The Legend of Ulenspiegel, Volume 2 (of 2)

by Charles de Coster

  The parchment was put in front of the fire.

  "Monseigneur Bailiff, Monseigneur Bailiff," said Nele, "there is theink appearing before the fire; give orders that the writing be read."

  As the surgeon was about to read it, Messire Joos Damman would havestretched out his arms to seize the parchment; but Nele flung herselfupon his arm quick as the wind and said:

  "Thou shalt not touch it, for thereon is written thy death or thedeath of Katheline. If now thy heart bleeds, murderer, there arefifteen years through which ours have been bleeding; fifteen yearsthat Katheline suffers; fifteen years she had her brain in her headburned by thee; fifteen years that Soetkin is dead by consequenceof the torture; fifteen years that we are needy, ragged, and live inabject want, but proudly. Read the paper, read the paper! The judgesare God upon earth, for they are Justice; read the paper!"

  "Read the paper!" cried the men and women, weeping. "Nele is a bravelass! read the paper! Katheline is no witch!"

  And the clerk read:

  "To Hilbert, son of Willem Ryvish, Esquire, Joos Damman, greeting.

  "Blessed friend, lose thy money no more in gambling dens, at dice, and other follies. I will tell thee how it can be won for very certain. Let us make us devils, handsome devils, beloved of women and of girls. Let us take the fair and rich, let us leave the ugly and poor; let them pay for their pleasure. I made, at this trade, in six months five thousand rixdaeldars in the country of Germany. Women will give their petticoat and chemise to their man when they love him; flee from the miserly ones with pinched up nose that take time to pay for their pleasures. For thy own affair, and to appear goodly and a true devil, an incubus, if they accept thee for the night, announce thy coming by crying like a night bird. And to make thee a veritable devil's face, of a terrifying devil, rub thy visage with phosphorus, which is luminous in spots when it is damp. Its odour is disagreeable, but they will believe that it is the odour of hell. Slay what is in thy way, man, woman, or beast.

  "We shall soon go together to the house of Katheline, a fine good-natured wench; her daughter Nele, a child of my own, if Katheline was faithful to me, is comely and pretty; thou wilt take her easily; I give her to thee, for I care but little for these bastards that cannot for certain be recognized as one's own offspring. Her mother gave me already more than twenty-three carolus, all she possessed. But she hath a treasure hidden, which is, unless I be a fool, the inheritance of Claes, the heretic burned at Damme: seven hundred florins carolus liable to confiscation, but the good King Philip, who had so many of his subjects burned to inherit after them, could never lay his claw on this sweet treasure. It will weigh more in my pouch than in his. Katheline will tell me where it is; we shall divide. Only thou must leave me the greater part for the discovery.

  "As for the women, being our gentle handmaids and slaves in love, we shall take them to the land of Germany. There we shall teach them to become female demons and succubae, drawing the love of all the rich burgesses and men of birth; there we shall live, they and we, upon love paid for with good rixdaeldars, velvets, silk, gold, pearls, and jewels; we shall thus be rich without fatigue, and, unknown to the succubae devils, beloved by the most lovely, always exacting payment besides. All women are fools and ninnies for the man that can light the fire of love that God set beneath their girdles. Katheline and Nele will be more so than others, and believing us to be devils, will obey us in all things: thou, do thou keep thy forename, but never give the name of thy father, Ryvish. If the judge seizes the women, we shall depart without their knowing us or being able to denounce us. To the rescue, my trusty comrade. Fortune smiles on the young, as was wont to say his late Sainted Majesty Charles the Fifth, past master in affairs of love and of war."

  And the clerk, making an end of reading, said:

  "Such is this letter, and it is signed, 'Joos Damman, esquire'."

  And the people shouted:

  "To the death with the murderer! To the death with the sorcerer! Tothe fire the turner of women's wits! To the gallows with the robber!"

  The bailiff said then:

  "People, keep silence, that in all freedom we may judge this man."

