I
Being at Heyst, upon the dunes, Ulenspiegel and Lamme see, coming
from Ostend, from Blanckenberghe, from Knokke, many fishing boats
full of armed men, adherents of the Beggars of Zealand, who wear in
their headgear the silver crescent with this inscription: "Better to
serve the Turk than the Pope."
Ulenspiegel is glad; he whistles like the lark; from all sides answers
the warlike clarion of the cock.
The boats, sailing or fishing and selling their fish, come to land,
one after the other, at Emden. There William of Blois is detained,
who is equipping a ship under commission from the Prince of Orange.
Très-Long, having been at Emden for eleven weeks, was bitterly sick of
waiting. He went from his ship to land and from the land to his ship,
like a bear on a chain.
Ulenspiegel and Lamme, wandering about on the quays, saw there a lord
of a jovial visage, somewhat melancholy and at a loss to heave up one
of the paving-stones of the quay with a pikestaff. Not succeeding
in this he still bent every effort to carry out his undertaking,
while a dog gnawed at a bone behind him.
Ulenspiegel came to the dog and pretended to want to rob him of his
bone. The dog growls; Ulenspiegel does not stop: the dog makes a
great uproar of doggish wrath.
The lord, turning at the noise, said to Ulenspiegel:
"What good does it do thee to torment this beast?"
"What good does it do you, Messire, to torment this pavement?"
"It is not the same thing at all," said the lord.
"The difference is not extreme," replied Ulenspiegel; "if the dog
sets store by his bone and wants to keep it, this pavement holds to
its quay and is fain to remain on it. And it is the very least that
folk like us may do, turning to busy ourselves about a dog when folk
like you busy yourselves about a paving stone."
Lamme remained behind Ulenspiegel, not daring to speak.
"Who art thou?" asked the lord.
"I am Thyl Ulenspiegel, the son of Claes, who died in the flames for
his faith."
And he whistled like the lark and the lord crowed like the cock.
"I am Admiral Très-Long," said he; "what wouldst thou with me?"
Ulenspiegel narrated to him his adventures, and gave him five hundred
carolus.
"Who is this big man?" asked Très-Long, pointing a finger at Lamme.
"My comrade and friend," replied Ulenspiegel: "he desires, like myself,
to sing on your ship, with the fine voice of a musket, the song of
deliverance for the land of our fathers."
"Ye are brave men both," said Très-Long, "and ye shall go on my ship."
They were then in the month of February; sharp was the wind, keen the
frost. After three weeks of grudging waiting Très-Long left Emden under
protest. Thinking to enter the Texel, he went out from Vlie, but was
forced to go in to Wieringen, where his ship was locked up in the ice.
Soon there was a merry spectacle all about: sledges and skaters all
in velvet; women skating in jackets and skirts broidered with gold,
pearl, scarlet, azure; lads and lasses went, came, glided, laughed,
following one another in line, or two by two, in pairs, singing the
song of love upon the ice, or going to eat and drink in booths decked
out with flags, brandy, oranges, figs, peperkoek, schols, eggs, hot
vegetables, and eete-koeken, which are pancakes and pickled vegetables,
while all about them sleds and sailing sleighs made the ice cry out
under their runners.
Lamme, seeking his wife, went wandering on skates like the jolly men
and women, but he fell often.
Meanwhile, Ulenspiegel went to drink and to feed in a small inn on
the quay where he had not to pay too dear for his daily rations;
and he liked to talk with the old baesine.
One Sunday about nine he went in there asking them to give him
his dinner.
"But," said he to a pretty woman coming forward to serve him, "baesine
rejuvenated, what hast thou done with thy old wrinkles? Thy mouth hath
all its teeth, white and girlish, and its lips are red as cherries. Is
it for me, that soft and cunning smile?"
"No, no," said she; "but what must I give you?"
"Thyself," said he.
The woman answered:
"That would be too much for a starveling like you; would you not like
other meat?"
Ulenspiegel making no reply:
"What have you done," she said, "with that handsome, well-made,
corpulent man whom I often saw with you?"
"Lamme?" said he.
"What have you done with him?" she said.
Ulenspiegel replied:
"He eats, in the booths, hard eggs, smoked eels, salt fish, zuertjes,
and all that he can put under his tooth; and all to look for his
wife. Why art thou not his wife, pretty one? Wouldst thou like fifty
florins? Wouldst thou like a gold necklace?"
But she, crossing herself:
"I am not to buy or to take," said she.
"Dost thou love naught?" said he.
"I love thee as my neighbour, but I love above all my Lord Christ and
Madame the Virgin, who bid me live a chaste life. Hard and heavy are
its duties, but God is our helper, we poor women. Yet there are some
that succumb. Is thy big friend happy?"
Ulenspiegel replied:
"He is gay when he is eating, sad when fasting, and always pensive. But
thou, art thou happy or sad?"
"We women," said she, "are slaves of that that rules us!"
"The moon?" said he.
"Aye," said she.
"I am going to tell Lamme to come to see thee."
"Do not so," said she; "he would weep and I in likewise."
"Didst thou ever see his wife?" asked Ulenspiegel.
Sighing, she answered:
"She sinned with him and was condemned to a cruel penance. She knows
that he goeth on the sea for the triumph of heresy, and that is a
hard thing for a Christian heart to think on. Defend him if he is
attacked; care for him if he is wounded: his wife bade me make this
request of you."
"Lamme is my brother and my friend," replied Ulenspiegel.
"Ah!" she said, "why do ye not return to the bosom of our Mother
Holy Church?"
"She devours her children," answered Ulenspiegel.
And he went his way.
One morning in March, since the wind, that was blowing sharp and
cutting, ceased not to thicken the ice, and Très-Long's ship could
not leave, the sailors and the soldiers of the vessel were holding
feasting and revel on sledges and on skates.
Ulenspiegel was at the inn, and the pretty woman said to him, all
woeful and as if bereft of her wits:
"Poor Lamme! poor Ulenspiegel!"
"Why do you lament?" asked he.
"Alas! Alas!" said she, "why do ye not believe in the mass. Ye would
go to paradise, without a doubt, and I could save you in this life."
Seeing her go to the door and listen attentively, Ulenspiegel said
to her:
"It is not the snow falling that you are listening to?"
"No," said she.
"It is not the moaning wind that you give ear to?"
"No," she said again.
"Nor to the merry din that our valiant sailors are making in the
tavern close by?"
"Death cometh as a thief," she said.
"Death!" said Ulenspiegel. "I do not understand thee; come inside
and speak."
"They are there," she said.
"Who?"
"Who?" she answered. "The soldiers of Simonen-Bol, who are to come,
in the name of the duke, to throw themselves on all of you; if you
are so well treated here, it is like the bullocks that are meant for
the slaughter. Ah! why," said she all in tears, "why did I not know
it save but just now."
"Do not weep, nor cry out," said Ulenspiegel, "and stay where you are!"
"Do not betray me," said she.
Ulenspiegel went out from her house, ran, made his way to all the
booths and taverns, whispering into the ears of the seamen and the
soldiers these words: "The Spaniard is coming."
All ran to the ship, preparing with the utmost haste all that was
needed for battle, and they awaited the enemy. Ulenspiegel said
to Lamme:
"Seest thou yon pretty woman standing upon the quay, with her black
dress embroidered with scarlet, and hiding her face under her white
hood?"
"It is all one to me," replied Lamme. "I am cold; I want to sleep."
And he rolled his head up in his opperst-kleed. And like that he was
as a man deaf.
Ulenspiegel then recognized the woman and called to her from the ship:
"Dost thou wish to follow us?"
"To the grave," said she, "but I cannot...."
"Thou wouldst do well," said Ulenspiegel; "yet think of this: when
the nightingale stays in the forest, it is happy and sings; but if
it leaves the forest and risks its little wings in the wind of the
great sea, it breaks them and dies."
"I have sung in my house," said she, "and would sing outside if I
could." Then drawing closer to the ship: "Take this ointment," she
said, "for thyself and thy friend who sleeps when he should wake...."
And she went away saying:
"Lamme! Lamme! God keep thee from harm; come back safe."
And she uncovered her face.
"My wife, my wife!" cried Lamme.
And he would have leaped down on the ice.
"Thy faithful wife!" said she.
And she ran away swiftly.
Lamme would have leaped from off the deck down on the ice, but he was
prevented by a soldier, who held him back by his opperst-kleed. He
cried, wept, implored that he might be given leave to go. But the
provost said to him:
"Thou shalt be hanged if thou dost leave the ship."
Again Lamme would have cast himself on the ice, but an old Beggar
held him back, saying to him:
"The floor is damp, you might get your feet wet."
And Lamme fell on his behind, weeping and saying without ceasing:
"My wife, my wife! let me go to my wife!"
"Thou shalt see her again," said Ulenspiegel. "She loves thee, but
she loves God more than thee."
