The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Volume 2 (of 2)

by Charles de Coster

  And the aldermen gave sentence of torture for the Friday which wasthe day after the morrow.

  And Nele cried: "Grace, Messeigneurs!" and the people cried withher. But it was in vain.

  And Katheline, looking at Joos Damman, said:

  "I have Hilbert's hand; come and take it to-night, my beloved."

  And they were taken back to the prison.

  There by order of the tribunal, the gaoler was ordered to assign twoguardians to each of them, to beat them every time they would haveslept; but the two guardians of Katheline left her to sleep all night,and those of Joos Damman beat him cruelly every time he closed hiseyes or even nodded his head.

  They were hungry all day on Wednesday, the same night and all Thursdayuntil night, when they were given food and drink, meat salted andsaltpetred, and water salted and saltpetred likewise. That was thebeginning of their torment. And in the morning they brought them,crying out for thirst, into the torture chamber.

  There they were set face to face with one another, and bound each upona bench covered with knotted ropes which made them suffer grievously.

  And they were each forced to drink a glass of water, full of saltand saltpetre.

  Joos Damman beginning to sleep upon his bench, the constablesstruck him.

  And Katheline said:

  "Do not strike him, sirs; you break his poor body. He only committedone crime, for love, when he killed Hilbert. I am athirst, and thou,too, Hans my beloved. Give him to drink first. Water! Water! my bodyburns. Spare him, I will die soon in his place. A drink!"

  Joos said to her:

  "Ugly witch, die and burst like a bitch. Throw her in the fire,Messieurs the Judges. I am athirst!"

  The clerks took down all he said.

  The bailiff then said to him:

  "Hast thou nothing to confess?"

  "I have nothing more to say," replied Damman; "you know all."

  "Since he persists," said the bailiff, "in his denials, he shallremain on these benches and on these cords until he makes a freshand full confession, and he shall be athirst, and he shall be keptfrom sleeping."

  "I will stay here," said Joos Damman, "and I will take my pleasure inseeing that witch suffer on this bench. How do you find the marriagebed, my love?"

  And Katheline replied, groaning:

  "Cold arms and hot heart, Hans, my beloved. I am athirst; my headburns!"

  "And thou, woman," said the bailiff, "hast thou naught to say?"

  "I hear," said she, "the chariot of death and the dry noise ofbones. I thirst! And he taketh me to a great river where thereis water, water fresh and clear; but this water it is fire. Hans,my dear, deliver me from these cords. Yea, I am in purgatory andI see on high Monseigneur Jesus in his paradise and Madame Virginso full of compassion. O our dear Lady, give me one drop of water:do not eat those lovely fruits all alone."

  "This woman is smitten with cruel madness," said one of thealdermen. "She must be taken from the bench of torment."

  "She is no more mad than I," said Joos Damman; "it is mere play andacting." And in a threatening voice: "I shall see thee in the fire,"he said to Katheline, "thou playest the madwoman so well."

  And grinding his teeth, he laughed at his cruel lie.

  "I thirst," said Katheline; "have pity, I thirst. Hans, my beloved,give me to drink. How white thy face is! Let me come to him,Messieurs the Judges." And opening her mouth wide: "Yea, yea, theyare now putting fire in my breast, and the devils fasten me on thiscruel bed. Hans, take thy sword and slay them, thou so mighty. Water,to drink, to drink!"

  "Perish, witch," said Joos Damman; "they ought to thrust a choke-pearinto her mouth to keep her from setting herself up thus, a low creaturelike her, against me, a man of rank."

  At this word one of the aldermen, an enemy of the nobility, replied:

  "Messire Bailiff, it is contrary to the laws and customs of the empireto put a choke-pear into the mouth of any that are being interrogated,for they are here to tell the truth, and for us to judge them fromwhat they say. That is permitted only when the accused being condemnedmight, upon the scaffold, speak to the people, and in this way movethem, and stir up popular feelings."

  "I thirst," said Katheline, "give me to drink, Hans, my darling."

