"It is wrong to deny the power of charms," said Nele. "Come, Ulenspiegel!" "Very well," he said. The next day Ulenspiegel arranged with the magistrate that one of the soldiers who had clear sight and a faithful heart should take his place at the Tower for that one evening. And away he went with Nele towards the Isle of Birds. They passed along by many a field and dike, till at last they saw the sea in front of them, and in it were set many little green islands with the waves coursing in between. And all about the grassy hills, which soon began to lose themselves in the sand-dunes, a great quantity of peewits were flying high and low, and sea-gulls and sea-swallows. Some of these birds would crowd together on the surface of the sea, and stay there quite still, so that they looked like little white islets; and above them and about flew thousands of their fellows. The very soil itself was full of their nests, and Ulenspiegel stooped down to pick up one of their eggs which was lying on the road. No sooner had he done so than a sea-gull came flapping towards him, crying out the while most dolefully. And in answer to this summons there flew up a hundred other sea-gulls, crying out as if in anguish, hovering about the head of Ulenspiegel and over the neighbouring nests. But they did not dare to approach him. "Ulenspiegel," said Nele, "these birds are asking you to have mercy on their eggs." Then she began to tremble, and said: "I am afraid. Behold, the sun is setting, the sky is pale, the stars are awakening, it is the hour of the spirits. And look at these ruddy exhalations which rise all about us and seem as it were to trail along the ground. Tyl, my beloved, what monster from hell may he be who thus in the mist begins to open his fiery mouth? And look over there towards Philipsland. It was there that the murderer king had all those poor men done to death, not once but twice, and all for the sake of his cruel ambition! And there this night the will-o'-the-wisps are dancing. For this is the night when the souls of poor men killed in battle leave their bodies all cold in purgatory, and come to warm themselves once again in the tepid air of earth. This is the hour when you may ask anything you will of Christ, He who is Lord of all good wizards." "The ashes beat upon my heart," said Ulenspiegel. "Would that He would show me those Seven whose ashes, they say, when thrown to the winds, would make Flanders happy again, and all the world!" "O man without faith," said Nele. "By the power of the balm it may be you will see them." "Maybe," said Ulenspiegel, "if some spirit, forsooth, would come down to visit us from that cold star." And he pointed with his finger to the star Sirius.