"The mad she-devil," cried Lamme. "If she loves God more than her
husband, why does she show herself to me lovely and desirable? And
if she loves me, why does she leave me?"
"Dost thou see clear in a deep well?" asked Ulenspiegel.
"Alas!" said Lamme, "I shall die before long."
And he stayed upon the deck, livid and distraught.
Meanwhile, had come up the men of Simonen-Bol, with a great artillery.
They fired against the ship, which replied to them. And their cannon
balls broke the ice all about it. Towards evening a warm rain fell.
The wind blowing from the west, the sea grew angry under the ice, and
heaved it up in immense blocks, which were seen rising up on high,
falling back again, clashing against one another, one mounting on
top of another, not without peril to the ship, which when dawn broke
through the clouds of night, opened out its canvas wings like a bird
of freedom and sailed towards the free ocean.
There they joined up with the fleet of Messire de Lumey de la Marche,
admiral of Holland and Zealand, and chief and captain-general, and
as such carrying a lantern at his ship's peak.
"Look well at him, my son," said Ulenspiegel; "that one will
never spare thee, if thou shouldst wish to leave the ship against
orders. Hearest thou his voice breaking forth like thunder? See how
broad and strong he is in his great stature! Look at his long hands
with the crooked nails! See his round eyes, eagle eyes and cold,
and his long pointed beard that he means to leave to grow until
he has hanged all the monks and priests to avenge the death of the
two counts! See him redoubtable and cruel; he will have thee hanged
high on a short rope, if thou dost continue to whine and cry always:
'My wife!'"
"My son," replied Lamme, "he that talks of a halter for his neighbour
has already the hempen cravat on his own neck."
"Thou thyself shalt be the first to wear it. Such is my vow as a
friend," said Ulenspiegel.
"I shall see thee on the gallows," replied Lamme, "thrust out thy
poisonous tongue a fathom out of thy mouth."
And both were in mere jest.
On that day Très-Long's ship took a ship from Biscay laden with
mercury, gold dust, wines, and spices. And the ship was emptied of
its marrow, men, and booty, as a beef bone under a lion's teeth.
It was at this time also that the duke ordained in the Low Countries
cruel and abominable imposts, obliging all the inhabitants who
sold real or personal estate to pay one thousand florins in ten
thousand. And this tax was a permanent one. All sellers and buyers
whatsoever must pay the king the tenth part of the purchase price,
and it was said among the people that if goods were sold ten times
within a week the king should have all.
And thus commerce and industry took the way towards Ruin and Death.
And the Beggars took Briele, a strong seaboard fortress that was
christened the Orchard of Freedom.
II
In the first days of May, under a clear sky, with the ship sailing
proudly along the sea, Ulenspiegel sang:
"The ashes beat upon my heart.
The butchers are come; they have struck
With poignard, fire, violence, the sword.
They have paid for foulest spying.
Where once were Love and Faith, mild virtues,
They have set Denunciation and Mistrust.
May the butchers be smitten,
Beat the drum of war.
"Long live the Beggar! Beat upon the drum!
Briele is taken,
Flessingue, too, the key of the Scheldt;
God is good, Camp-Veere is taken,
Where Zealand kept her artillery!
We have bullets, powder, and shot,
Iron shot and leaden shot.
God is with us, who then is against?
"Beat upon the drum of war and glory!
Long live the Beggar! Beat upon the drum!
"The sword is drawn, be our hearts high,
Firm be our arms, the sword is drawn.
Out upon the tenth tithe, the whole of ruin,
Death to the butcher, halter to the spoiler,
For a perjured king a rebel folk.
The sword is drawn for our rights,
For our houses, our wives, and our children.
The sword is drawn, beat upon the drum!
"High are our hearts, stout are our arms.
Out upon the tenth tithe, out upon the infamous pardon.
Beat upon the drum of war, beat upon the drum!"
"Aye, good fellows and friends," said Ulenspiegel; "aye, they have set
up at Antwerp, before the Townhall, a dazzling scaffold covered with
red cloth; the duke is seated upon it like a king upon his throne in
the midst of liverymen and soldiers. Meaning to smile benevolently,
he makes a sour grimace. Beat upon the war drum!
"He hath accorded a pardon, make silence, his gilded cuirass shines
in the sun; the grand provost is on horseback beside the dais; lo here
cometh the herald with his kettle-drums; he reads; it is a pardon for
all those that have not sinned; the others will be punished cruelly.
"Oyez, good fellows, he reads the edict that orders, on penalty as
for rebellion, the payment of the tenth and twentieth deniers."
And Ulenspiegel sang:
"O Duke! hearest thou the voice of the people,
The strong dull clamour? Tis the sea that rises
In the hour of the mighty surges.
Enough of gold, enough of blood.
Enough of ruins. Beat upon the drum!
The sword is drawn. Beat upon the drum of woe!
"It is the nails tearing the bleeding wound,
Robbery after murder. Must thou then
Mix all our gold with our blood for your drink?
We moved in ways of duty, faithful and true
To the King's Majesty. His Majesty is perjured,
We are free of our oaths. Beat upon the drum of war.
"Duke of Alba, bloody duke,
See these booths, these shops shut fast,
See these brewers, bakers, grocers,
Refusing to sell so as not to pay.
Who then salutes thee when thou art passing?
No man. Feelest thou, like a steaming plague
Hate and Scorn enwrap thee round?
"The fair land of Flanders,
The gay country of Brabant,
Are sad as graveyards.
There where of old, in freedom's days,
Sang the viols, squealed the fifes,
There are silence now and death.
Beat upon the drum of war.
"Instead of jolly faces
Of drinkers, and singing lovers
There are pallid faces now
Of men that wait, resigned,
The stroke of the sword of injustice.
Beat upon the drum of war.
"No man now hears in the taverns
The jolly clink of pots,
Nor the clear voices of girls
Singing in bands about the streets.
And Brabant and Flanders, lands of mirth,
Are become the lands of tears.
Beat upon the drum of woe.
"Land of our fathers, sufferer beloved,
Stoop not your brow to the murderer's foot,
Toilsome bees, rush in your swarms,
Upon the hornets from Spain.
Corpses of women and girls buried alive,
Cry out to Christ: 'Vengeance!'
"Wander in the fields by night, poor souls,
Cry unto God! The arm quivers to strike,
The sword is drawn, Duke; we will tear out thy entrails
And flog thy face with them.
Beat upon the drum. The sword is drawn.
Beat upon the drum. Long live the Beggar!"
And all the seamen and the soldiers of Ulenspiegel's ship and of the
other ships sang likewise:
"The sword is drawn, long live the Beggar!"
And their voices growled like a thunder of deliverance.
III
The world was in January, the cruel month that freezes the calf in
the cow's belly. It had snowed, and frozen over and above. The lads
were taking with birdlime sparrows seeking some poor food on the
hardened snow, and carried off this game into their cottages. Against
the gray clear sky stood out motionless the skeletons of the trees,
whose branches were covered with snowy cushions that covered also
the cottages and the coping of walls on which were seen the prints
of the paws of cats, which, like the boys, were hunting sparrows
over the snow. At a distance the meadows were hidden over by this
marvellous fleece, keeping the earth warm against the bitter cold of
winter. The smoke of houses and cottages rose up black into the sky,
and there was no noise heard of any kind.
And Katheline and Nele were alone in their house; and Katheline,
nodding her head, said:
"Hans, my heart turns to thee. Thou must give back the seven hundred
carolus to Ulenspiegel, the son of Soetkin. If thou art poor, come
none the less that I may see thy shining face. Take away the fire,
my head burns. Alas! where are thy snow-cold kisses? Where is thy
icy body, Hans, my beloved?"
And she kept at the window. Suddenly there passed, running at full
speed, a voet-looper, a courier carrying bells at his belt, and
calling out:
"Here cometh the bailiff, the high bailiff of Damme!"
And he went thus as far as the Townhall, so as to assemble there the
burgomasters and the sheriffs.
Then in the thick silence Nele heard two clarions sound. All the
people of Damme came to their doors, believing it was His Majesty
the king who announced himself by such flourishes.
And Katheline also went to the door with Nele. From afar they saw
resplendent horsemen riding in a band, and before them, also on
horseback, a personage covered in an opperst-kleed of black velvet
laced with fine gold, and boots of yellow calfskin furred with
marten. And they recognized the high bailiff.
Behind him there rode young lords, who, notwithstanding the ordinance
of his late Imperial Majesty, wore on their velvet accoutrements
embroideries, trimmings, bands, edgings, of gold, of silver, and of
silk. And their opperst-kleederen, under their outer garments, were
edged with fur like those of the bailiff. They rode gaily along,
shaking in the wind the long ostrich feathers that adorned their
bonnets, gold buttoned and gold laced.
