"O Pride, father of Ambition, and you, O Anger, that are the source of cruelty, you slew us on many a battlefield, and caused our death in many a prison and many a torture-chamber, that you might keep your sceptres and your crowns! And you, O Envy, that have destroyed so many useful thoughts while yet in the germ, we are the souls of the inventors whom you have persecuted. Avarice, you it is that have turned the blood of the poor into gold, and we are the souls of your victims. O Luxury, you are the friend and the sister of Murder; Nero, Messalina, Philip King of Spain--such are your children, and you buy virtue and you bribe corruption, and we are the souls of your dead. And you, O Idleness, and you, Greed, you befoul the world, but the world must be cleansed of you; we are the souls of those who have perished at your hands." And a voice was heard saying: From the dung-heap flowers arise, Seven are wicked, but seven are good. Bad teacher oft makes pupil wise. Now longs the wandering louse comprise Both coal and cinder if he could! Then spake the wisps: "Fire. We are Fire--the avenger of all old tears and all old pains which the people have suffered; the avenger of all the human game that has been hunted for pleasure by the Lords of this land; the avenger of all battles fought to no purpose, of all the blood that has been spilt in prison, of all the men burned at the stake and the women and girls buried alive; the avenger of all the past of blood and chains. The Fire--that is Us--we are the souls of the dead." At these words the Seven were suddenly transformed into images of wood, though they still lost nothing of their former outline; and a voice was heard saying: "Burn the wood, Ulenspiegel." And Ulenspiegel turned towards the will-o'-the-wisps: "You that are made of fire, do your office." And the wisps thronged around the seven images, which straightway burst into flame and were reduced to ashes. And from the ashes there flowed a river of blood. But out of the ashes arose now seven other figures, and the first said: "Once I was called Pride. But now my name is Nobility." And the rest spake after the same fashion, and Nele and Ulenspiegel saw how Economy came forth from Avarice; Vivacity from Anger; Healthy Appetite from Gluttony; Emulation from Envy; and from Idleness the Dreams of poets and wise men. And Luxury, on her goat, was now transformed into the likeness of a beautiful woman, and her name was Love. And all around them danced the will-o'-the-wisps most joyously. And thereafter did Ulenspiegel and Nele begin to hear a thousand voices as of hidden men and women, that spake with a sonorous, clicking sound, like that of castanets, and thus sang they: When over the earth and over the sea These Seven transformed shall reign, Mortals lift up your heads again, For happy the world shall be! And Ulenspiegel said: "These spirits are making mock of us."