  "Ah!" said he, "thou dost suffer, accursed witch, sole cause of allthe torments I am enduring; but in this torture chamber thou shaltundergo the pain of the candles, the strappado, the wooden splintersunder the nails of thy feet and hands. They will make thee ride nakedastride a coffin whose back will be sharp as a blade, and thou shaltconfess that thou art not mad, but a foul witch to whom Satan hathgiven it in charge to work evil upon noble men. A drink!"

  "Hans, my beloved," said Katheline, "be not wroth with thyhandmaiden! I suffer a thousand pangs for thee, my lord. Spare him,Messieurs the Judges. Give him a full goblet to drink, and keep butone drop for me. Hans, is it not yet the hour of the sea-eagle?"

  The bailiff then said to Joos Damman:

  "When thou didst kill Hilbert, what was the motive of this combat?"

  "It was," said Joos, "for a girl at Heyst we both wished to have."

  "A girl at Heyst!" cried Katheline, trying at all costs to riseup from her bench; "thou art deceiving me for another, traitordevil. Didst thou know that I was listening to thee behind the dykewhen thou saidst that thou wouldst fain have all the money, which wasClaes's money? Without doubt it was to go and spend it with her inliquorishness and revelling! Alas! and I that would have given himmy blood if he could have made gold of it! And all for another! Beaccursed!"

  But suddenly, weeping and trying to turn round on her bench of torture:

  "Nay, Hans, say that thou wilt still love thy poor handmaid, and Ishall scratch the earth with my fingers and find thee a treasure;aye, there is such; and I will go with the hazel twig that bendsthis way and that where there are metals; and I will find it andbring it back to thee; kiss me, darling, and thou shalt be rich;and we shall eat meat, and we shall drink beer every day; aye, aye,all these folk also drink beer; fresh, foaming beer. Oh! sirs, giveme but one single drop; I am in the fire; Hans, I know well wherethere are hazel trees, but we must wait for the spring time."

  "Hold thy tongue, witch," said Joos Damman; "I know thee not. Thouhast taken Hilbert for me: it was he that came to see thee. And in thywicked mind thou didst call him Hans. Know that I am not called Hans,but Joos: we were of the same height, Hilbert and I. I do not knowthee; it was Hilbert, without doubt, that stole the seven hundredflorins carolus; give me to drink; my father will pay a hundredflorins for a little goblet of water; but I know not this woman."

  "Monseigneur and Messires," exclaimed Katheline, "he saith he knowsme not, but I know him well, I, and know that he hath upon his back amole, brown, and of the size of a bean. Ah! thou didst love a girlat Heyst! Doth a good lover blush for his lover? Hans, am I notstill fair?"

  "Fair!" said he, "thou hast a face like a medlar and a body likea century of faggots: see the trash that would be loved by noblemen! Give me to drink!"

  "Thou didst not speak so, Hans, my sweet lord," said she, "when Iwas sixteen years younger than I am now." Then, beating her head andher breast: "'Tis the fire that is there," said she, "and dries upmy heart and withers my face. Do not reproach me with it; dost thouremember when we ate salt meat to drink better, so thou saidst? Nowthe salt is in us, my beloved, and monseigneur the bailiff is drinkingRomagna wine. We do not want wine: give us water. It runs among thegrass, the streamlet that makes the clear spring; the good water,it is cold. Nay, it burns. It is water of hell." And Katheline wept,and she said: "I have done ill to no one, and the whole world castethme into the fire. Give me to drink; men give water to straying dogs. Iam a Christian woman. Give me to drink. I have done no ill to any. Giveme to drink."

  An alderman then spoke and said:

  "This witch is mad only in what concerns the fire she saith burnsher head, but she is nowise mad upon other matters, since she helpedus with a clear head to discover the remains of the dead
man. If themole is there upon the body of Joos Damman, that sign sufficeth toestablish his identity with the devil Hans, for whom Katheline wasout of her wits; tormentor, let us see the mark."

  The tormentor, uncovering Damman's neck and shoulder, showed the mole,brown and hairy.

  "Ah!" said Katheline, "how white is thy skin! One would say a girl'sshoulders; thou art goodly, Hans, my beloved: give me to drink!"

