Légende d'Ulenspiegel. English Read online

  Many and many a time had Ghent cherished him and succoured him, butnow he struck her on the breast as it were with a dagger, lookingfor blood, since it seemed he had not there found milk enough.

  Last shame of all, he cast his eye upon the bell that is calledRoelandt; and the man who had sounded the alarm thereon, bidding allthe citizens to defend the rights of their city, him he had bound andhung to the clapper of the bell. And he had no pity upon Roelandt, thevery tongue of his mother, the tongue whereby she spake to all the landof Flanders, Roelandt the proud bell that sings of herself this song:

  When I ring there is a fire When I peal there is a storm In the land of Flanders.

  And thinking that his mother had too loud a voice he carried away herbell. And the people of the country round would say that Ghent wasdead, now that her son had wrenched away her tongue with his pincersof iron.

  XX

  In those days, which were days of spring, fresh and clear, whenall the earth is in love, Soetkin was chatting by the open window,and Claes humming a tune, while Ulenspiegel was dressing up the dogBibulus Schnouffius in a judge's bonnet. The dog plied his paws asthough desirous of passing judgment upon some one, though in realityit was simply his way of trying to get rid of his ungainly head-gear.

  All at once, Ulenspiegel shut the window and ran back into theroom. Then he jumped upon the chairs and the table, reaching up towardsthe ceiling with his hands. Soetkin and Claes soon discovered the causeof this mad behaviour, for there was a tiny little bird, chirrupingwith fear, and cowering against a beam in the recess of the ceiling,and Ulenspiegel was trying to catch it. He had almost succeeded whenClaes spoke out briskly and asked him:

  "Why are you jumping about like this?"

  "To catch the bird," answered Ulenspiegel, "and put him in a cage,and feed him with seeds, and make him sing for me."

  Meantime the bird, crying in an agony of terror, flew back into theroom, striking its head against the window-pane. Still Ulenspiegelwent on trying to catch it, but suddenly the hand of Claes came downheavily upon his shoulder.

  "Catch the bird if you can," said he, "put it in a cage, make it singfor your pleasure; but I also will put you in a cage that is fastenedwith strong bars of iron, and I will make you sing too. Then you,who like nothing better than to run about, will be able to do so nomore; and you will be kept standing in the shade when you are chilly,and in the sun when you are hot. And, one Sunday, we shall all go outand forget to give you your food, and we shall not return again tillThursday, and then maybe we shall find our Tyl all stiff and starvedto death."

  Soetkin was crying at this picture, but Ulenspiegel started forward.

  "What are you going to do?" asked Claes.

  "Open the window for the bird to fly out," he answered.

  And in fact the bird, which was a goldfinch, flew straight out throughthe window, and with a cry of joy mounted up into the air like anarrow, and then alighted upon a neighbouring apple-tree, smoothingits wings with its beak, ruffling its plumage. And all kinds of abusedid it sing in its bird language, all directed against Ulenspiegel.

  Then Claes said:

  "O son of mine, take care that you never take away its libertyfrom either man or beast, for liberty is the greatest good in theworld. Let every one be free, free to go out into the sun when it iscold, and into the shade when it is hot. And let God give judgmenton His Sacred Majesty, he who, not content with denying freedom ofbelief to the people of Flanders, has now put all the noble city ofGhent into a cage of slavery."

  XXI

  Now Philip was married to Marie of Portugal, and with her he acquiredher lands for the crown of Spain; and together they had a son, DonCarlos, he who was afterwards called "the mad" and "the cruel." AndPhilip had no love for his wife.

  The Queen was lying-in. She kept her bed, and by her side were themaids of honour, the Duchess of Alba among them.

  Oftentimes did Philip leave his wife to go and see the burningof heretics. And all the gentlemen and ladies of the Court didlikewise. And thus also did the Duchess of Alba and the other nobleladies whose duty it was to watch by the Queen in her childbed.

