Suddenly the court jester, who was standing by, jumped three feet in the air and jaggled his bells. "Take me for a villain," he cried, "a most villainous villain, but I verily will affirm and assert and say with trumpets and fanfares that there I see a wall, a blank, white wall, and nothing but a wall, so help me God and his saints!" Ulenspiegel said: "When fools 'gin talking, time for wise men to be walking." And he was about to leave the palace when the Landgrave stopped him. "Fool in your folly," said he, "you make boast that you go through the world praising what is good and fair and making mock of foolery, and you have dared to make open game of so many and so high-born ladies, and of their yet more noble lords, bringing ridicule on the pride of their nobility! Of a truth I tell you that the day will come when you will hang for your free speech." "If the cord is of gold," said Ulenspiegel, "it will break with dread at my approach." "Stay," said the Landgrave. "Here is the first bit of your rope," and he gave him fifteen florins. "All thanks to you," said Ulenspiegel, "and I promise you that every tavern on the road shall have a thread of it, a thread of that gold which makes Croesuses of all those rascally tavern-keepers." And off he went on his donkey, holding his head up high in air, with the plume in his cap wagging joyously in the breeze. XXXIV Now was the season of yellowing leaves, and the winds of autumn were beginning to blow. Sometimes for an hour or two it seemed that Katheline was come into her right mind again, and at such times Claes would say that the merciful spirit of God had come to visit her. Then it was that she had power to throw a charm upon Nele, by signs and incantations, so that the girl was able to see whatever was happening all over the world, in the public squares of the cities, or on the highways, or in the houses themselves. To-day Katheline was in one of these moods of right-mindedness, and she was eating olie-koekje with Claes, Soetkin, and Nele. Claes said: "This is the day of His Majesty the Emperor's abdication. Nele, my dear, do you think you could see as far as Brussels in Brabant?" "If Katheline wishes me to," said Nele. Thereupon Katheline caused her to sit down on a bench, and making sundry passes with her hands, she muttered her incantations, which soon sent the girl off into a trance. Then Katheline said to her: "Make your way into the little house which is called the Park House, and is the favourite residence of the Emperor Charles the Fifth." Whereupon Nele began to speak, in a low voice, as though she were half suffocated.