And they seemed to be all of them good friends and companions of the
grand bailiff, and notably a lord of sharp visage clad in green velvet
trimmed with gold lace, and a cloak of black velvet like his bonnet
adorned with long plumes. And he had a nose shaped like a vulture's
beak, a thin mouth, red hair, a pale face, and haughty carriage.
While the troop of these lords was passing in front of Katheline's
house suddenly she darted to the bridle of the pale lord's horse,
and beside herself with joy, she cried out:
"Hans! my beloved, I knew it; thou art back. Thou art goodly thus in
velvet and all in gold like a sun upon the snow! Dost thou bring me
the seven hundred carolus? Shall I hear thee once more crying like
the sea-eagle?"
The high bailiff stopped the troop of gentlemen, and the pale lord
said:
"What doth this beggar want with me?"
But Katheline, still keeping hold of the horse by the bridle:
"Do not go away again," said she, "I have wept so much for thee. Sweet
nights, my beloved, kisses of snow--body of ice. The child is here!"
And she pointed him to Nele who was looking at him in anger, for he
had raised his whip to Katheline: but Katheline, weeping:
"Ah!" said she, "dost thou not remember at all? Have pity on thy
handmaiden. Take her with thee wherever thou wilt. Take away the fire,
Hans; pity!"
"Begone!" said he.
And he drove his horse on so hard that Katheline, loosing the bridle,
fell; and the horse stepped on her and gave her a bloody wound in
the forehead.
The bailiff then said to the pale lord:
"Messire, do you know this woman?"
"I do not know her at all," said he, "doubtless it is some mad
creature."
But Nele, having raised Katheline from the ground:
"If this woman is mad, I am not, Monseigneur, and I pray that I
may die here of this snow that I eat"--and she took up snow in her
fingers--"if this man has not known my mother, if he did not borrow
all her money, if he did not kill Claes's dog in order to take from
the wall of the well at our house seven hundred carolus belonging to
the poor dead man."
"Hans, my darling," wept Katheline, bleeding, and on her knees, "Hans,
my beloved, give me the kiss of peace: see the blood flowing: my soul
has made the hole and would fain come forth: I shall die presently:
leave me not." Then in a whisper: "Long ago thou didst slay thy comrade
for jealousy, along by the dyke." And she stretched out her finger
in the direction of Dudzeele. "Thou didst love me well in those days."
And she caught the gentleman's knee and embraced it, and she took
his boot and kissed it.
"What is this slain man?" asked the high bailiff.
"I do not know, Monseigneur," said he. "We have nothing to do with
the talk of this beggarwoman; let us forward."
The populace was assembling around them; the townsmen great and small,
artisans and rustics, taking Katheline's part, cried out:
"Justice, Monseigneur Bailiff, justice."
And the bailiff said to Nele:
"What is this slain man? Speak in accordance with God and the truth."
Nele spoke and said, pointing to the pale gentleman:
"This man came every Saturday to the keet to see my mother and to take
her money: he killed a friend of his, Hilbert by name, in the field
of Servaes van der Vichte, not for love, as this innocent distracted
woman thinks, but to have for himself alone the seven hundred carolus."
And Nele told of Katheline's loves and what she heard when she was
hidden by night behind the dyke that ran through the field of Servaes
van der Vichte.
"Nele is bad," said Katheline; "she speaks hardly of Hans, her father."
"I swear," said Nele, "that he used to cry like a sea-eagle to announce
his presence."
"Thou liest," said the gentleman.
"Oh, no!" said Nele, "and monseigneur the bailiff and all these
noble lords here present see it well: thou art pale not for cold,
but with fear. Whence comes it that thy face no longer shines:
thou hast then lost thy magic compound wherewith thou wast wont to
rub it that it might appear bright, like the waves in summer when
it thunders? But sorcerer accursed, thou shalt be burned before the
doors of the Townhall. 'Tis thou that didst cause Soetkin's death,
thou that didst reduce her orphan son to want; thou, a man of noble
rank, doubtless, and who wast wont to come to us burgesses to bring my
mother money once only and to take money from her all the other times."
"Hans," said Katheline, "thou wilt bring me again to the Sabbath and
wilt rub me again with ointment; do not listen to Nele, she is bad:
thou seest the blood, the soul has made the hole and would come forth:
I shall die soon and I shall go into limbo where it burneth not."
"Hold thy tongue, mad witch, I know thee not," said the gentleman,
"and know not what thou wouldst say."
"And yet," said Nele, "it was thou that camest with a companion and
wouldst have given him to me for a husband: thou knowest that I would
have none of him; what did he do, thy friend Hilbert, what did he do
with his eyes after I had sunk my nails into them?"
"Nele is bad," said Katheline, "do not believe her, Hans, my darling:
she is angry against Hilbert who would have taken her by force, but
Hilbert cannot do it now; the worms have eaten him: and Hilbert was
ugly. Hans, my darling, thou alone art goodly; Nele is bad."
Upon this the bailiff said:
"Women, go in peace."
But Katheline would by no means leave the place where her friend
was. And they must needs bring her to her house by force.
And all the people there assembled cried out:
"Justice, Monseigneur, justice!"
The constables of the commune having come up at the noise, the bailiff
bade them remain, and he said to the lords and gentlemen:
"Messeigneurs and Messires, notwithstanding all privileges protecting
the illustrious order of nobility in the country of Flanders I must
needs, upon the accusations and especially upon that of witchcraft,
laid against Messire Joos Damman, have his person apprehended until
he be judged according to the laws and ordinances of the Empire. Give
me your sword, Messire Joos."
"Monseigneur Bailiff," said Joos Damman, with the utmost hauteur and
pride of nobility, "in apprehending my person you are transgressing the
law of Flanders, for you are not yourself a judge. Now you are aware
that it is permitted to arrest without a warrant from a judge only
false coiners, robbers on public roads and highways; fire-raisers,
ravishers of women; gendarmes deserting their captain; enchanters
making use of poison to poison water springs; monks or nuns that
have renounced their vows and banished men. And now, Messires and
Messeigneurs, defend me!"
Some would have obeyed, but the bailiff said to them:
"Messeigneurs and Messires, as representing here our king, count,
and overlord, to whom is reserved the decision of difficult cases,
I command and order you, upon pain of being proclaimed rebels, to
return your swords to their scabbards."
The gentlemen having obeyed, and Messire Joos Damman still hesitating,
the people cried out:
"Justice, Monseigneur, justice; let him give up his sword."
He did so then against his will, and dismounting from his horse,
he was brought by two constables to the prison of the commune.
All the same, he was not shut up in the cellars, but in a barred
chamber, where he had, for payment, a good fire, a good bed, and good
food, the half of which the gaoler took.
IV
On the next day the bailiff, the two clerks of the court, two aldermen,
and a barber-surgeon went by Dudzeele to see if they might find in
the field of Servaes van der Vichte the body of a man along by the
dyke running through the field.
Nele had said to Katheline: "Hans, thy darling, asks for the severed
hand of Hilbert: this evening he will cry like the sea-eagle; he
will come into the cottage, and will bring thee the seven hundred
florins carolus."
Katheline had replied: "I will cut it off." And indeed, she took a
knife and went forth accompanied by Nele and followed by the officers
of justice.
She walked swiftly and proudly beside Nele, whose pretty face the
keen air made all rosy and glowing.
The officers of justice, old and coughing, followed her, frozen with
cold; and they were all like black shadows on the white plain; and
Nele carried a spade.
When they arrived in the field of Servaes van der Vichte and on the
dyke, Katheline, walking up to the middle of it, said, pointing to the
meadow on her right hand: "Hans, thou didst not know that I was hidden
there, shivering at the noise of the swords. And Hilbert cried out:
'This iron is cold.' Hilbert was ugly; Hans is goodly. Thou shalt
have his hand; leave me alone."
Then she went down on the left hand, knelt in the snow and cried
three times into the air to call the spirit.
Nele then gave her the spade, upon which Katheline made the sign of
the cross thrice; then she traced upon the ice the shape of a coffin
and three crosses reversed, one on the side of the east, one on the
side of the west, and one on the south; and she said: "Three, it is
Mars beside Saturn, and three is discovery under Venus, the bright
star." She traced after, about the coffin, a great circle, saying:
"Begone, evil demon that guardest corpses." Then falling on her knees
in prayer: "Devil friend, Hilbert," said she, "Hans, my master and
lord, bids me come here and cut off thy hand and bring it to him. I
owe him obedience: make not the earth-fire to leap out against me,
because I disturb thy noble burying place: and forgive me in the name
of God and of the Saints."
Then she broke the ice, following the outline of the coffin: she came
to the damp sword, then to the sandy soil, and monseigneur the bailiff,
his officers, Nele, and Katheline beheld the body of a young man,
chalk-white by reason of the soil. He was clad in a doublet of gray
cloth with a cloak of the same; his sword was laid by his side. At
his belt he had a chain purse, and a big poignard planted under his
heart; and there was blood upon the cloth of the doublet; and that
blood had flowed under his back. And the man was young.
