"Have mercy on him, Prince," cried my Lords of Hoogstraeten and of Schoonenbergh both together; while the others all began to smile compassionately. Lamme also put in a word of his own, "Have mercy, my Lord. Green wood is poison, neither more nor less than rank poison!" The Prince said: "Very well." Thereupon Ulenspiegel leapt in the air again and again, and smote Lamme on his belly and compelled him to dance too, saying: "Join me now in praising the good Duke who has delivered me from the green wood." And Lamme did his best to dance, but could not very well because of his belly. And Ulenspiegel gave him to eat and to drink as much as he was able. XVI It was now at the end of October. The Prince was in want of money, and his army of food. The soldiers too began to murmur, and he marched them towards the French frontier to offer battle to the Duke. But the Duke would not fight. Leaving Quesnoy-le-Comte to go to Cambrésis, the Prince's army fell in with ten companies of Germans and eight Spanish ensigns and three cohorts of cavalry. They at once joined battle, and in the midst of the mêlée was Ruffele Henricis, the Duke's son, crying out at the top of his voice: "No quarter! No quarter! Long live the Pope!" Now Don Henricis found himself opposite to a company of arquebusiers which was led by Ulenspiegel, and he threw himself upon them with all his men. Ulenspiegel said to his sergeant: "I will cut out this murderer's tongue for him!" "Very good," said the sergeant. And Ulenspiegel took careful aim, and his bullet shattered the tongue and the entire jaw-bone of Don Ruffele Henricis, son of the Duke. At the same time Ulenspiegel brought down the son of the Marquess Delmares, and in a little while more the eight ensigns and the three cohorts of cavalry were thoroughly worsted. After this victory Ulenspiegel went seeking for Lamme everywhere through the camp, but he could not find him. "Alas," he said, "he is gone! Lamme is gone; my friend, my great fat friend! In his warlike ardour he must have forgotten how heavy his belly was, and tried to follow the Spaniards in their flight. Out of breath he must have fallen like a sack on the wayside. And then the enemy will have picked him up for ransom--a ransom of good Christian fat! O Lamme, my friend, where are you? Where are you, my great fat friend?" Ulenspiegel sought him everywhere but found him not and had to nurse his grief in silence. And now November was come, the month of snow-storms, and Ulenspiegel, having been ordered to report himself before William, found the Prince brooding in silence, and biting the lacings of his coat of mail. "Listen to me," the Prince said presently, "and give me your whole attention." Ulenspiegel answered: "My ears are like the gates of a prison. One enters easily but to get out again is a different matter."