  The tormentor then thrust a long needle into the mole. But it didnot bleed.

  And the aldermen said one to the other:

  "This man is a devil, and he must have killed Joos Damman and takenhis shape the more securely to deceive the poor world."

  And the bailiff and the aldermen fell into fear.

  "He is a devil and there is witchcraft in it."

  And Joos Damman said:

  "Ye know there is no witchcraft, and that there are such fleshyexcrescences that can be pricked without bleeding. If Hilbert hathtaken this witch's money, for it is she that confesseth to have lainwith the devil, he could well have done so by the good and free willof this foul hag. And was thus, being a man of rank, paid for hiscaresses even as bona robas are every day. Are there not in the world,the same as girls, gay fellows that make women pay for their strengthand comeliness?"

  The aldermen said one to another:

  "See you his diabolical assurance? His hairy wart hath not bled: beingan assassin, a devil, and a magician, he would fain pass simply fora duellist, throwing his other crimes on to the devil his friend,whose body he has killed, but not his spirit.... And consider howpale his face is."--"Thus appear all the devils, red in hell, andpale on earth, for they have none of the fire of life that givethruddiness to the countenance, and they are ashes within."--"We mustput him in the fire that he may be red and that he may burn."

  Then said Katheline:

  "Yea, he is a devil, but a kind devil, a sweet devil. And MonseigneurSaint Jacques, his patron, has given him licence to come out ofhell. He prays Monseigneur Jesus for him every day. He will havebut seven thousand years of purgatory: Madame Virgin wishes it, butMonsieur Satan is against it. None the less Madame does what she hasa mind to. Will he go against her? If ye consider well, ye shall seehe hath kept naught of his estate and condition as a devil, save thecold body, and also the face luminous as are the waves of the sea inAugust when it is like to thunder."

  And Joos Damman said:

  "Hold thy tongue, witch, thou wilt burn me." Then speaking to thebailiff and the aldermen: "Look at me, I am no devil; I have fleshand bones, blood and water. I drink and eat, digest and void likeyourselves; my skin is like yours, my foot likewise; tormentor,take my boots off, for I cannot budge with my feet bound."

  The tormentor did so, not without fear.

  "Look," said Joos, showing his white feet: "are those cloven feet,devil's feet? As for my paleness, is there none of you that is palelike me? I see more than three among you. But the sinner is not I,but verily this ugly witch, and her daughter, the evil accuser. Whencedid she have the money she lent to Hilbert; whence came those florinsthat she gave him? Was it not the devil that paid her to accuse andbring death to men of noble birth and guiltless? It is those twainthat should be asked who killed the dog in the yard, who dug the holeand went off leaving it empty, doubtless to hide the stolen treasurein another place. Soetkin the widow had placed no trust in me, forshe never knew me, but in them, and saw them every day. It is theythat stole the Emperor's property."

  The clerk wrote, and the bailiff said to Katheline:

  "Woman, hast thou naught to say for thy defence?"

  Katheline, looking upon Joos Damman, said most amorously:

  "It is the hour of the sea-eagle. I have Hilbert's hand, Hans,my beloved. They say that thou wilt give me back the seven hundredcarolus. Take away the fire! Take away the fire!" cried she afterthat. "Give me to drink! to drink! my head burns. God and the angelsare eating apples in the sky."

  And she lost consciousness.

  "Loosen her from the bench of torment," said the bailiff.

  The tormentor and his assistants obeyed. And she was seen staggeringand with feet swollen out, for the tormentor had pulled the cordstoo tight.

  "Give her to drink," said the bailiff.

  Cold water was given her, and she swallowed it greedily, holdingthe goblet in her teeth as a dog does with a bone and not willing tolet it go. Then they gave her more water, and she would have gone totake it to Joos Damman, but the tormentor took the goblet out of herhands. And she fell sleeping like a lump of lead.

  Joos Damman cried out furiously:

  "I, too, I thirst and am sleepy. Why do you give her to drink? Whydo you leave her to sleep?"