  And speaking to the aldermen:

  "I will," said he, "read to you the second letter, found by Nele inthe pocket of Katheline's festal jacket; it is conceived as follows:

  "Darling Witch, here is the recipe of a compound sent me by the very wife of Lucifer: by the help of this compound thou wilt be able to transport thyself to the sun, the moon, and the stars, converse with the elemental spirits that carry the prayers of men unto God, and to traverse all the towns and burgs and rivers and fields of the whole universe. Thou art to bruise together in equal quantities: stramonium, sleep-solanum, henbane, opium, the fresh tips of hemp, belladonna, and datura.

  "If thou wilt, we shall go this night to the sabbath of the spirits: but thou must love me better and not be miserly again like the other night, when thou didst refuse me ten florins, saying thou didst not have them. I know that thou dost hide a treasure and wilt not tell me of it. Dost thou love me no longer, my sweetheart?"

  "Thy cold devil,

  "Hanske."

  "To the death with the sorcerer!" cried the people.

  The bailiff said:

  "We must compare the two writings."

  This being done, they were adjudged to be similar. The bailiff thensaid to the lords and gentlemen there present:

  "Do ye recognize this man for Messire Joos Damman, son of the aldermanof La Keure of Ghent?"

  "Aye," said they.

  "Did ye know," said he, "Messire Hilbert, son of Willem Ryvish,Esquire?"

  One of the gentlemen, who was called Van der Zickelen, spoke and said:

  "I am from Ghent; my house is in St. Michael's Place; I know WillemRyvish, Esquire, sheriff of La Keure of Ghent. He lost, fifteen yearspast, a son of twenty-three years of age, debauched, a gamester, anidler; but everyone forgave it him because of his youth. Since thattime no man has had news of him. I ask to see the sword, the poignard,and the satchel of the dead man."

  Having them before him, he said:

  "The sword and the poignard carry on the pommel of the hilt the armsof the Ryvishes, which are three silver fish on an azure field. Isee the same arms reproduced on a gold shield between the meshes ofhis pouch. What is that other poignard?"

  The bailiff speaking:

  "It is that poignard," said he, "which was found planted in the bodyof Hilbert Ryvish, the son of Willem."

  "I recognize on it," said the lord, "the arms of the Dammans; thetower gules on a silver field. So keep me God and all his saints."

  The other gentlemen also said:

  "We recognize the aforesaid arms for those of Ryvish and of Damman. Sokeep us God and all his saints."

  Then the bailiff said:

  "From the evidence heard and read by the tribunal of aldermen, MessireJoos Damman is the sorcerer, a murderer, a seducer of women, a robberof the king's goods, and as such guilty of the crime of treason humanand divine."

  "You say so, Messire Bailiff," rejoined Joos, "but you will not condemnme, lacking sufficient proofs: I am not nor ever was a sorcerer;I did but play at the game of being a devil. As for my shining face,you have the recipe for it and that for the unguent, the which, whilecontaining henbane, is merely soporific. When this woman, a real witch,used it, she fell in a trance, and thought she went to the sabbath andthere danced in the ring with her face to the outside of the circle,and adored a devil with the shape of a goat, set upon an altar.

  "The dance being over, she thought she went and kissed him underthe tail, as sorcerers do, to give herself up thereafter with me,her friend, to strange copulations pleasing to her perverted mind. IfI had, as she says, cold a
rms and cool body, it was a mark of youth,not of sorcery. In the works of love coolness doth not endure. ButKatheline would fain believe what she desired, and take me for adevil notwithstanding that I am a man of flesh and bone, in everythingas yourselves that look at me. She alone is guilty: taking me for ademon and receiving me in her bed, she sinned both in intention anddeed against God and the Holy Spirit. It is therefore she, and not I,that committed the crime of sorcery; it is she that is to be made topass through the fire, as a furious and malignant witch that seeksto make herself pass for a madwoman, in order to hide her cunning."

  But Nele:

  "Do ye hear him," said she, "the murderer? He hath, like a girl forsale, with the armlet on her arm, made a trade and merchandise oflove. Do ye hear him? He means, to save himself, to have her burnedthat gave him all."

  "Nele is bad," said Katheline, "do not listen to her, Hans, mybeloved."