Katheline cut off his hand and put it in her pouch. And the bailiff
let her do what she would, then bade her to strip the body of all
its insignia and clothing. Katheline having asked if Hans had thus
commanded, the bailiff replied that he did nothing save by his orders;
and Katheline then did what he wished.
When the body was stripped, it was seen to be dry as wood, but not
decayed: and the bailiff and the officers of the commune departed,
having covered it again with sand: and the constables carried the
cloth.
Passing the front of the prison of the commune, the bailiff said to
Katheline that Hans was awaiting her there; she went in joyously.
Nele wanted to prevent her, and Katheline always replied: "I would
see Hans, my lord."
And Nele wept on the threshold, knowing that Katheline was arrested
as a witch for the conjurations and figures she had made upon the snow.
And in Damme men said there could be no pardon for her.
And Katheline was put in the western cellar of the prison.
V
The next day, the wind blowing from Brabant, the snow melted and the
meadows were flooded.
And the bell called borgstorm called the judges to the tribunal of the
Vierschare, under the penthouse, because of the dampness of the turf.
And the populace surrounded the tribunal.
Joos Damman, being interrogated, confessed that he had killed his
friend Hilbert in single combat with the sword. When they said to him:
"He was smitten with a poignard," Joos Damman replied: "I struck him
on the ground because he died not quick enough. I confess this murder
of my own will, being under the protection of the laws of Flanders
which forbid the prosecution, after ten years, of a manslayer."
The bailiff, addressing him:
"Art thou not a sorcerer?" said he.
"No," replied Damman.
"Prove this," said the bailiff.
"I will prove it at the proper time and place," said Joos Damman,
"but it pleaseth me not to do so as now."
The bailiff then questioned Katheline; she never listened to him,
and gazing at Hans:
"Thou art my green lord, lovely as the sun. Take away the fire,
my darling!"
Nele, then speaking for Katheline, said:
"She can confess naught but what ye know already, Monseigneur and
Messieurs; she is no witch, and only bereft of her wits."
The bailiff then spoke and said:
"A sorcerer is one that, by diabolical means wittingly employed,
endeavours to attain somewhat. Now, these twain, man and woman,
are sorcerers by intent and deed: he, in having given the ointment
for the sabbath, and in having made his face bright like Lucifer in
order to obtain money and the satisfying of lewdness; she, in having
submitted herself to him, taking him for a devil, and for having given
herself up to his desires: the one being the worker of witchcraft,
the other his manifest accomplice. There can therefore be no pity,
and I must say this, for I perceive the aldermen and the populace
over-indulgent in the case of the woman. She has not, it is true,
killed or robbed, nor bewitched either beasts or mankind, nor healed
any sick by remedies extraordinary, but only by known simples, as
an honest and Christian physician; but she would have given up her
daughter to the devil, and if this maid had not in her youth resisted
with frank and valiant courage she would have yielded to Hilbert and
would have become a sorceress like the other. Accordingly, I put it
to the members of this tribunal if they are not of the opinion to
put both these two to the torture?"
The aldermen made no answer, showing sufficiently that this was not
their desire with regard to Katheline.
The bailiff then said, continuing his discourse:
"I am, like yourselves, touched with pity and compassion for her, but
this sorceress, bereft of her wits, so obedient to the devil, might
she not, had her lewd co-defendant so bidden her, have been capable of
cutting off her daughter's head with a sickle, even as Catherine Daru,
in the country of France, did to her two daughters at the invitation
of the devil? Might she not, if her black husband had so bidden her,
have put animals to death; turned the butter in the churn by throwing
sugar in it; been present in the body at all the worship and homage to
the devil, dance, abominations, and copulations of sorcerers? Might she
not have eaten human flesh, killed children to make pasties of them
and sell them, as did a pastry cook in Paris; cut off the thighs of
hanged men and carry them away to bite into them raw and thus commit
infamous robbery and sacrilege? And I ask of the tribunal that in
order to discover whether Katheline and Joos Damman have not committed
other crimes than those already known and called into account, they
be both put to the torture. Joos Damman refusing to confess anything
further than the murder, and Katheline not having told everything,
the laws of the empire enjoin upon us to proceed as I indicate."
And the aldermen gave sentence of torture for the Friday which was
the day after the morrow.
And Nele cried: "Grace, Messeigneurs!" and the people cried with
her. But it was in vain.
And Katheline, looking at Joos Damman, said:
"I have Hilbert's hand; come and take it to-night, my beloved."
And they were taken back to the prison.
There by order of the tribunal, the gaoler was ordered to assign two
guardians to each of them, to beat them every time they would have
slept; but the two guardians of Katheline left her to sleep all night,
and those of Joos Damman beat him cruelly every time he closed his
eyes or even nodded his head.
They were hungry all day on Wednesday, the same night and all Thursday
until night, when they were given food and drink, meat salted and
saltpetred, and water salted and saltpetred likewise. That was the
beginning of their torment. And in the morning they brought them,
crying out for thirst, into the torture chamber.
There they were set face to face with one another, and bound each upon
a bench covered with knotted ropes which made them suffer grievously.
And they were each forced to drink a glass of water, full of salt
and saltpetre.
Joos Damman beginning to sleep upon his bench, the constables
struck him.
And Katheline said:
"Do not strike him, sirs; you break his poor body. He only committed
one crime, for love, when he killed Hilbert. I am athirst, and thou,
too, Hans my beloved. Give him to drink first. Water! Water! my body
burns. Spare him, I will die soon in his place. A drink!"
Joos said to her:
"Ugly witch, die and burst like a bitch. Throw her in the fire,
Messieurs the Judges. I am athirst!"
The clerks took down all he said.
The bailiff then said to him:
"Hast thou nothing to confess?"
"I have nothing more to say," replied Damman; "you know all."
"Since he persists," said the bailiff, "in his denials, he shall
remain on these benches and on these cords until he makes a fresh
and full confession, and he shall be athirst, and he shall be kept
from sleeping."
"I will stay here," said Joos Damman, "and I will take my pleasure in
seeing that witch suffer on this bench. How do you find the marriage
bed, my love?"
And Katheline replied, groaning:
"Cold arms and hot heart, Hans, my beloved. I am athirst; my head
burns!"
"And thou, woman," said the bailiff, "hast thou naught to say?"
"I hear," said she, "the chariot of death and the dry noise of
bones. I thirst! And he taketh me to a great river where there
is water, water fresh and clear; but this water it is fire. Hans,
my dear, deliver me from these cords. Yea, I am in purgatory and
I see on high Monseigneur Jesus in his paradise and Madame Virgin
so full of compassion. O our dear Lady, give me one drop of water:
do not eat those lovely fruits all alone."
"This woman is smitten with cruel madness," said one of the
aldermen. "She must be taken from the bench of torment."
"She is no more mad than I," said Joos Damman; "it is mere play and
acting." And in a threatening voice: "I shall see thee in the fire,"
he said to Katheline, "thou playest the madwoman so well."
And grinding his teeth, he laughed at his cruel lie.
"I thirst," said Katheline; "have pity, I thirst. Hans, my beloved,
give me to drink. How white thy face is! Let me come to him,
Messieurs the Judges." And opening her mouth wide: "Yea, yea, they
are now putting fire in my breast, and the devils fasten me on this
cruel bed. Hans, take thy sword and slay them, thou so mighty. Water,
to drink, to drink!"
"Perish, witch," said Joos Damman; "they ought to thrust a choke-pear
into her mouth to keep her from setting herself up thus, a low creature
like her, against me, a man of rank."
At this word one of the aldermen, an enemy of the nobility, replied:
"Messire Bailiff, it is contrary to the laws and customs of the empire
to put a choke-pear into the mouth of any that are being interrogated,
for they are here to tell the truth, and for us to judge them from
what they say. That is permitted only when the accused being condemned
might, upon the scaffold, speak to the people, and in this way move
them, and stir up popular feelings."
"I thirst," said Katheline, "give me to drink, Hans, my darling."
"Ah!" said he, "thou dost suffer, accursed witch, sole cause of all
the torments I am enduring; but in this torture chamber thou shalt
undergo the pain of the candles, the strappado, the wooden splinters
under the nails of thy feet and hands. They will make thee ride naked
astride a coffin whose back will be sharp as a blade, and thou shalt
confess that thou art not mad, but a foul witch to whom Satan hath
given it in charge to work evil upon noble men. A drink!"
"Hans, my beloved," said Katheline, "be not wroth with thy
handmaiden! I suffer a thousand pangs for thee, my lord. Spare him,
Messieurs the Judges. Give him a full goblet to drink, and keep but
one drop for me. Hans, is it not yet the hour of the sea-eagle?"
