Chapter VII: Book IV: I (1)

Being at Heyst, upon the dunes, Ulenspiegel and Lamme see, coming from Ostend, from Blanckenberghe, from Knokke, many fishing boats full of armed men, adherents of the Beggars of Zealand, who wear in their headgear the silver crescent with this inscription: "Better to serve the Turk than the Pope."

Ulenspiegel is glad; he whistles like the lark; from all sides answers the warlike clarion of the cock.

The boats, sailing or fishing and selling their fish, come to land, one after the other, at Emden. There William of Blois is detained, who is equipping a ship under commission from the Prince of Orange.

Très-Long, having been at Emden for eleven weeks, was bitterly sick of waiting. He went from his ship to land and from the land to his ship, like a bear on a chain.

Ulenspiegel and Lamme, wandering about on the quays, saw there a lord of a jovial visage, somewhat melancholy and at a loss to heave up one of the paving-stones of the quay with a pikestaff. Not succeeding in this he still bent every effort to carry out his undertaking, while a dog gnawed at a bone behind him.

Ulenspiegel came to the dog and pretended to want to rob him of his bone. The dog growls; Ulenspiegel does not stop: the dog makes a great uproar of doggish wrath.

The lord, turning at the noise, said to Ulenspiegel:

"What good does it do thee to torment this beast?"

"What good does it do you, Messire, to torment this pavement?"

"It is not the same thing at all," said the lord.

"The difference is not extreme," replied Ulenspiegel; "if the dog sets store by his bone and wants to keep it, this pavement holds to its quay and is fain to remain on it. And it is the very least that folk like us may do, turning to busy ourselves about a dog when folk like you busy yourselves about a paving stone."

Lamme remained behind Ulenspiegel, not daring to speak.

"Who art thou?" asked the lord.

"I am Thyl Ulenspiegel, the son of Claes, who died in the flames for his faith."

And he whistled like the lark and the lord crowed like the cock.

"I am Admiral Très-Long," said he; "what wouldst thou with me?"

Ulenspiegel narrated to him his adventures, and gave him five hundred carolus.

"Who is this big man?" asked Très-Long, pointing a finger at Lamme.

"My comrade and friend," replied Ulenspiegel: "he desires, like myself, to sing on your ship, with the fine voice of a musket, the song of deliverance for the land of our fathers."

"Ye are brave men both," said Très-Long, "and ye shall go on my ship."

They were then in the month of February; sharp was the wind, keen the frost. After three weeks of grudging waiting Très-Long left Emden under protest. Thinking to enter the Texel, he went out from Vlie, but was forced to go in to Wieringen, where his ship was locked up in the ice.

Soon there was a merry spectacle all about: sledges and skaters all in velvet; women skating in jackets and skirts broidered with gold, pearl, scarlet, azure; lads and lasses went, came, glided, laughed, following one another in line, or two by two, in pairs, singing the song of love upon the ice, or going to eat and drink in booths decked out with flags, brandy, oranges, figs, peperkoek, schols, eggs, hot vegetables, and eete-koeken, which are pancakes and pickled vegetables, while all about them sleds and sailing sleighs made the ice cry out under their runners.

Lamme, seeking his wife, went wandering on skates like the jolly men and women, but he fell often.

Meanwhile, Ulenspiegel went to drink and to feed in a small inn on the quay where he had not to pay too dear for his daily rations; and he liked to talk with the old baesine.

One Sunday about nine he went in there asking them to give him his dinner.

"But," said he to a pretty woman coming forward to serve him, "baesine rejuvenated, what hast thou done with thy old wrinkles? Thy mouth hath all its teeth, white and girlish, and its lips are red as cherries. Is it for me, that soft and cunning smile?"

"No, no," said she; "but what must I give you?"

"Thyself," said he.

The woman answered:

"That would be too much for a starveling like you; would you not like other meat?"

Ulenspiegel making no reply:

"What have you done," she said, "with that handsome, well-made, corpulent man whom I often saw with you?"

"Lamme?" said he.

"What have you done with him?" she said.

Ulenspiegel replied:

"He eats, in the booths, hard eggs, smoked eels, salt fish, zuertjes, and all that he can put under his tooth; and all to look for his wife. Why art thou not his wife, pretty one? Wouldst thou like fifty florins? Wouldst thou like a gold necklace?"

But she, crossing herself:

"I am not to buy or to take," said she.

"Dost thou love naught?" said he.

"I love thee as my neighbour, but I love above all my Lord Christ and Madame the Virgin, who bid me live a chaste life. Hard and heavy are its duties, but God is our helper, we poor women. Yet there are some that succumb. Is thy big friend happy?"

Ulenspiegel replied:

"He is gay when he is eating, sad when fasting, and always pensive. But thou, art thou happy or sad?"

