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 passed 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 noble 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!"
IX
Lamme and Ulenspiegel, each mounted upon a donkey given him by
Simon Simonsen, one of the followers of the Prince of Orange, went
riding far and wide, warning the people concerning the bloodthirsty
designs of King Philip, and always on the look-out for any news from
Spain. They frequented all the markets and fairs of the countryside,
selling vegetables and habited like peasants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account