The bailiff then said to Joos Damman:
"When thou didst kill Hilbert, what was the motive of this combat?"
"It was," said Joos, "for a girl at Heyst we both wished to have."
"A girl at Heyst!" cried Katheline, trying at all costs to rise
up from her bench; "thou art deceiving me for another, traitor
devil. Didst thou know that I was listening to thee behind the dyke
when thou saidst that thou wouldst fain have all the money, which was
Claes's money? Without doubt it was to go and spend it with her in
liquorishness and revelling! Alas! and I that would have given him
my blood if he could have made gold of it! And all for another! Be
accursed!"
But suddenly, weeping and trying to turn round on her bench of torture:
"Nay, Hans, say that thou wilt still love thy poor handmaid, and I
shall scratch the earth with my fingers and find thee a treasure;
aye, there is such; and I will go with the hazel twig that bends
this way and that where there are metals; and I will find it and
bring it back to thee; kiss me, darling, and thou shalt be rich;
and we shall eat meat, and we shall drink beer every day; aye, aye,
all these folk also drink beer; fresh, foaming beer. Oh! sirs, give
me but one single drop; I am in the fire; Hans, I know well where
there are hazel trees, but we must wait for the spring time."
"Hold thy tongue, witch," said Joos Damman; "I know thee not. Thou
hast taken Hilbert for me: it was he that came to see thee. And in thy
wicked mind thou didst call him Hans. Know that I am not called Hans,
but Joos: we were of the same height, Hilbert and I. I do not know
thee; it was Hilbert, without doubt, that stole the seven hundred
florins carolus; give me to drink; my father will pay a hundred
florins for a little goblet of water; but I know not this woman."
"Monseigneur and Messires," exclaimed Katheline, "he saith he knows
me not, but I know him well, I, and know that he hath upon his back a
mole, brown, and of the size of a bean. Ah! thou didst love a girl
at Heyst! Doth a good lover blush for his lover? Hans, am I not
still fair?"
"Fair!" said he, "thou hast a face like a medlar and a body like
a century of faggots: see the trash that would be loved by noble
men! Give me to drink!"
"Thou didst not speak so, Hans, my sweet lord," said she, "when I
was sixteen years younger than I am now." Then, beating her head and
her breast: "'Tis the fire that is there," said she, "and dries up
my heart and withers my face. Do not reproach me with it; dost thou
remember when we ate salt meat to drink better, so thou saidst? Now
the salt is in us, my beloved, and monseigneur the bailiff is drinking
Romagna wine. We do not want wine: give us water. It runs among the
grass, the streamlet that makes the clear spring; the good water,
it is cold. Nay, it burns. It is water of hell." And Katheline wept,
and she said: "I have done ill to no one, and the whole world casteth
me into the fire. Give me to drink; men give water to straying dogs. I
am a Christian woman. Give me to drink. I have done no ill to any. Give
me to drink."
An alderman then spoke and said:
"This witch is mad only in what concerns the fire she saith burns
her head, but she is nowise mad upon other matters, since she helped
us with a clear head to discover the remains of the dead man. If the
mole is there upon the body of Joos Damman, that sign sufficeth to
establish his identity with the devil Hans, for whom Katheline was
out of her wits; tormentor, let us see the mark."
The tormentor, uncovering Damman's neck and shoulder, showed the mole,
brown and hairy.
"Ah!" said Katheline, "how white is thy skin! One would say a girl's
shoulders; thou art goodly, Hans, my beloved: give me to drink!"
The tormentor then thrust a long needle into the mole. But it did
not bleed.
And the aldermen said one to the other:
"This man is a devil, and he must have killed Joos Damman and taken
his shape the more securely to deceive the poor world."
And the bailiff and the aldermen fell into fear.
"He is a devil and there is witchcraft in it."
And Joos Damman said:
"Ye know there is no witchcraft, and that there are such fleshy
excrescences that can be pricked without bleeding. If Hilbert hath
taken this witch's money, for it is she that confesseth to have lain
with the devil, he could well have done so by the good and free will
of this foul hag. And was thus, being a man of rank, paid for his
caresses even as bona robas are every day. Are there not in the world,
the same as girls, gay fellows that make women pay for their strength
and comeliness?"
The aldermen said one to another:
"See you his diabolical assurance? His hairy wart hath not bled: being
an assassin, a devil, and a magician, he would fain pass simply for
a duellist, throwing his other crimes on to the devil his friend,
whose body he has killed, but not his spirit.... And consider how
pale his face is."--"Thus appear all the devils, red in hell, and
pale on earth, for they have none of the fire of life that giveth
ruddiness to the countenance, and they are ashes within."--"We must
put him in the fire that he may be red and that he may burn."
Then said Katheline:
"Yea, he is a devil, but a kind devil, a sweet devil. And Monseigneur
Saint Jacques, his patron, has given him licence to come out of
hell. He prays Monseigneur Jesus for him every day. He will have
but seven thousand years of purgatory: Madame Virgin wishes it, but
Monsieur Satan is against it. None the less Madame does what she has
a mind to. Will he go against her? If ye consider well, ye shall see
he hath kept naught of his estate and condition as a devil, save the
cold body, and also the face luminous as are the waves of the sea in
August when it is like to thunder."
And Joos Damman said:
"Hold thy tongue, witch, thou wilt burn me." Then speaking to the
bailiff and the aldermen: "Look at me, I am no devil; I have flesh
and bones, blood and water. I drink and eat, digest and void like
yourselves; my skin is like yours, my foot likewise; tormentor,
take my boots off, for I cannot budge with my feet bound."
The tormentor did so, not without fear.
"Look," said Joos, showing his white feet: "are those cloven feet,
devil's feet? As for my paleness, is there none of you that is pale
like me? I see more than three among you. But the sinner is not I,
but verily this ugly witch, and her daughter, the evil accuser. Whence
did she have the money she lent to Hilbert; whence came those florins
that she gave him? Was it not the devil that paid her to accuse and
bring death to men of noble birth and guiltless? It is those twain
that should be asked who killed the dog in the yard, who dug the hole
and went off leaving it empty, doubtless to hide the stolen treasure
in another place. Soetkin the widow had placed no trust in me, for
she never knew me, but in them, and saw them every day. It is they
that stole the Emperor's property."
The clerk wrote, and the bailiff said to Katheline:
"Woman, hast thou naught to say for thy defence?"
Katheline, looking upon Joos Damman, said most amorously:
"It is the hour of the sea-eagle. I have Hilbert's hand, Hans,
my beloved. They say that thou wilt give me back the seven hundred
carolus. Take away the fire! Take away the fire!" cried she after
that. "Give me to drink! to drink! my head burns. God and the angels
are eating apples in the sky."
And she lost consciousness.
"Loosen her from the bench of torment," said the bailiff.
The tormentor and his assistants obeyed. And she was seen staggering
and with feet swollen out, for the tormentor had pulled the cords
too tight.
"Give her to drink," said the bailiff.
Cold water was given her, and she swallowed it greedily, holding
the goblet in her teeth as a dog does with a bone and not willing to
let it go. Then they gave her more water, and she would have gone to
take it to Joos Damman, but the tormentor took the goblet out of her
hands. And she fell sleeping like a lump of lead.
Joos Damman cried out furiously:
"I, too, I thirst and am sleepy. Why do you give her to drink? Why
do you leave her to sleep?"
"She is weak, a woman, and out of her wits," replied the bailiff.
"Her madness is a game," said Joos Damman, "she is a witch. I want
to drink, I want to sleep!"
And he shut his eyes, but the tormentor's knechts struck him on
the face.
"Give me a knife," he shouted, "till I cut these clowns to pieces:
I am a man of rank, and I have never been struck in the face. Water,
let me sleep, I am innocent. It was not I that took the seven hundred
carolus, it was Hilbert. Give me to drink! I never committed sorceries
or incantations. I am innocent. Let me go. Give me to drink!"
The bailiff then:
"How," he asked, "hast thou spent thy time since thou didst leave
Katheline?"
"I know not Katheline; I have never left her," said he. "Ye question
me on matters foreign to the case. I need not answer you. Give me to
drink; let me sleep. I tell you it was Hilbert that did all."
"Untie him," said the bailiff. "Take him back to his prison. But let
him thirst and have no sleep until he hath confessed his sorceries
and incantations."
And that was a cruel torture to Damman. He cried out in his cell:
"Give me to drink! Give me to drink!" so loud that the people heard
him, but without any pity. And when his guardians struck him in the
face as he was falling with sleep, he was like a tiger and cried:
"I am a man of rank and will kill you, ye clowns. I will go to the
king, our head. Give me to drink." But he confessed nothing, and they
left him alone.
VI
They were then in May, the lime tree of justice was green; green,
too, were the turf seats upon which the judges placed themselves;
Nele was called as witness. On this day sentence was to be pronounced.
And the people, men, women, townsfolk, and artisans were all round
about in the field; and the sun shone bright.