  "Nay," said Nele, "nay, thou art no man: thou art a cowardly crueldevil." And taking Katheline in her arms: "Messieurs Judges," exclaimedshe, "listen not to this pale evil one: he hath but one wish, to seemy mother burn, she that did no other crime but to be smitten by Godwith madness, and to believe the phantoms of her dreams real. Shehath already suffered much in her body and in her mind. Do not puther to death, Messieurs the Judges. Leave the innocent to live outher sad life in peace."

  And Katheline said: "Nele is bad; thou must not believe her, Hansmy lord."

  And among the common folk the women were weeping and the men said:"Pardon for Katheline."

  The bailiff and the aldermen gave their sentence on Joos Damman, upon aconfession which he made after being tortured afresh: he was condemnedto be degraded from his noble estate and burned alive in a slow fireuntil death ensued, and suffered the penalty the next day beforethe doors of the Townhall, still saying: "Put the witch to death;she alone is guilty! Cursed be God! my father will slay the judges."

  And he rendered up the ghost.

  And the people said: "See him cursing and a blasphemer: he dies likea dog."

  Next day the bailiff and the aldermen gave their sentence uponKatheline, who was condemned to undergo the trial by water in theBruges Canal. Floating, she should be burned as a witch; going to thebottom and dying, she should be regarded as dying like a Christian,and as such should be interred in the garden of the church, which isthe graveyard.

  The day after, Katheline, holding a wax taper in her hand, barefootedand clad in a chemise of black linen, was brought to the bank ofthe canal, all along by the trees, in grand procession. Before hermarched, singing the prayers for the dead, the dean of Notre Dame,his vicars, the beadle carrying the cross; and behind, the bailiffsof Damme, the aldermen, the clerks and recorders, the constables ofthe commune, the provost, the executioner and his two assistants. Uponthe banks there was a great crowd of women weeping and men growling,in pity for Katheline, who walked as a lamb suffering herself to beled she knew not whither, and always saying: "Take away the fire,my head burns! Hans, where art thou?"

  In the midst of the women Nele cried: "I want to be thrown in withher." But the women did not suffer her to come near to Katheline.

  A sharp wind blew from the sea; from the gray sky a fine hail wasfalling into the water of the canal; a bark was there, which theexecutioner and his men seized in the name of His Majesty the king. Attheir command, Katheline went into it; the executioner was seen,standing in it, and at the signal of the provost lifting his wandof justice, he cast Katheline into the canal: she struggled, but notfor long, and went to the bottom, having cried out: "Hans! Hans! help!"

  And the people said: "This woman is no witch."

  Men plunged into the canal and pulled Katheline out from it,unconscious and rigid as a corpse. Then she was brought into a tavernand placed before a great fire; Nele took off her clothes and her wetlinen, to give her others; when she came back to herself, she said,trembling and chattering her teeth:

  "Hans, give me a woollen cloak."

  And Katheline could not get back her warmth. And she died on thethird day. And she was interred in the garden of the church.

  And Nele, orphaned, departed to the land of Holland, to Rosa vanAuweghen.

  VII

  Upon the hulls of Zealand, on boyers, on crousteves, away goes ThylClaes Ulenspiegel.

  The free sea wafts the valiant flyboats on which are eight, ten ortwenty guns all of iron: they belch forth death and massacre on thetraitor Spaniards.

  He is an expert gunner, Thyl Ulenspiegel, son of Claes, lo how he aimsstraight and true, and pierces like a wall of butter the carcases ofthe butchers.

  In his hat he wears the silver crescent, with this legend: "Lieverden Turc als den Paus": "Rather to serve the Turk than the Pope."

  The sailors that see him climb up upon their ships, agile as a cat,supple as a squirrel, singing some song or other, with some gay jestin his mouth, would ask him curiously:

  "Whence is it, little man, that thou hast so young a mien, for theysay thou wert born long ago at Damme?"

  "I am no body, but a spirit," said he, "and Nele, my sweetheart,is like me. Spirit of Flanders, love of Flanders, we shall never die."

  "And yet," said they, "when thou art cut, thou dost bleed."

  "Ye see but the appearance of it," answered Ulenspiegel, "it is wineand not blood."

  "We will broach thy belly, then!"

  "I would be the only one to drain it," replied Ulenspiegel.

  "Thou art mocking us."

