Warm was the air, and not a breath of wind was wafted from the
calm sea. The trees on the Damme canal were motionless, and the
grasshoppers were busy in the meadows, while from many a church and
abbey the men came into the fields to fetch that "thirteenth part
of the harvest" which was claimed by the cures and the abbes who
lived round about. From the depths of a blue and blazing sky the sun
poured down his heat, and Nature slept beneath that radiance like some
beautiful girl that has swooned away beneath the caresses of her lover.
From far off, Lamme and Ulenspiegel descried the high, square,
massive tower of Notre Dame, and Lamme said:
"There, my son, is the home both of your loves and of your
sorrows." But Ulenspiegel made no answer.
"In a little while," continued Lamme, "I shall be seeing my old home,
and perhaps my wife!" But Ulenspiegel did not answer.
"You man of wood," said Lamme, "you heart of stone, will nothing move
you--neither the near approach to the place where you passed your
childhood, nor yet the dear memory of poor Claes and Soetkin, the two
martyrs? What! You are not sad, neither are you merry; who can it be
that has thus hardened your heart? Look at me, how anxious and uneasy
I am, and how my belly heaves with nervousness; look at me I say!"
But Lamme looked at Ulenspiegel and saw that his face was drawn
and pale, and his lips were trembling with tears, and he said not a
word. And now Lamme also held his peace.
They walked along in this way without speaking till they came to
Damme, which they entered by the rue Heron; and they saw no one
about because of the heat. Only the dogs lay on their sides on
the doorsteps of many a house, gasping, with their tongues out,
while Lamme and Ulenspiegel passed right in front of the Town Hall
where Claes had been burnt to death; and here the lips of Ulenspiegel
trembled the more, and his tears dried up. And at last they were come
to the house of Claes himself, which was now occupied by a master
charcoal-burner. Ulenspiegel entered in and said:
"Do you recognize me? I would wish to rest here a while."
The master charcoal-burner answered:
"I recognize you. You are the son of the victim. You are free in this
house to go wheresoever you will."
Ulenspiegel went into the kitchen, and then upstairs into the room
of Claes and Soetkin, and there he shed many tears.
When he had come down again, the master charcoal-burner said to him:
"Here is bread, cheese, and beer. If you are hungry, eat. If you are
thirsty, drink."
But Ulenspiegel made a gesture to the effect that he was neither
hungry nor thirsty, and he left the house and came with Lamme to
Katheline's cottage, and there they tethered their donkeys and
straightway entered in. It was the hour of the midday meal. On the
table was a dish of broad beans in their pods together with some
white beans. Katheline was busy eating, while Nele was standing by
her ready to pour into Katheline's plate some vinegar sauce which
she had just taken off the fire. When Ulenspiegel came into the room
Nele was so startled that she put the sauce, and the pot and all,
into Katheline's platter. And Katheline kept on wagging her head,
and picking out the broad beans with her spoon from the trencher,
striking her forehead the while and crying ever like one mad:
"Put out the fire! My head is burning!"
And the smell of the vinegar made Lamme feel hungry. But Ulenspiegel
stood still where he was, gazing at Nele and smiling for love of her
despite his great sorrow.
And Nele, without a word of greeting, flung her arms round his
neck. And she also seemed like one bereft of sense. For she cried and
laughed, and blushing as she was with her great and sweet happiness,
she could only say: "Tyl! Tyl!"
Ulenspiegel, happy now in his turn, gazed into her eyes. Then she let
go of him and stepped back a pace or two, gazed at him joyfully in her
turn, and then threw herself on him again, clasping her arms round
his neck, and so many times and again. And he suffered her gladly,
powerless to tear himself away from her, till at last she fell into
a chair, tired out and like one bereft of her senses, and she said
without shame:
"Tyl! Tyl, my beloved! Here you are come back to me again!"
Lamme meanwhile was standing at the door; but when Nele had recovered
herself a little, she pointed to him, saying:
"Where have I seen this fat man?"
"He is my friend," Ulenspiegel told her. "He goes seeking his wife
in my company."
"I know you," said Nele to Lamme. "You used to live in the rue
Heron. You are seeking for your wife? Well, I have seen her. She is
living at Bruges in all piety and devotion, and when I asked her why
she had left her husband so unkindly, she answered that it was by
the Holy Will of God and at the command of Holy Penance, and that
she could never live with her husband again."
At these words Lamme was sad, but his eyes wandered to the beans and
vinegar. And outside the larks sang as they flew upwards into the sky,
and all Nature swooned away under the caress of her Lord the Sun. And
Katheline kept stirring with her spoon that pot of beans and sauce.