Katheline and Joos Damman were brought before the tribunal; and Damman
appeared paler than ever by reason of the torture of the thirst and
the nights spent without sleep.
Katheline, who could not maintain herself on her shaking legs, said,
pointing to the sun:
"Take away the fire; my head burns!"
And she looked on Joos Damman with tender love.
And he looked at her with hate and contempt.
And the lords and gentlemen his friends, having been summoned to Damme,
were all present as witnesses before the tribunal.
Then the bailiff spake and said:
"Nele, the girl who defends her mother Katheline with such great and
courageous affection, found in the pocket stitched in her mother's
jacket, a jacket for feast days, a note signed 'Joos Damman.' Among
the belongings taken from the corpse of Hilbert Ryvish I found in
the dead man's satchel another letter addressed to him by the said
Joos Damman, the defendant here present before you. I have kept both
these letters in my custody, in order that at the appropriate moment,
which is the present, you might judge of this man's obstinacy and
acquit or condemn him in accordance with law and justice. Here is
the parchment found in the satchel; I have never touched it, and know
not whether it is legible or not."
The judges were then in great perplexity.
The bailiff endeavoured to undo the parchment ball; but it was in vain,
and Joos Damman laughed.
An alderman said:
"Let us put the ball in water, and then before the fire. If there is
in it any secret of adhesion, the fire and the water will melt it."
The water was brought; the executioner lit a great fire of wood in
the field; the smoke rose up blue into the clear sky through the
verdurous branches of the lime tree of justice.
"Do not put the letter in the basin," said an alderman "for if it
is written with sal ammoniac dissolved in water, you will efface
the characters."
"Nay," said the surgeon, who was there, "the characters will not be
effaced; the water will soften only the point that keeps the magic
ball from opening up."
The parchment was dipped in the water and being softened, was unfolded.
"Now," said the surgeon, "put it before the fire."
"Aye, aye," said Nele, "put the paper before the fire; master surgeon
is on the road to the truth, for the murderer grows pale and trembles
in his limbs."
Thereupon, Messire Joos Damman said:
"I neither grew pale nor trembled, thou little common harpy that
art fain of the death of a man of rank; thou shalt never succeed;
this parchment must needs be rotten, after sixteen years' sojourning
in the earth."
"The parchment is not decayed," said the sheriff, "for the satchel
was lined with silk; silk is not consumed in the earth, and the worms
have not gone through the parchment."
The parchment was put in front of the fire.
"Monseigneur Bailiff, Monseigneur Bailiff," said Nele, "there is the
ink appearing before the fire; give orders that the writing be read."
As the surgeon was about to read it, Messire Joos Damman would have
stretched out his arms to seize the parchment; but Nele flung herself
upon his arm quick as the wind and said:
"Thou shalt not touch it, for thereon is written thy death or the
death of Katheline. If now thy heart bleeds, murderer, there are
fifteen years through which ours have been bleeding; fifteen years
that Katheline suffers; fifteen years she had her brain in her head
burned by thee; fifteen years that Soetkin is dead by consequence
of the torture; fifteen years that we are needy, ragged, and live in
abject want, but proudly. Read the paper, read the paper! The judges
are God upon earth, for they are Justice; read the paper!"
"Read the paper!" cried the men and women, weeping. "Nele is a brave
lass! read the paper! Katheline is no witch!"
And the clerk read:
"To Hilbert, son of Willem Ryvish, Esquire, Joos Damman, greeting.
"Blessed friend, lose thy money no more in gambling dens, at
dice, and other follies. I will tell thee how it can be won for
very certain. Let us make us devils, handsome devils, beloved of
women and of girls. Let us take the fair and rich, let us leave
the ugly and poor; let them pay for their pleasure. I made,
at this trade, in six months five thousand rixdaeldars in the
country of Germany. Women will give their petticoat and chemise
to their man when they love him; flee from the miserly ones with
pinched up nose that take time to pay for their pleasures. For
thy own affair, and to appear goodly and a true devil, an incubus,
if they accept thee for the night, announce thy coming by crying
like a night bird. And to make thee a veritable devil's face,
of a terrifying devil, rub thy visage with phosphorus, which is
luminous in spots when it is damp. Its odour is disagreeable,
but they will believe that it is the odour of hell. Slay what is
in thy way, man, woman, or beast.
"We shall soon go together to the house of Katheline, a fine
good-natured wench; her daughter Nele, a child of my own, if
Katheline was faithful to me, is comely and pretty; thou wilt
take her easily; I give her to thee, for I care but little for
these bastards that cannot for certain be recognized as one's
own offspring. Her mother gave me already more than twenty-three
carolus, all she possessed. But she hath a treasure hidden,
which is, unless I be a fool, the inheritance of Claes, the
heretic burned at Damme: seven hundred florins carolus liable to
confiscation, but the good King Philip, who had so many of his
subjects burned to inherit after them, could never lay his claw
on this sweet treasure. It will weigh more in my pouch than in
his. Katheline will tell me where it is; we shall divide. Only
thou must leave me the greater part for the discovery.
"As for the women, being our gentle handmaids and slaves in love,
we shall take them to the land of Germany. There we shall teach
them to become female demons and succubae, drawing the love of
all the rich burgesses and men of birth; there we shall live, they
and we, upon love paid for with good rixdaeldars, velvets, silk,
gold, pearls, and jewels; we shall thus be rich without fatigue,
and, unknown to the succubae devils, beloved by the most lovely,
always exacting payment besides. All women are fools and ninnies
for the man that can light the fire of love that God set beneath
their girdles. Katheline and Nele will be more so than others,
and believing us to be devils, will obey us in all things: thou,
do thou keep thy forename, but never give the name of thy father,
Ryvish. If the judge seizes the women, we shall depart without
their knowing us or being able to denounce us. To the rescue,
my trusty comrade. Fortune smiles on the young, as was wont to
say his late Sainted Majesty Charles the Fifth, past master in
affairs of love and of war."
And the clerk, making an end of reading, said:
"Such is this letter, and it is signed, 'Joos Damman, esquire'."
And the people shouted:
"To the death with the murderer! To the death with the sorcerer! To
the fire the turner of women's wits! To the gallows with the robber!"
The bailiff said then:
"People, keep silence, that in all freedom we may judge this man."
And speaking to the aldermen:
"I will," said he, "read to you the second letter, found by Nele in
the pocket of Katheline's festal jacket; it is conceived as follows:
"Darling Witch, here is the recipe of a compound sent me by the
very wife of Lucifer: by the help of this compound thou wilt be
able to transport thyself to the sun, the moon, and the stars,
converse with the elemental spirits that carry the prayers of
men unto God, and to traverse all the towns and burgs and rivers
and fields of the whole universe. Thou art to bruise together
in equal quantities: stramonium, sleep-solanum, henbane, opium,
the fresh tips of hemp, belladonna, and datura.
"If thou wilt, we shall go this night to the sabbath of the
spirits: but thou must love me better and not be miserly again
like the other night, when thou didst refuse me ten florins,
saying thou didst not have them. I know that thou dost hide a
treasure and wilt not tell me of it. Dost thou love me no longer,
my sweetheart?"
"Thy cold devil,
"Hanske."
"To the death with the sorcerer!" cried the people.
The bailiff said:
"We must compare the two writings."
This being done, they were adjudged to be similar. The bailiff then
said to the lords and gentlemen there present:
"Do ye recognize this man for Messire Joos Damman, son of the alderman
of La Keure of Ghent?"
"Aye," said they.
"Did ye know," said he, "Messire Hilbert, son of Willem Ryvish,
Esquire?"
One of the gentlemen, who was called Van der Zickelen, spoke and said:
"I am from Ghent; my house is in St. Michael's Place; I know Willem
Ryvish, Esquire, sheriff of La Keure of Ghent. He lost, fifteen years
past, a son of twenty-three years of age, debauched, a gamester, an
idler; but everyone forgave it him because of his youth. Since that
time no man has had news of him. I ask to see the sword, the poignard,
and the satchel of the dead man."
Having them before him, he said:
"The sword and the poignard carry on the pommel of the hilt the arms
of the Ryvishes, which are three silver fish on an azure field. I
see the same arms reproduced on a gold shield between the meshes of
his pouch. What is that other poignard?"
The bailiff speaking:
"It is that poignard," said he, "which was found planted in the body
of Hilbert Ryvish, the son of Willem."
"I recognize on it," said the lord, "the arms of the Dammans; the
tower gules on a silver field. So keep me God and all his saints."
The other gentlemen also said:
"We recognize the aforesaid arms for those of Ryvish and of Damman. So
keep us God and all his saints."
Then the bailiff said:
"From the evidence heard and read by the tribunal of aldermen, Messire
Joos Damman is the sorcerer, a murderer, a seducer of women, a robber
of the king's goods, and as such guilty of the crime of treason human
and divine."
"You say so, Messire Bailiff," rejoined Joos, "but you will not condemn
me, lacking sufficient proofs: I am not nor ever was a sorcerer;
I did but play at the game of being a devil. As for my shining face,
you have the recipe for it and that for the unguent, the which, while
containing henbane, is merely soporific. When this woman, a real witch,
used it, she fell in a trance, and thought she went to the sabbath and
there danced in the ring with her face to the outside of the circle,
and adored a devil with the shape of a goat, set upon an altar.
"The dance being over, she thought she went and kissed him under
the tail, as sorcerers do, to give herself up thereafter with me,
her friend, to strange copulations pleasing to her perverted mind. If
I had, as she says, cold arms and cool body, it was a mark of youth,
not of sorcery. In the works of love coolness doth not endure. But
Katheline would fain believe what she desired, and take me for a
devil notwithstanding that I am a man of flesh and bone, in everything
as yourselves that look at me. She alone is guilty: taking me for a
demon and receiving me in her bed, she sinned both in intention and
deed against God and the Holy Spirit. It is therefore she, and not I,
that committed the crime of sorcery; it is she that is to be made to
pass through the fire, as a furious and malignant witch that seeks
to make herself pass for a madwoman, in order to hide her cunning."
But Nele:
"Do ye hear him," said she, "the murderer? He hath, like a girl for
sale, with the armlet on her arm, made a trade and merchandise of
love. Do ye hear him? He means, to save himself, to have her burned
that gave him all."
"Nele is bad," said Katheline, "do not listen to her, Hans, my
beloved."
"Nay," said Nele, "nay, thou art no man: thou art a cowardly cruel
devil." And taking Katheline in her arms: "Messieurs Judges," exclaimed
she, "listen not to this pale evil one: he hath but one wish, to see
my mother burn, she that did no other crime but to be smitten by God
with madness, and to believe the phantoms of her dreams real. She
hath already suffered much in her body and in her mind. Do not put
her to death, Messieurs the Judges. Leave the innocent to live out
her sad life in peace."
And Katheline said: "Nele is bad; thou must not believe her, Hans
my lord."
And among the common folk the women were weeping and the men said:
"Pardon for Katheline."
The bailiff and the aldermen gave their sentence on Joos Damman, upon a
confession which he made after being tortured afresh: he was condemned
to be degraded from his noble estate and burned alive in a slow fire
until death ensued, and suffered the penalty the next day before
the doors of the Townhall, still saying: "Put the witch to death;
she alone is guilty! Cursed be God! my father will slay the judges."
And he rendered up the ghost.
And the people said: "See him cursing and a blasphemer: he dies like
a dog."
Next day the bailiff and the aldermen gave their sentence upon
Katheline, who was condemned to undergo the trial by water in the
Bruges Canal. Floating, she should be burned as a witch; going to the
bottom and dying, she should be regarded as dying like a Christian,
and as such should be interred in the garden of the church, which is
the graveyard.
The day after, Katheline, holding a wax taper in her hand, barefooted
and clad in a chemise of black linen, was brought to the bank of
the canal, all along by the trees, in grand procession. Before her
marched, singing the prayers for the dead, the dean of Notre Dame,
his vicars, the beadle carrying the cross; and behind, the bailiffs
of Damme, the aldermen, the clerks and recorders, the constables of
the commune, the provost, the executioner and his two assistants. Upon
the banks there was a great crowd of women weeping and men growling,
in pity for Katheline, who walked as a lamb suffering herself to be
led she knew not whither, and always saying: "Take away the fire,
my head burns! Hans, where art thou?"
In the midst of the women Nele cried: "I want to be thrown in with
her." But the women did not suffer her to come near to Katheline.
A sharp wind blew from the sea; from the gray sky a fine hail was
falling into the water of the canal; a bark was there, which the
executioner and his men seized in the name of His Majesty the king. At
their command, Katheline went into it; the executioner was seen,
standing in it, and at the signal of the provost lifting his wand
of justice, he cast Katheline into the canal: she struggled, but not
for long, and went to the bottom, having cried out: "Hans! Hans! help!"
And the people said: "This woman is no witch."
Men plunged into the canal and pulled Katheline out from it,
unconscious and rigid as a corpse. Then she was brought into a tavern
and placed before a great fire; Nele took off her clothes and her wet
linen, to give her others; when she came back to herself, she said,
trembling and chattering her teeth:
"Hans, give me a woollen cloak."
And Katheline could not get back her warmth. And she died on the
third day. And she was interred in the garden of the church.
And Nele, orphaned, departed to the land of Holland, to Rosa van
Auweghen.
VII
Upon the hulls of Zealand, on boyers, on croustèves, away goes Thyl
Claes Ulenspiegel.
The free sea wafts the valiant flyboats on which are eight, ten or
twenty guns all of iron: they belch forth death and massacre on the
traitor Spaniards.
He is an expert gunner, Thyl Ulenspiegel, son of Claes, lo how he aims
straight and true, and pierces like a wall of butter the carcases of
the butchers.
In his hat he wears the silver crescent, with this legend: "Liever
den Turc als den Paus": "Rather to serve the Turk than the Pope."
The sailors that see him climb up upon their ships, agile as a cat,
supple as a squirrel, singing some song or other, with some gay jest
in his mouth, would ask him curiously:
"Whence is it, little man, that thou hast so young a mien, for they
say thou wert born long ago at Damme?"
"I am no body, but a spirit," said he, "and Nele, my sweetheart,
is like me. Spirit of Flanders, love of Flanders, we shall never die."
"And yet," said they, "when thou art cut, thou dost bleed."
"Ye see but the appearance of it," answered Ulenspiegel, "it is wine
and not blood."
"We will broach thy belly, then!"
"I would be the only one to drain it," replied Ulenspiegel.
"Thou art mocking us."
"He that beats the case will hear the drum," answered Ulenspiegel.
And the embroidered banners of the Roman Catholic processions floated
from the masts of the ships. And clad in velvet, in brocade, in silk,
in cloth of gold and of silver, such as abbots wear at solemn masses,
bearing mitre and crozier, drinking the monks' wine, the Beggars kept
guard on their ships.
And it was a strange sight to behold appearing from out of these
rich vestments those coarse hands that held arquebus or arbalest,
halberd or pike, and all men of hard physiognomy, girt about with
pistols and cutlasses gleaming in the sun, and drinking from golden
chalices the abbots' wine that had become the wine of liberty.
And they sang and they shouted: "Long live the Beggar!" and thus they
scoured the ocean and the Scheldt.
VIII
At this time the Beggars, among whom were Lamme and Ulenspiegel, took
Gorcum. And they were commanded by Captain Marin: this Marin, who had
been a workman on the dykes, disported himself with great haughtiness
and sufficiency, and signed with Gaspard Turc, the defender of Gorcum,
a capitulation whereby Turc, the monks, burgesses, and soldiers shut
up in the citadel were to come forth freely, bullet in mouth, musket
on shoulder, with all that they could carry, save that the goods of
the Church should be left to the assailants.
But Captain Marin, upon an order from Messire de Lumey, held the
nineteen monks as prisoners, and let the soldiers and the citizens
go free.
And Ulenspiegel said:
"The word of a soldier should be a word of gold. Why doth he fail
of his?"
An ancient Beggar made answer to Ulenspiegel:
"The monks are sons of Satan, the leprosy of nations, the shame of
countries. Since the coming of the Duke of Alba, these fellows lifted
up their noses high in Gorcum. There is among them one, the priest
Nicolas, prouder than a peacock and fiercer than a tiger. Every time
he passed in the street with his pyx in which was his host made with
dog's fat, he would look with eyes full of fury at the houses from
which the women did not come and kneel, and would denounce to the
judge all that did not bend the knee before his idol of dough and
gilded brass. The other monks imitated him. That was the cause of
many great oppressions, burnings, and cruel punishments in the town of
Gorcum. Captain Marin does well to keep prisoner the monks who would
else go off with their likes into villages, burgs, towns, and townlets,
to preach against us, stirring up the populace and causing the poor
reformers to be burned. Mastiffs are put on the chain until they die:
to the chain with the monks; to the chain with the bloed-honden,
the duke's blood-hounds; to the cage with the butchers. Long live
the Beggar!"
"But," said Ulenspiegel, "Monseigneur d'Orange, our prince of liberty,
wills that we should respect, among those who surrender, the property
of individuals and freedom of conscience."
The ancient Beggars replied:
"The admiral wills it not for the monks: he is master; he took
Briele. To the cage with the monks!"
"Word of a soldier, word of gold! why does he fail of it?" answered
Ulenspiegel. "The monks kept in prison suffer a thousand insults."