  "He that beats the case will hear the drum," answered Ulenspiegel.

  And the embroidered banners of the Roman Catholic processions floatedfrom the masts of the ships. And clad in velvet, in brocade, in silk,in cloth of gold and of silver, such as abbots wear at solemn masses,bearing mitre and crozier, drinking the monks' wine, the Beggars keptguard on their ships.

  And it was a strange sight to behold appearing from out of theserich vestments those coarse hands that held arquebus or arbalest,halberd or pike, and all men of hard physiognomy, girt about withpistols and cutlasses gleaming in the sun, and drinking from goldenchalices the abbots' wine that had become the wine of liberty.

  And they sang and they shouted: "Long live the Beggar!" and thus theyscoured the ocean and the Scheldt.

  VIII

  At this time the Beggars, among whom were Lamme and Ulenspiegel, tookGorcum. And they were commanded by Captain Marin: this Marin, who hadbeen a workman on the dykes, disported himself with great haughtinessand sufficiency, and signed with Gaspard Turc, the defender of Gorcum,a capitulation whereby Turc, the monks, burgesses, and soldiers shutup in the citadel were to come forth freely, bullet in mouth, musketon shoulder, with all that they could carry, save that the goods ofthe Church should be left to the assailants.

  But Captain Marin, upon an order from Messire de Lumey, held thenineteen monks as prisoners, and let the soldiers and the citizensgo free.

  And Ulenspiegel said:

  "The word of a soldier should be a word of gold. Why doth he failof his?"

  An ancient Beggar made answer to Ulenspiegel:

  "The monks are sons of Satan, the leprosy of nations, the shame ofcountries. Since the coming of the Duke of Alba, these fellows liftedup their noses high in Gorcum. There is among them one, the priestNicolas, prouder than a peacock and fiercer than a tiger. Every timehe passed in the street with his pyx in which was his host made withdog's fat, he would look with eyes full of fury at the houses fromwhich the women did not come and kneel, and would denounce to thejudge all that did not bend the knee before his idol of dough andgilded brass. The other monks imitated him. That was the cause ofmany great oppressions, burnings, and cruel punishments in the town ofGorcum. Captain Marin does well to keep prisoner the monks who wouldelse go off with their likes into villages, burgs, towns, and townlets,to preach against us, stirring up the populace and causing the poorreformers to be burned. Mastiffs are put on the chain until they die:to the chain with the monks; to the chain with the bloed-honden,the duke's blood-hounds; to the cage
with the butchers. Long livethe Beggar!"

  "But," said Ulenspiegel, "Monseigneur d'Orange, our prince of liberty,wills that we should respect, among those who surrender, the propertyof individuals and freedom of conscience."

  The ancient Beggars replied:

  "The admiral wills it not for the monks: he is master; he tookBriele. To the cage with the monks!"

  "Word of a soldier, word of gold! why does he fail of it?" answeredUlenspiegel. "The monks kept in prison suffer a thousand insults."

  "The ashes beat no longer upon thy heart," said they: "a hundredthousand families, in consequence of the edicts, have taken overyonder, to the north-west, to the land of England, the trades, theindustry, the wealth of our country; bemoan then those that wroughtour ruin! Under the Emperor Charles the Fifth, Butcher the First,under this one, the king of Blood, Butcher the Second, one hundredand eighteen thousand persons have perished by execution. Who carriedthe taper of the obsequies in murder and in tears? Monks and soldiersof Spain. Dost thou not hear the souls of the dead lamenting?"

  "The ashes beat upon my heart," said Ulenspiegel. "Word of a soldier,'tis word of gold."

  "Who then," said they, "would by excommunication have put the countryunder the ban of all nations? Who would have armed against us, hadit been possible, earth and sky, God and the devil, and their serriedranks of saints, both male and female? Who made the sacred host bleedwith the blood of an ox, who made wooden statues weep? Who had the DeProfundis sung in the land of our fathers, if not this accursed clergy,these hordes of lazy monks, in order that they might keep their riches,their influence over idol worshippers, and reign over the poor countryby ruin, blood, and fire. To the cage with the wolves that rush uponmen on earth; to the cage with the hyaenas! Long live the Beggar!"