The Legend of Ulenspiegel Volume Ii Part 60

"The North Sea is swollen: 'tis the hour of the flood tide; the high waves rolling into the Zuyderzee break up the ice, which splinters in great fragments and leaps up on the s.h.i.+ps; it flashes sparkles of light; here comes the hail. The admiral bids us to withdraw from before Amsterdam, and that with as much water as our greatest s.h.i.+p can draw. Here we are in the harbour of Enckhuyse. The sea is freezing afresh. I am a fine prophet, and it is a miracle from G.o.d."

And Ulenspiegel said:

"Drink we to Him, and blessings on Him."

And the winter pa.s.sed, and summer came.

XIX

In mid-August, when hens, fed full with grain, remain deaf to the call of the c.o.c.k trumpeting his loves, Ulenspiegel said to his sailors and soldiers:

"The duke of blood, being at Utrecht, dares there to issue a blessed edict, promising among other gracious gifts, hunger, death, ruin to the inhabitants of the Low Countries who might be unwilling to submit. Everything that still remains whole, saith he, shall be exterminate, and His Majesty the king will people the country with strangers. Bite, duke, bite! The file breaketh the viper's tooth; we are files. Long live the Beggar!

"Alba, blood maketh thee drunk! Deemest thou that we would fear thy threats or believe in thy clemency? Thy famous regiments whose praises thou didst sing throughout the whole world, thy Invincibles, thy Tels Quels, thy Immortals, remained seven months bombarding Haarlem, a feeble city defended by mere citizens; like mortal common men they danced in air the dance of the bursting mines. Mere citizens besmeared them with tar; in the end they were glorious victors, slaughtering the disarmed. Hearest thou, murderer, the hour of G.o.d that striketh now?

"Haarlem hath lost her splendid defenders, her stones sweat blood. She hath lost and expended in her siege twelve hundred and eighty thousand florins. The bishop is reinstated there; with light hand and joyful countenance he blesses the churches; Don Frederick is present at these consecrations; the bishop washes for him those hands that in G.o.d's eyes are red and he communicates in two kinds, which is not permitted to the poor common herd. And the bells ring out and the chime flings into the air its calm, harmonious notes; it is like the singing of angels over a cemetery. An eye for an eye! A tooth for a tooth! Long live the Beggar!"

XX

The Beggars were then at Flus.h.i.+ng, where Nele caught fever. Forced to leave the s.h.i.+p, she was lodged at the house of one Peeters, of the Reformed faith, at Turven-Key.

Ulenspiegel, deeply grieving, was yet rejoiced, thinking that in this bed where she would doubtless be healed the Spanish bullets could not reach her.

And with Lamme he was always beside her, tending her well and loving her better. And there they used to talk together.

"Friend and true comrade," said Ulenspiegel one day, "dost thou not know the news?"

"Nay, my son," said Lamme.

"Seest thou the flyboat that but late came to join our fleet, and knowest thou who it is upon it that tw.a.n.gs the viol every day?"

"Through the late colds," said Lamme, "I am as one deaf in both ears. Why dost thou laugh, my son?"

But Ulenspiegel, continuing:

"Once," he said, "I heard her sing a Flemish lied and found her voice was sweet."

"Alas," said Lamme, "she, too, sang and played upon the viol."

"Dost thou know the other news?" went on Ulenspiegel.

"I know naught of it, my son," said Lamme.

Ulenspiegel made answer:

"We have our orders to drop down the Scheldt with our s.h.i.+ps as far as Antwerp, to find there the enemy s.h.i.+ps to take or burn. As for the men, no quarter. What thinkest thou of this, big paunch?"

"Alas!" said Lamme, "shall we never hear aught else in this distressful land save burnings, hangings, drownings, and other ways of exterminating poor men? When then will blessed peace come, that we can in quiet roast partridges, frica.s.see chickens, and make the puddings sing in the pan among the eggs? I like the black ones best; the white are too rich."

"This sweet time will come," replied Ulenspiegel, "when in the orchards of Flanders we see on apple, plum, pear trees and cherry trees, a Spaniard hanged on every bough."

"Ah!" said Lamme, "if only I could find my wife again, my so dear, so sweet, beloved soft darling faithful wife! For know it well, my son, cuckold I was not nor shall ever be; she was too sober and calm in her ways for that; she eschewed the company of other men; if she loved fair and fine array, it was but for woman's need. I was her cook, her kitchenman, her scullion, I am glad to say it, why am I it not once more? but I was her master as well and her husband."

"Let us end this talk," said Ulenspiegel. "Hearest thou the admiral calling: 'Up anchors!' and captains after him calling the same? We must needs weigh soon."

"Why dost thou go so quickly?" said Nele to Ulenspiegel.

"We are going to the s.h.i.+ps," said he.

"Without me?" she said.

"Aye," said Ulenspiegel.

"Dost thou not think," said she, "how lying here I shall be distressed for thee?"

"Dearest," said Ulenspiegel, "my skin is made of iron."

"Thou art mocking," said she. "I see nothing on thee but thy doublet, which is cloth, not iron; beneath it is thy body, made of bone and flesh, like my own. If they wound thee, who will heal thee? Art thou to die all alone in the midst of the fighters? I shall go with thee."

"Alas!" said he, "if the lances, b.a.l.l.s, swords, axes, maces, sparing me, fall on thy dear body, what shall I do--I, good for naught without thee in this vile world?"

But Nele said:

"I would fain follow thee; there will be no peril; I will hide in the wooden forts where the arquebusiers are."

"If thou dost go, I stay, and they will hold thy friend Ulenspiegel traitor and coward; but listen to my lay:

"My hair is steel, as casque set there; An armour forged by Nature's hand My skin the first is buff well tanned, And steel the second skin I wear.

"In vain to catch me in his snare Death, grinning monster, takes his stand; My skin the first is buff well tanned, And steel the second skin I wear.

"My standards 'Live' as motto bear, Live ever in a suns.h.i.+ne land: My skin the first is buff well tanned, And steel the second skin I wear."

And he went off singing, not without having kissed the shaking mouth and the lovely eyes of Nele sunk in fever, smiling and weeping all together.

The Beggars are at Antwerp; they take the s.h.i.+ps of Alba even in the very harbour. Entering the city, in broad day, they set free certain prisoners, and make others prisoner to bring ransom. By force they make the citizens rise, and some they constrain to follow them, on pain of death, without uttering a word.

Ulenspiegel said to Lamme: