The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 42

Presently Ulenspiegel opened his eyes and raised himself from the ground with his teeth all chattering because of the cold.

"And here you are standing up already!" Lamme exclaimed.

"It is a balm of much virtue," said Ulenspiegel.

"Balm of valiance," answered Lamme.

And then, taking the bodies of the evangelists one by one, he cast them into a hole in the rocks, leaving their weapons and their clothes upon them. But he took their cloaks.

And all around in the sky the crows were beginning to caw to each other, in antic.i.p.ation of the feast. And the Sambre flowed by like a river of steel under the grey sky.

And the snow fell, was.h.i.+ng the blood away.

Yet they felt ill at ease, and Lamme said:

"I had rather kill a chicken than a man."

And they mounted again upon their donkeys. And when they arrived at the gates of Huy, the blood was still trickling from the head of Ulenspiegel, so they dismounted and pretended to have a quarrel, and to use their daggers on one another, with the utmost ferocity as it seemed. But when they had finished their duel, they remounted their donkeys and came into the town, showing their pa.s.sports at the city gates.

The women, seeing Ulenspiegel wounded and bleeding while Lamme rode his donkey as though he had been the victor, threw many a glance of tender commiseration upon Ulenspiegel, and pointed their fingers at Lamme, saying: "That is the rascal who wounded his friend."

Lamme all this time was anxiously scrutinizing the crowd, hoping to discover his wife among them; but all was in vain, and he was sad at heart.

XXI

"Where are you going now?" said Lamme.

"To Maestricht," answered Ulenspiegel.

"But stay, my son. I have heard that the army of the Duke is camped all round the city and that he himself is within. Our pa.s.sports will be of no use to us there. Even if they satisfy the Spanish soldiers, we shall still be arrested in the city and put through an examination. And in the meantime they will become aware of the death of the evangelists and our days on this earth will be numbered."

To this Ulenspiegel made answer:

"The crows and the owls and the vultures will make short work of their repast. Already no doubt the dead bodies have become unrecognizable. As for our pa.s.sports, there is no reason why they should not remain effective. But if the murder of the evangelists becomes known we should be arrested as you say. Nevertheless, whatever happens we shall have to go to Maestricht and pa.s.s through Landen on the way."

"We shall be captured," said Lamme.

"We shall get through," answered Ulenspiegel.

Conversing in this wise they came to the inn of La Pie, where they found a good supper awaiting them, and good quarters for the night, both for themselves and for the donkeys; and on the morrow they took the road again for Landen.

Not far from that town they came to a large farm. There Ulenspiegel whistled like a lark, and from the interior came the sound of a warlike c.o.c.kcrow in answer. After that a jolly-looking farmer appeared at the door of the farmhouse, and greeted them as friends and good Beggarmen, and bade them welcome.

"Who is this man?" Lamme inquired.

"His name is Thomas Utenhove," said Ulenspiegel, "and he is a valiant Protestant. The man-servants and maid-servants that work on the farm are fellows with him in the cause of freedom of conscience."

Then Utenhove said:

"You are the envoys of the Prince? Come in then, eat and drink with me."

And the ham was crackling in the frying-pan, the sausages likewise, and the wine flowed and the gla.s.ses were filled again. And Lamme drank like dry sand, and ate his fill. And the boys and girls of the farm came one after another and thrust their noses into the half-open door to gaze on him as he worked away so hard. But the men were jealous, saying that they also would be able to eat and drink as bravely if they had the chance.

When all was finished, Thomas Utenhove said:

"One hundred of our peasants will be leaving us this week under pretext of going to work on the dikes at Bruges and thereabouts. They will be setting out in small bands of five or six at a time, and all by different routes. At Bruges they will find certain barges waiting for them to take them by sea to Emden."

"Will these men be provided with arms and with money?" inquired Ulenspiegel.

"Each man will carry ten florins and a heavy cutla.s.s."

"G.o.d and the Prince will reward you," said Ulenspiegel.

"But tell me," said the farmer, "is Edzard, Count of Frise, still friendly to the Prince?"

"He feigns not to be," answered Ulenspiegel. "Nevertheless, he is giving harbourage all the time to the Prince's s.h.i.+ps at Emden."

And then he added: "We are on the way to Maestricht."

"You cannot go there," said the farmer. "The Duke's army is camped in front of the town and all round it."

With that he conducted his visitors up into the loft, whence they could see the standards of enemy cavalry and infantry moving about in the distance over the plain.

Ulenspiegel said:

"I have a plan to get through, if only they who have authority in this place would give me leave to get married. But for wife I should need a sweet and a gentle and comely la.s.s who would be willing to marry me--if not for always, then for a week at least."

Lamme gasped with astonishment.

"Don't do it, my son," he cried. "She will only leave you, and then, all alone, you will burn with the fire of love; and the bed where now you sleep so sweetly will seem to you nothing better than a bed of p.r.i.c.kly holly leaves, and gentle sleep will shun you for evermore."

"Still I must marry," replied Ulenspiegel. And then to Thomas Utenhove: "Come now, find me a wife; rich or poor, I don't care which! And I will take her to church, and our marriage shall be blessed by the priest. And he shall give us our marriage lines. Though, to be sure, we shall not hold them valid as being given by the hand of a Papist and an Inquisitor. Nevertheless they will be good enough for our purpose, and we will prepare ourselves, as is the custom, for our wedding trip."

"But what about the wife?"

"That's your look-out," answered Ulenspiegel. "But when you have found her I shall take two wagons and decorate them with wreaths of fir branches and holly and paper flowers, and in the wagons themselves I shall dispose the men whom you wish to be conveyed to the Prince of Orange."

"But your wife?" persisted Thomas Utenhove. "Where will you find her?"

"Here, I doubt not," answered Ulenspiegel. "And then I shall harness two of your own horses to one of the wagons, and our two donkeys to the other. In the first wagon will ride my wife and myself, together with my friend Lamme here, and the witnesses of our nuptials. In the second wagon will follow the musicians, the players upon the drum, the fife, and the shawm. And then, with all our joyous wedding-flags a-flying, and with music playing, and we ourselves singing and drinking each other's healths, we shall ride along at the trot by the high road that leads to the Galgen-veld--the Field of the Gallows--which for us indeed will be the Field of Liberty."

"I will do all in my power to help you," said Thomas Utenhove, "but the women and girls will want to follow their men-folk."

"We will go where G.o.d wills," said a pretty-looking girl who had thrust in her head at the half-opened door.