And Lamme passed along proudly, saluting right and left like a
king. And the fame of his valour followed him from village to village
and from town to town, as far as Liége, Chocquier, La Neuville, Vesin,
and Namur, to which place, however, our travellers gave a wide berth
because of the three evangelists. And so they wended along by the banks
of river and canal, and everywhere the song of the lark answered the
song of the cock. And wherever they went they found that in the sacred
cause of Liberty weapons were being forged and armour furbished for
the ships that stood by along the coast to carry away.
And Lamme, preceded everywhere by his glorious reputation, began
himself to believe in his own prowess, and growing proud and warlike he
let his beard grow too. And Ulenspiegel called him Lamme the Lion. But
Lamme did not continue in this purpose longer than the fourth day,
because the hairs of his beard began to tickle him. And he passed
a razor over the surface of his victorious countenance, so that it
appeared thereafter like his own face once more, round and full as
the sun, ablaze with the flame of good nourishment. And thus they
came at length to Harlebeke.
XXIII
At Harlebeke Lamme renewed his provision of oliekoekjes, eating
seven-and-twenty of them on the spot and putting thirty away into his
basket. The same evening they came to Courtrai and dismounted from
their donkeys at the tavern of the Bee that was kept by one Gilis
Van den Ende, who himself came to the inn door as soon as he heard
the singing of the lark.
At once the new arrivals found that everything was made like sugar and
honey for them; for mine host, as soon as he had seen the letter from
the Prince, presented Ulenspiegel with fifty caroluses on the Prince's
behalf, nor would he accept any payment at all for the turkey which
he served for their dinner, nor yet for the dobbel clauwaert which he
gave them to drink. He warned them also that there were many spies
in Courtrai, and that it behoved both Ulenspiegel and his companion
to keep a close watch on what they said during their stay in the city.
"We shall be careful," said Ulenspiegel and Lamme. And so saying they
came out of the tavern.
The gables of the houses were all gilded in the rays of the setting
sun. The birds sang in the lime-trees, and Lamme and Ulenspiegel
wandered at their ease along the streets of the town. All at once
Lamme said:
"I asked Martin Van den Ende if by chance he had seen any one at
all resembling my wife in Courtrai, and he told me that there were a
number of women that were accustomed to meet together of an evening
at the sign of the Rainbow, a house that is kept by a woman called
La Stevenyne, just outside the town on the road to Bruges. I shall
go there."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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