The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 33

VII

It was the fifth of April, just before Easter, and the Counts Louis of Na.s.sau, de Culembourg, and de Brederode (he that was surnamed Hercule the Toper) were entering the courtyard of the palace of Brussels, together with three hundred gentlemen. They were come to seek an audience of the Governess of the Netherlands, Madame the d.u.c.h.ess of Parma, and were mounting the great stairway of the palace four by four.

Coming at length into the hall where my Lady was seated they presented their pet.i.tion, which entreated her to use her influence with King Philip for the abolition of all those decrees which concerned religion and the introduction into Flanders of the Spanish Inquisition. This pet.i.tion, which afterwards became known as "The Compromise," also declared that in our already disaffected country such a policy as the introduction of the Inquisition could only result in troubles of all kinds, ruin to the country, and universal misery.

Berlaymont, who later on was to prove so treacherous and baneful to the land of his birth, stood close by Her Highness, and mocked at the poverty of certain of the confederate n.o.bles who had come to visit her.

"Have no fear, my Lady," he told her, "they are nothing but beggars!"

And by these words he implied either that the said n.o.bles had been ruined in the service of the King, or else that they were eager to emulate the luxury of the great Lords of Spain. And thus it was that later on these same n.o.bles endeavoured to bring ridicule upon the words of Berlaymont by saying that "they held it indeed an honour to be esteemed and spoken of as beggars--beggars for the good service of the King and the advantage of these lands." And from that time they began to wear round their necks a golden medal carved with an effigy of the King. And on the obverse side of the medal were two hands clasped upon a beggar's wallet, with these words writ thereunder: "To the King, faithful even unto beggary." On their hats and bonnets they carried also little golden ornaments made in the form of beggars'

hats and platters.

And all this time Lamme went carrying his portly form about the town, seeking the wife that he never found.

VIII

One morning Ulenspiegel said to Lamme:

"Come with me. Let us go and present our compliments to a certain high n.o.ble I wot of, a most renowned and powerful personage!"

"Will he tell us where my wife is?" asked Lamme.

"Certainly," answered Ulenspiegel, "if he knows."

And away they went to Brederode, surnamed Hercule the Toper. And they found him in the courtyard of his house.

"What do you want with me?" he demanded of Ulenspiegel.

"To speak with you, my Lord."

"Speak then," said Brederode.

"You are a handsome, brave, and powerful n.o.bleman," said Ulenspiegel. "Time was when you were able to flatten out a Frenchman in full armour as though he were no better than a mussel in its sh.e.l.l. But if you are brave and powerful you are also well-informed. Can you tell us, therefore, why you wear this medal inscribed with these words: 'To the King, faithful even unto beggary'?"

"Yes," Lamme put in, "pray tell us why, my Lord!"

But Brederode made no answer, and only looked very hard at Ulenspiegel, who thereupon continued his discourse in this wise.

"And why, pray, do you, you other n.o.ble Lords, seek to be faithful to the King even unto beggary? Is it for the great good that he wishes you? Or for the fair friends.h.i.+p that he bears you? How is it that instead of being faithful to the King even unto beggary you do not so act rather that the brute himself may be despoiled of his country, and thus be made faithful for ever to beggary himself?"

And Lamme nodded his head to show his agreement with what his friend had said:

Brederode looked at Ulenspiegel with his keen glance, and smiled with pleasure at his handsome appearance.

"Either you are a spy of King Philip," he said, "or else a good man of Flanders; and for whichever you are I will pay you your due."

So saying he led Ulenspiegel to his pantry, and Lamme followed close behind. When they were come there, Brederode pulled Ulenspiegel's ear till the blood flowed.

"This for the spy," he said.

But Ulenspiegel remained quite quiet and said nothing.

Then Brederode, pointing to a pipkin of cinnamon wine, bade his butler bring it to him.

"Drink," said Brederode, "this for the good Fleming."

Ah!" cried Ulenspiegel, "good Fleming means sweet tongue for cinnamon! Verily the saints themselves do not know the likes of it!"

When he had drunk half the tankard he pa.s.sed the remainder to Lamme.

"And who," said Brederode, "who is this papzak, this belly-carrier that needs must be recompensed for having done nothing?"

"This," said Ulenspiegel, "is my friend Lamme Goedzak, and whenever he drinks mulled wine he thinks that he is going to find the wife he has lost."

"That's so," said Lamme, sucking up the wine from the goblet most devotedly.

"And where may you be going to now?" asked Brederode.

"In quest of the Seven," said Ulenspiegel, "the Seven that shall save the land of Flanders."

"And who may they be?" asked Brederode.

"When I have found them," said Ulenspiegel, "then I will tell you."

But Lamme, who was grown sprightly with what he had been drinking, suggested to Ulenspiegel that they should go there and then to the moon, to see if his wife perchance was there.

"All right," said Ulenspiegel, "if you'll provide a ladder!"

And it was May, the green month of May, and Ulenspiegel said to Lamme:

"O Lamme, behold the lovely month of May! Ah, the bright blue of the sky! The joy of the swallows! And behold, the branches of the trees, how they are all red with sap, and the very earth is in love! Verily this is now the time both to hang and to burn for the Faith. For they are ready, the good little Inquisitors. Ah, what n.o.ble faces they have! And theirs is the power to correct us and to punish us and to degrade, and hand us over to the secular judges, or to imprison us--O the fine month of May!--and to take us captive, and to proceed to trial against us without serving any writ, and to burn, hang, behead us, and to dig the grave of premature death for our women and our girls. In the trees the chaffinch is singing! But upon him that is rich and wealthy the good Inquisitors have cast a favourable eye! And it is the King himself that shall enter into their inheritance. Then go, my girls, dance in the meadows to the sound of bagpipes and shawms. O the fine month of May!"

And the ashes of Claes beat upon the breast of Ulenspiegel.

"On, on!" said he to Lamme. "Happy are they that shall keep heart high and sword drawn in the dark days that are coming!"