  "She is weak, a woman, and out of her wits," replied the bailiff.

  "Her madness is a game," said Joos Damman, "she is a witch. I wantto drink, I want to sleep!"

  And he shut his eyes, but the tormentor's knechts struck him onthe face.

  "Give me a knife," he shouted, "till I cut these clowns to pieces:I am a man of rank, and I have never been struck in the face. Water,let me sleep, I am innocent. It was not I that took the seven hundredcarolus, it was Hilbert. Give me to drink! I never committed sorceriesor incantations. I am innocent. Let me go. Give me to drink!"

  The bailiff then:

  "How," he asked, "hast thou spent thy time since thou didst leaveKatheline?"

  "I know not Katheline; I have never left her," said he. "Ye questionme on matters foreign to the case. I need not answer you. Give me todrink; let me sleep. I tell you it was Hilbert that did all."

  "Untie him," said the bailiff. "Take him back to his prison. But lethim thirst and have no sleep until he hath confessed his sorceriesand incantations."

  And that was a cruel torture to Damman. He cried out in his cell:"Give me to drink! Give me to drink!" so loud that the people heardhim, but without any pity. And when his guardians struck him in theface as he was falling with sleep, he was like a tiger and cried:

  "I am a man of rank and will kill you, ye clowns. I will go to theking, our head. Give me to drink." But he confessed nothing, and theyleft him alone.

  VI

  They were then in May, the lime tree of justice was green; green,too, were the turf seats upon which the judges placed themselves;Nele was called as witness. On this day sentence was to be pronounced.

  And the people, men, women, townsfolk, and artisans were all roundabout in the field; and the sun shone bright.

  Katheline and Joos Damman were brought before the tribunal; and Dammanappeared paler than ever by reason of the torture of the thirst andthe nights spent without sleep.

  Katheline, who could not maintain herself on her shaking legs, said,pointing to the sun:

  "Take away the fire; my head burns!"

  And she looked on Joos Damman with tender love.

  And he looked at her with hate and contempt.

  And the lords and gentlemen his friends, having been summoned to Damme,were all present as witnesses before the tribunal.

  Then the bailiff spake and said:

  "Nele, the girl who defends her mother Katheline with such great andcourageous affection, found in the pocket stitched in her mother'sjacket, a jacket for feast days, a note signed 'Joos Damman.' Amongthe belongings taken from the corpse of Hilbert Ryvish I found inthe dead man's satchel another letter addressed to him by the saidJoos Damman, the defendant here present before you. I have kept boththese letters in my custody, in order that at the appropriate moment,which is the present, you might judge of this man's obstinacy andacquit or condemn him in accordance with law and justice. Here isthe parchment found in the satchel; I have never touched it, and knownot whether it is legible or not."

  The judges were then in great perplexity.

  The bailiff endeavoured to undo the parchment ball; but it was in vain,and Joos Damman laughed.

  An alderman said:

  "Let us put the ball in water, and then before the fire. If there isin it any secret of adhesion, the fire and the
water will melt it."

  The water was brought; the executioner lit a great fire of wood inthe field; the smoke rose up blue into the clear sky through theverdurous branches of the lime tree of justice.

  "Do not put the letter in the basin," said an alderman "for if itis written with sal ammoniac dissolved in water, you will effacethe characters."

  "Nay," said the surgeon, who was there, "the characters will not beeffaced; the water will soften only the point that keeps the magicball from opening up."

  The parchment was dipped in the water and being softened, was unfolded.

  "Now," said the surgeon, "put it before the fire."

  "Aye, aye," said Nele, "put the paper before the fire; master surgeonis on the road to the truth, for the murderer grows pale and tremblesin his limbs."

  Thereupon, Messire Joos Damman said:

  "I neither grew pale nor trembled, thou little common harpy thatart fain of the death of a man of rank; thou shalt never succeed;this parchment must needs be rotten, after sixteen years' sojourningin the earth."

  "The parchment is not decayed," said the sheriff, "for the satchelwas lined with silk; silk is not consumed in the earth, and the wormshave not gone through the parchment."