  Now at that time the ecclesiastical judges had seized a certainsculptor of Flanders, a good Roman Catholic, on the following charge:He had been commissioned, it seems, by a certain monk to carve a woodenstatue of Our Lady for a certain sum, and on the monk refusing to paythe price which had been agreed between them, the sculptor had slashedat the face of the image with his chisel, saying that he would ratherdestroy his work than let it go at the price of a piece of dirt.

  He was straightway denounced by the monk as an iconoclast, torturedmost piteously and condemned to be burnt alive. During the torturethey had scalded the soles of his feet, so that he cried out as hepassed along from the prison to the stake: "Cut my feet off! ForGod's sake cut my feet off!"

  And Philip, hearing these cries from afar, was glad, though smiledhe never a smile.

  Queen Marie's dames of honour all left her, wishing to be present atthe burning, and the last of all to desert her was the said Duchessof Alba, who, hearing the cries of the sculptor, could not forbearto witness the spectacle.

  So, in the presence of King Philip and of his lords, princes, counts,equerries, and ladies, the sculptor was bound to the stake by along chain. And all round the stake was a circle of flaming bundlesof straw and fiery torches, the idea being that if he wished, thesculptor could be roasted very gently by keeping close to the stakein the centre of the circle, thus avoiding the full rigour of the fire.

  And right curiously did they watch him, naked or almost naked as hewas, and trying to stiffen his resolution against the heat of the fire.

  Meanwhile Queen Marie was stricken with a great thirst, lying therealone on her bed of childbirth. And seeing the half of a melon ona plate, she dragged herself out of bed, and took hold of the melonand ate it all. But thereafter the cold substance of the melon madeher to sweat and to shiver, and she lay upon the floor unable to move.

  "Alas!" she cried, "would that there were some one to carry me backinto bed that I might get warm again!"

  Then it was that she heard the cry of the poor sculptor:

  "Cut off my feet! Cut off my feet!"

  "Ah!" said the Queen, "is that some dog or other baying at my death?"

  It was at this very moment that the sculptor, seeing around him nonebut the faces of Spaniards, his enemies, bethought him of Flanders,the land of valorous men, and he crossed his arms on his breast,and dragging the long chain behind him, walked straight towardsthe outer circle of the straw and the flaming torches. And standingupright there, still with his arms crossed:

  "This," cried he, "this is how the men of Flanders can die in theface of the tyrants of Spain. Cut off their feet--not mine--thatthey may be able no more to run into the way of crime. Flanders forever! Flanders for ever!"

  And the ladies clapped their hands, crying him mercy for the sake ofhis proud look.

  And he died.

  And Queen Marie shook all over her body, and she cried out, her teethchattering together with the chill of approaching death. And her armsand legs grew stiff, and she said:

  "Put me back into my bed that I may be warmed."

  So she died.

  And thus it was, according to the prophecy of Katheline the goodsorceress, that Philip the King sowed everywhere he went the seedsof death, and blood, and tears.

  XXII

  But Ulenspiegel and Nele loved each other, and their love was true.

  It was now the end of April. All the trees were in bloom, and everyplant was swollen with sap, for May was near, the month of the peacock,flowered like a bouquet, the month that sends the nightingales singingaloud in the trees of all the earth.

  Oftentimes would Nele and Ulenspiegel wander together along theroads. Nele would lean on the arm of Ulenspiegel, and hang round himwith her two hands. Ulenspiegel loved this little game, and oftendid he pass his arm about Nele's waist, to hold her the better,a
s he said. And she was happy, but spake not a word.

  Softly along the roads blew the wind, wafting the scent from thefields; the sea boomed in the distance, rocking lazily in the sun;Ulenspiegel seemed like some youthful devil, all pride; and Nele likea little saint from Paradise, half shy of her happiness.

  She leant her head against Ulenspiegel's shoulder, and her hand was inhis, and as they passed along he kissed her forehead, and her cheek,and her sweet lips. But still she spake no word.

  After some hours they grew hot and thirsty, and they drank milk atthe house of a peasant; and yet they were not refreshed. Then theysat them down on the grass by the side of the ditch, and Nele seemedpale and pensive, and Ulenspiegel looked at her, afraid that somethingwas amiss.

  "You are unhappy?" said she.

  "Yes," he admitted.

  "But why?" she asked him.

  "I know not," said he. "But these apple-trees and cherry-treesall in flower, this air so warm that one would say it was chargedwith lightning, these daisies that open their blushing petals tothe fields, and oh, the hawthorn, there, close by us in the hedge,all white.... Will no one tell me why it is that I feel troubled,and always ready to die or to go to sleep? And my heart beats sostrangely when I hear the birds awaken in the trees, and when I seethe swallows coming home! Then I am fain to go away beyond the sun andbeyond the moon. And sometimes I am cold, and then again I am hot. Ah,Nele! would that I were no longer a creature of this low world! VerilyI would give my life a thousand times to her that would love me!"

  Yet Nele spake not at all, but smiling at her ease sat looking atUlenspiegel.

  XXIII

  One Day of All Souls, Ulenspiegel went forth from Notre Dame withcertain other vagabonds of his own age. Among them was Lamme Goedzak,who seemed strayed among them like a lamb in the midst of a herd ofwolves. Lamme treated them with drinks all round, for his mother, asher custom was on Sundays and feast days, had given him three patards.

  So he went with his companions to the tavern In dem Rooden Schildt--atthe sign of the Red Shield. Jan van Liebeke kept the house, and heserved them with dobbel knollaert from Courtrai.

  They began to be warmed with the drink, and the talk turned on thesubject of prayer, and Ulenspiegel declared quite openly that, forhis part, he thought that Masses for the dead did nobody any good,except the priests who said them.

  Now in that company there was a Judas, who went and denouncedUlenspiegel for a heretic. And in spite of the tears of Soetkin, andthe entreaties of Claes, Ulenspiegel was seized and taken prisoner. Heremained shut up in a cellar for the space of a month and three dayswithout seeing a soul. The jailor himself consumed three-quarters ofthe ration that was given him for food.

  During all this time the authorities were informing themselves asto Ulenspiegel's reputation--whether it was good or whether it wasbad. They found that there was not much to be said against him exceptthat he was a lively sort of customer, always railing against hisneighbours. But they could not find that he had ever spoken evil ofOur Lord God, or of Madame the Virgin, nor yet of the Saints. On thisaccount the sentence passed on him was a light one, for he might easilyhave been condemned to have his face branded with a hot iron and tobe flogged till the blood flowed. But in consideration of his youth,the judges merely sentenced him to walk in his shirt behind the priestsbarefoot and hatless, and holding a candle in his hand. And this hewas to do on the Feast of the Ascension, in the first procession thatleft the church.

  So it was done, and when the procession was on the point of turningback, Ulenspiegel was made to stop beneath the porch of Notre Dame,and there cry out aloud:

  "Thanks be to our Lord Jesus! Thanks be to the reverend priests! Sweetare their prayers unto the souls in purgatory; nay, they are filledwith every virtue of refreshment! For each Ave is even as a bucketof water poured upon the backs of those who are being punished,and every Pater is a tubful!"

  And the people heard him with great devotion, and not without a smile.

  On Whit-Sunday the same proceeding had to be gone through, andUlenspiegel followed again in the procession with nothing on but hisshirt, and with his head bare, and no shoes on his feet, and holdinga candle in his hand. On returning to the church he stood up in theporch, holding the candle most reverently in his hand, and then ina high, clear voice (yet not without sundry waggish grimaces) spakeas follows:

  "If the prayers of all good Christians are very comforting to the soulsin purgatory, how much more so must be those of the Dean of Notre Dame,a holy man and perfect in the performance of every virtue. Verily,his prayers assuage the flames of fire in such wise that they aretransformed all of a sudden into ice. But yet be sure that not anatom of it goes to refresh the devils that are in hell."

  And again the people hearkened to what he said with greatdevotion. But some of them smiled, and the Dean smiled too, in hisgrim ecclesiastical way.

  After that, Ulenspiegel was condemned to banishment from the land ofFlanders for the space of three years, on condition that he went toRome on pilgrimage and brought back with him the papal absolution. Forthis sentence Claes had to pay three florins: but he gave an extraflorin to his son, and bought him a pilgrim's habit.

  Ulenspiegel was heart-broken when he came to say good-bye to Claesand Soetkin on the day of his departure. He embraced them both, andhis mother was all in tears; but she accompanied him far on his way,and Claes went too, and many of the townsmen and townswomen.

  When they were home again Claes said to his wife:

  "Good wife, it is very hard that such a boy should be condemned tothis cruel punishment and all for a few silly words."

  "Why, you are crying, my man!" said Soetkin. "Truly, you love him morethan you like to show. Yes, you are sobbing now with a man's sobs,sobs that are like unto the tears of a lion."

  But he answered her not.

  As for Nele, she had gone to hide herself in the barn, so that nonemight see that she also wept for Ulenspiegel. But she followed afarafter Soetkin and Claes and the other townsfolk: and when she sawher lover disappearing in the distance, she ran after him and threwherself on his neck.

  "In Italy you will meet many beautiful ladies," she said.

  "I do not know about their being beautiful," he replied, "but freshlike thee--no. For they are all parched with the sun."

  They walked a long way side by side, and Ulenspiegel seemed thoughtful,muttering from time to time:

  "I'll make 'em pay--I'll make 'em pay for their Masses for the dead!"

  "What Masses are those you speak of?" Nele inquired. "And who is topay for them?"

  Ulenspiegel answered:

  "All the deans, cures, clerks, beadles and the rest, both superiorand inferior, who feed us with their trash. See now, if I had happenedto be a strong working man they would have robbed me of the value ofthree years' labour by making me thus to go on this pilgrimage. But asthings are, it is the poor Claes who pays. Ah, but they shall give meback my three years a hundredfold, and with their own money I myselfwill sing for them their Masses for the dead!"

  "Alas, Tyl!" said Nele, "be prudent, or they will have you burntalive."

  "I am fireproof," answered Ulenspiegel.

  And they parted from one another, she all in tears, he heart-brokenand angry.

  XXIV

  Once in the open country, Ulenspiegel shook himself like a dog, orlike a bird that has regained its liberty, and his heart was cheeredby the trees and fields and the bright sunshine.

  When he had walked on thus for three days he came to the outskirts ofBrussels, and to the wealthy township of Uccle. And there, passing infront of the inn with the sign of the Trumpet, his attention was drawnto a most heavenly odour of fricassee. A little urchin who stood bywas also sniffing the delightful perfume of the sauce, and Ulenspiegelasked him in whose honour it was that there rose to heaven such odourof festal incense. The boy made answer that the Guild of the JollyFace was to meet at the inn that evening after vespers, to celebratethe deliverance of the town by the women and g
irls of olden time.

  Now in the distance Ulenspiegel saw a high pole with a popinjay onthe top of it, and the pole was set in the ground, and round it werea company of women armed with bows and arrows. He asked the boy ifwomen were become archers nowadays?

  The boy, still sniffing greedily the savour of the sauces, replied thatin the days of the Good Duke the very bows that were now being usedby those women had been the means of killing over a hundred brigands.

  Ulenspiegel desired to know further concerning this matter, but theboy said that he could tell no more, so hungry was he, unless forsoothUlenspiegel would give him a patard with which he might buy food anddrink. This Ulenspiegel did, for he felt sorry for him.

  No sooner had the boy received the patard than he rushed into thetavern like a fox to the hen-house, and presently reappeared intriumph with half a sausage and a large loaf of bread.

  And now Ulenspiegel was suddenly aware of a sweet sound of violsand tabors, and soon he saw a number of women dancing together, andamong them a woman of great beauty with a chain of gold hanging roundher neck.

  The boy, who had by this time assuaged his hunger and was grinningwith delight, informed Ulenspiegel that the beautiful woman was theQueen of Archery, that her name was Mietje, and that she was wife toMessire Renonckel, alderman of the parish. Then he asked Ulenspiegelto give him six liards for a drink. Ulenspiegel gave him the money,and when he had thus eaten and drunk his fill the urchin sat himselfdown in the sun and fell to picking his teeth with his nails.