"The ashes beat no longer upon thy heart," said they: "a hundred
thousand families, in consequence of the edicts, have taken over
yonder, to the north-west, to the land of England, the trades, the
industry, the wealth of our country; bemoan then those that wrought
our ruin! Under the Emperor Charles the Fifth, Butcher the First,
under this one, the king of Blood, Butcher the Second, one hundred
and eighteen thousand persons have perished by execution. Who carried
the taper of the obsequies in murder and in tears? Monks and soldiers
of Spain. Dost thou not hear the souls of the dead lamenting?"
"The ashes beat upon my heart," said Ulenspiegel. "Word of a soldier,
'tis word of gold."
"Who then," said they, "would by excommunication have put the country
under the ban of all nations? Who would have armed against us, had
it been possible, earth and sky, God and the devil, and their serried
ranks of saints, both male and female? Who made the sacred host bleed
with the blood of an ox, who made wooden statues weep? Who had the De
Profundis sung in the land of our fathers, if not this accursed clergy,
these hordes of lazy monks, in order that they might keep their riches,
their influence over idol worshippers, and reign over the poor country
by ruin, blood, and fire. To the cage with the wolves that rush upon
men on earth; to the cage with the hyænas! Long live the Beggar!"
"Word of a soldier, word of gold," said Ulenspiegel.
The next day a message came from Messire de Lumey, with orders to
transfer from Gorcum to Briele, where the admiral was, the nineteen
monks that were prisoners.
"They will be hanged," said Captain Marin to Ulenspiegel.
"Not while I am alive," replied he.
"My son," said Lamme, "speak not thus to Messire de Lumey. He is
fierce, and will hang thee with them without mercy."
"I shall speak according to the truth," replied Ulenspiegel; "word
of a soldier, word of gold."
"If thou canst save them," said Marin, "take their boat to Briele. Take
with thee Rochus the pilot and thy friend Lamme if thou wilt."
"I do wish it," answered Ulenspiegel.
The boat was moored at the Green quay; the nineteen monks entered
into it; Rochus the timid was set at the helm; Ulenspiegel and Lamme,
well armed, took their place at the prow of the ship. Certain rascal
troopers that had come among the Beggars for pillage were beside the
monks, who were hungry. Ulenspiegel gave them drink and food. "That
one is going to turn traitor!" said the rascal troopers. The nineteen
monks, seated amidships, were all gaping and shivering, though it
was July, and the sun was bright and hot, and a gentle breeze filled
out the sails of the ship as she glided massive and bulging over the
green waves.
Father Nicolas then spake and said to the pilot:
"Rochus, are we being brought to the Gallows Field?"
Then turning towards Gorcum: "O town of Gorcum!" said he, standing
and stretching out his hand, "town of Gorcum! how many woes hast thou
to suffer: thou shalt be accursed among cities, for thou hast grown
within thy walls the grain of heresy! O town of Gorcum! And the angel
of the Lord shall watch no longer at thy gates. He will have no more
care of thy virgins' modesty, the courage of thy men, the fortune of
thy merchants! O town of Gorcum! thou art accursed, unfortunate!"
"Accursed, accursed," answered Ulenspiegel, "accursed as the comb that
hath passed through and taken away the Spanish lice, accursed as the
dog breaking his chain, as the proud horse shaking a cruel rider from
off his back! Accursed thyself, booby preacher, who findest ill that
the rod should be broken, were it an iron rod upon the tyrants' back!"
The monk held his tongue, and lowering his eyes, appeared steeped in
holy hate.
The rascal soldiers that had come among the Beggars for the sake of
pillage were close by the monks, who soon were hungry. Ulenspiegel
asked biscuit and herrings for them; the ship master answered:
"Let them be thrown into the Meuse, they can have fresh herring to
eat then."
Ulenspiegel then gave the monks all the bread and sausage he had for
himself and for Lamme. The ship-master and the rascal Beggars said
one to another:
"This one is a traitor, he is feeding the monks; we must denounce him."
At Dordrecht the ship stopped in the Harbour at the Bloemen-Key,
the Flower quay; men, women, lads, and lasses ran up in crowds to see
the monks, and said to one another pointing at them with a finger or
threatening them with their fist:
"Look at those clowns, manufacturers of Bons Dieux that bring men's
bodies to the stake and their souls to the fire everlasting; look at
the fat tigers and big-bellied jackals."
The monks hung their heads and dared not speak. Ulenspiegel saw them
trembling once more.
"We are hungry again," said they, "compassionate soldier."
But the ship master:
"What is always drinking? Dry sand. Who eats without ceasing? The
monk."
Ulenspiegel went up the town to find bread for them, ham, and a great
jug of beer.
"Eat and drink," said he; "ye are our prisoners, but I shall save
you if I can. Word of a soldier, word of gold."
"Why dost thou give them that? They will never pay you," said the
rascal Beggars; and talking among themselves they whispered these
words in each other's ears: "He has promised to save them; let us
keep good watch upon him."
At dawn they came to Briele. The gates having been opened to them,
a voet-looper, a courier, went to inform Messire de Lumey of their
coming.
As soon as he had the news, he came on horseback, having just put
on his clothes, and accompanied by some horsemen and foot-soldiers,
with their weapons.
And Ulenspiegel could see once more the fierce admiral clad like a
proud lord living in opulence.
"Hail and greeting," said he, "Messires the monks. Lift up your
hands. Where is the blood of Messieurs d'Egmont and de Hoorn? Ye show
me clean white paws; 'tis well for you."
A monk called Leonard answered:
"Do with us as thou wilt. We are monks; no one will claim us."
"He hath well said," said Ulenspiegel; "for the monk having broken with
the world, which is father and mother, brother and sister, spouse and
lover, finds at the hour of God no soul that claims him. And yet,
Your Excellency, I will do so. Captain Marin, when he signed the
capitulation of Gorcum, agreed that these monks should be free as all
those that were taken in the citadel, and who came out from it. And
yet they were held prisoner without cause; I hear it said they shall be
hanged. Monseigneur, I address myself humbly to you, speaking to you on
their behalf, for I know that the word of a soldier is word of gold."
"Who art thou?" asked Messire de Lumey.
"Monseigneur," answered Ulenspiegel, "Fleming am I from the goodly
land of Flanders, clown, nobleman, all at once, and through the
world in this wise I go wandering, praising things good and lovely,
and mocking folly without stint. And I will praise you if you keep
to the promise made by the captain: word of a soldier, word of gold."
But the rascally Beggars that were upon the ship:
"Monseigneur," said they, "that fellow is a traitor: he hath promised
to save them; he hath given them bread, ham, sausages, and beer,
and to us nothing."
Messire de Lumey said then to Ulenspiegel:
"Fleming gadabout and monk feeder, thou shalt be hanged with them."
"I have no fear," answered Ulenspiegel, "word of a soldier, word
of gold."
"Thou carriest thy comb high," said de Lumey.
"The ashes beat upon my heart," said Ulenspiegel.
The monks were brought into a barn, and Ulenspiegel with them: there
they would fain have converted him by theological disputations;
but he fell asleep listening to them.
Messire de Lumey being at table, full of wine and meat, a messenger
arrived from Gorcum, from Captain Marin, with a copy of letters from
the Silent, Prince of Orange, "commanding all governors of cities
and other places to hold the ecclesiastics in like safeguard, safety,
and privilege as the rest of the people."
The messenger asked to be brought before de Lumey to give the copy
of the letters into his own hands.
"Where is the original?" de Lumey asked him.
"With my master," said the messenger.
"And the clown sends me the copy!" said de Lumey. "Where is thy
passport?"
"Here it is, Monseigneur," said the messenger.
Messire de Lumey read it in a loud voice:
"Monseigneur and master Marin Brandt enjoins upon the ministers,
governors, and officers of the republic that they suffer to pass
safely," etc.
De Lumey, striking his fist on the table and tearing up the passport:
"God's blood!" said he, "what is he meddling with, this Marin, this
trash, who had not, before the taking of Briele, the backbone of a
red herring to put between his teeth? He dubs himself monseigneur
and master, and sends me his order. He enjoins and ordains! Tell thy
master that since he is so much captain and monseigneur, and so much
bidding and forbidding, the monks shall be hanged high and short at
once, and thou with them if thou dost not take thyself off."
And fetching him a kick, he sent him out of the chamber.
"Give me to drink," he cried. "Have you seen the insolence of this
Marin? I could spit out my breakfast with rage. Let them hang the
monks immediately in their barn, and bring me their Flemish conductor,
after he has seen their execution. We shall see if he will dare
to tell me I have done wrong. God's blood! what are these jugs and
glasses wanted here for still?"
And he broke with a great crashing the cups and dishes, and no man
dared speak to him. The servants would have picked up the pieces;
he did not allow them, and drinking out of the flasks immoderately,
he became more and more angry, striding about and crushing the bits
and trampling on them furiously.
Ulenspiegel was brought before him.
"Well!" said he, "dost thou bring tidings of thy friends the monks?"