. It is ordered to cast anchor; it is hemmed round. Long live the Beggar! Drums and fifes sound the signal for boarding; the merchants have guns, pikes, hatchets, arquebuses.

Musket b.a.l.l.s and cannon b.a.l.l.s rain from the s.h.i.+ps of the Beggars. Their musketeers, entrenched round about the main mast in their wooden forts, fire with deadly aim, without any danger. The merchants fall like flies.