"We women," said she, "are slaves of that that rules us!"

"The moon?" said he.

"Aye," said she.

"I am going to tell Lamme to come to see thee."

"Do not so," said she; "he would weep and I in likewise."

"Didst thou ever see his wife?" asked Ulenspiegel.

Sighing, she answered:

"She sinned with him and was condemned to a cruel penance. She knows that he goeth on the sea for the triumph of heresy, and that is a hard thing for a Christian heart to think on. Defend him if he is attacked; care for him if he is wounded: his wife bade me make this request of you."

"Lamme is my brother and my friend," replied Ulenspiegel.

"Ah!" she said, "why do ye not return to the bosom of our Mother Holy Church?"

"She devours her children," answered Ulenspiegel.

And he went his way.

One morning in March, since the wind, that was blowing sharp and cutting, ceased not to thicken the ice, and Très-Long's ship could not leave, the sailors and the soldiers of the vessel were holding feasting and revel on sledges and on skates.

Ulenspiegel was at the inn, and the pretty woman said to him, all woeful and as if bereft of her wits:

"Poor Lamme! poor Ulenspiegel!"

"Why do you lament?" asked he.

"Alas! Alas!" said she, "why do ye not believe in the mass. Ye would go to paradise, without a doubt, and I could save you in this life."

Seeing her go to the door and listen attentively, Ulenspiegel said to her:

"It is not the snow falling that you are listening to?"

"No," said she.

"It is not the moaning wind that you give ear to?"

"No," she said again.

"Nor to the merry din that our valiant sailors are making in the tavern close by?"

"Death cometh as a thief," she said.

"Death!" said Ulenspiegel. "I do not understand thee; come inside and speak."

"They are there," she said.

"Who?"

"Who?" she answered. "The soldiers of Simonen-Bol, who are to come, in the name of the duke, to throw themselves on all of you; if you are so well treated here, it is like the bullocks that are meant for the slaughter. Ah! why," said she all in tears, "why did I not know it save but just now."

"Do not weep, nor cry out," said Ulenspiegel, "and stay where you are!"

"Do not betray me," said she.

Ulenspiegel went out from her house, ran, made his way to all the booths and taverns, whispering into the ears of the seamen and the soldiers these words: "The Spaniard is coming."

All ran to the ship, preparing with the utmost haste all that was needed for battle, and they awaited the enemy. Ulenspiegel said to Lamme:

"Seest thou yon pretty woman standing upon the quay, with her black dress embroidered with scarlet, and hiding her face under her white hood?"

"It is all one to me," replied Lamme. "I am cold; I want to sleep."

And he rolled his head up in his opperst-kleed. And like that he was as a man deaf.

Ulenspiegel then recognized the woman and called to her from the ship:

"Dost thou wish to follow us?"

"To the grave," said she, "but I cannot...."

"Thou wouldst do well," said Ulenspiegel; "yet think of this: when the nightingale stays in the forest, it is happy and sings; but if it leaves the forest and risks its little wings in the wind of the great sea, it breaks them and dies."

"I have sung in my house," said she, "and would sing outside if I could." Then drawing closer to the ship: "Take this ointment," she said, "for thyself and thy friend who sleeps when he should wake...."

And she went away saying:

"Lamme! Lamme! God keep thee from harm; come back safe."

And she uncovered her face.

"My wife, my wife!" cried Lamme.

And he would have leaped down on the ice.

"Thy faithful wife!" said she.

And she ran away swiftly.

Lamme would have leaped from off the deck down on the ice, but he was prevented by a soldier, who held him back by his opperst-kleed. He cried, wept, implored that he might be given leave to go. But the provost said to him:

"Thou shalt be hanged if thou dost leave the ship."

Again Lamme would have cast himself on the ice, but an old Beggar held him back, saying to him:

"The floor is damp, you might get your feet wet."

And Lamme fell on his behind, weeping and saying without ceasing:

"My wife, my wife! let me go to my wife!"

"Thou shalt see her again," said Ulenspiegel. "She loves thee, but she loves God more than thee."

"The mad she-devil," cried Lamme. "If she loves God more than her husband, why does she show herself to me lovely and desirable? And if she loves me, why does she leave me?"

"Dost thou see clear in a deep well?" asked Ulenspiegel.

"Alas!" said Lamme, "I shall die before long."

And he stayed upon the deck, livid and distraught.

Meanwhile, had come up the men of Simonen-Bol, with a great artillery.

They fired against the ship, which replied to them. And their cannon balls broke the ice all about it. Towards evening a warm rain fell.

The wind blowing from the west, the sea grew angry under the ice, and heaved it up in immense blocks, which were seen rising up on high, falling back again, clashing against one another, one mounting on top of another, not without peril to the ship, which when dawn broke through the clouds of night, opened out its canvas wings like a bird of freedom and sailed towards the free ocean.

There they joined up with the fleet of Messire de Lumey de la Marche, admiral of Holland and Zealand, and chief and captain-general, and as such carrying a lantern at his ship's peak.

"Look well at him, my son," said Ulenspiegel; "that one will never spare thee, if thou shouldst wish to leave the ship against orders. Hearest thou his voice breaking forth like thunder? See how broad and strong he is in his great stature! Look at his long hands with the crooked nails! See his round eyes, eagle eyes and cold, and his long pointed beard that he means to leave to grow until he has hanged all the monks and priests to avenge the death of the two counts! See him redoubtable and cruel; he will have thee hanged high on a short rope, if thou dost continue to whine and cry always: 'My wife!'"

"My son," replied Lamme, "he that talks of a halter for his neighbour has already the hempen cravat on his own neck."

"Thou thyself shalt be the first to wear it. Such is my vow as a friend," said Ulenspiegel.

"I shall see thee on the gallows," replied Lamme, "thrust out thy poisonous tongue a fathom out of thy mouth."

And both were in mere jest.

On that day Très-Long's ship took a ship from Biscay laden with mercury, gold dust, wines, and spices. And the ship was emptied of its marrow, men, and booty, as a beef bone under a lion's teeth.

It was at this time also that the duke ordained in the Low Countries cruel and abominable imposts, obliging all the inhabitants who sold real or personal estate to pay one thousand florins in ten thousand. And this tax was a permanent one. All sellers and buyers whatsoever must pay the king the tenth part of the purchase price, and it was said among the people that if goods were sold ten times within a week the king should have all.

And thus commerce and industry took the way towards Ruin and Death.

And the Beggars took Briele, a strong seaboard fortress that was christened the Orchard of Freedom.

II

In the first days of May, under a clear sky, with the ship sailing proudly along the sea, Ulenspiegel sang:

"The ashes beat upon my heart.
The butchers are come; they have struck
With poignard, fire, violence, the sword.
They have paid for foulest spying.
Where once were Love and Faith, mild virtues,
They have set Denunciation and Mistrust.
May the butchers be smitten,
Beat the drum of war.

"Long live the Beggar! Beat upon the drum!
Briele is taken,
Flessingue, too, the key of the Scheldt;
God is good, Camp-Veere is taken,
Where Zealand kept her artillery!
We have bullets, powder, and shot,
Iron shot and leaden shot.
God is with us, who then is against?

"Beat upon the drum of war and glory!
Long live the Beggar! Beat upon the drum!

"The sword is drawn, be our hearts high,
Firm be our arms, the sword is drawn.
Out upon the tenth tithe, the whole of ruin,
Death to the butcher, halter to the spoiler,
For a perjured king a rebel folk.
The sword is drawn for our rights,
For our houses, our wives, and our children.
The sword is drawn, beat upon the drum!

"High are our hearts, stout are our arms.
Out upon the tenth tithe, out upon the infamous pardon.
Beat upon the drum of war, beat upon the drum!"

"Aye, good fellows and friends," said Ulenspiegel; "aye, they have set up at Antwerp, before the Townhall, a dazzling scaffold covered with red cloth; the duke is seated upon it like a king upon his throne in the midst of liverymen and soldiers. Meaning to smile benevolently, he makes a sour grimace. Beat upon the war drum!

"He hath accorded a pardon, make silence, his gilded cuirass shines in the sun; the grand provost is on horseback beside the dais; lo here cometh the herald with his kettle-drums; he reads; it is a pardon for all those that have not sinned; the others will be punished cruelly.

"Oyez, good fellows, he reads the edict that orders, on penalty as for rebellion, the payment of the tenth and twentieth deniers."

And Ulenspiegel sang:

"O Duke! hearest thou the voice of the people,
The strong dull clamour? Tis the sea that rises
In the hour of the mighty surges.
Enough of gold, enough of blood.
Enough of ruins. Beat upon the drum!
The sword is drawn. Beat upon the drum of woe!

"It is the nails tearing the bleeding wound,
Robbery after murder. Must thou then
Mix all our gold with our blood for your drink?
We moved in ways of duty, faithful and true
To the King's Majesty. His Majesty is perjured,
We are free of our oaths. Beat upon the drum of war.

"Duke of Alba, bloody duke,
See these booths, these shops shut fast,
See these brewers, bakers, grocers,
Refusing to sell so as not to pay.
Who then salutes thee when thou art passing?
No man. Feelest thou, like a steaming plague
Hate and Scorn enwrap thee round?

"The fair land of Flanders,
The gay country of Brabant,
Are sad as graveyards.
There where of old, in freedom's days,
Sang the viols, squealed the fifes,
There are silence now and death.
Beat upon the drum of war.

"Instead of jolly faces
Of drinkers, and singing lovers
There are pallid faces now
Of men that wait, resigned,
The stroke of the sword of injustice.
Beat upon the drum of war.

"No man now hears in the taverns
The jolly clink of pots,
Nor the clear voices of girls
Singing in bands about the streets.
And Brabant and Flanders, lands of mirth,
Are become the lands of tears.
Beat upon the drum of woe.

"Land of our fathers, sufferer beloved,
Stoop not your brow to the murderer's foot,
Toilsome bees, rush in your swarms,
Upon the hornets from Spain.
Corpses of women and girls buried alive,
Cry out to Christ: 'Vengeance!'

"Wander in the fields by night, poor souls,
Cry unto God! The arm quivers to strike,
The sword is drawn, Duke; we will tear out thy entrails
And flog thy face with them.
Beat upon the drum. The sword is drawn.
Beat upon the drum. Long live the Beggar!"

And all the seamen and the soldiers of Ulenspiegel's ship and of the other ships sang likewise:

"The sword is drawn, long live the Beggar!"

And their voices growled like a thunder of deliverance.

III

The world was in January, the cruel month that freezes the calf in the cow's belly. It had snowed, and frozen over and above. The lads were taking with birdlime sparrows seeking some poor food on the hardened snow, and carried off this game into their cottages. Against the gray clear sky stood out motionless the skeletons of the trees, whose branches were covered with snowy cushions that covered also the cottages and the coping of walls on which were seen the prints of the paws of cats, which, like the boys, were hunting sparrows over the snow. At a distance the meadows were hidden over by this marvellous fleece, keeping the earth warm against the bitter cold of winter. The smoke of houses and cottages rose up black into the sky, and there was no noise heard of any kind.

And Katheline and Nele were alone in their house; and Katheline, nodding her head, said:

"Hans, my heart turns to thee. Thou must give back the seven hundred carolus to Ulenspiegel, the son of Soetkin. If thou art poor, come none the less that I may see thy shining face. Take away the fire, my head burns. Alas! where are thy snow-cold kisses? Where is thy icy body, Hans, my beloved?"

And she kept at the window. Suddenly there passed, running at full speed, a voet-looper, a courier carrying bells at his belt, and calling out:

"Here cometh the bailiff, the high bailiff of Damme!"

And he went thus as far as the Townhall, so as to assemble there the burgomasters and the sheriffs.

Then in the thick silence Nele heard two clarions sound. All the people of Damme came to their doors, believing it was His Majesty the king who announced himself by such flourishes.

And Katheline also went to the door with Nele. From afar they saw resplendent horsemen riding in a band, and before them, also on horseback, a personage covered in an opperst-kleed of black velvet laced with fine gold, and boots of yellow calfskin furred with marten. And they recognized the high bailiff.

Behind him there rode young lords, who, notwithstanding the ordinance of his late Imperial Majesty, wore on their velvet accoutrements embroideries, trimmings, bands, edgings, of gold, of silver, and of silk. And their opperst-kleederen, under their outer garments, were edged with fur like those of the bailiff. They rode gaily along, shaking in the wind the long ostrich feathers that adorned their bonnets, gold buttoned and gold laced.

And they seemed to be all of them good friends and companions of the grand bailiff, and notably a lord of sharp visage clad in green velvet trimmed with gold lace, and a cloak of black velvet like his bonnet adorned with long plumes. And he had a nose shaped like a vulture's beak, a thin mouth, red hair, a pale face, and haughty carriage.

While the troop of these lords was passing in front of Katheline's house suddenly she darted to the bridle of the pale lord's horse, and beside herself with joy, she cried out:

"Hans! my beloved, I knew it; thou art back. Thou art goodly thus in velvet and all in gold like a sun upon the snow! Dost thou bring me the seven hundred carolus? Shall I hear thee once more crying like the sea-eagle?"

The high bailiff stopped the troop of gentlemen, and the pale lord said:

"What doth this beggar want with me?"

But Katheline, still keeping hold of the horse by the bridle:

"Do not go away again," said she, "I have wept so much for thee. Sweet nights, my beloved, kisses of snow--body of ice. The child is here!"

And she pointed him to Nele who was looking at him in anger, for he had raised his whip to Katheline: but Katheline, weeping:

"Ah!" said she, "dost thou not remember at all? Have pity on thy handmaiden. Take her with thee wherever thou wilt. Take away the fire, Hans; pity!"

"Begone!" said he.

And he drove his horse on so hard that Katheline, loosing the bridle, fell; and the horse stepped on her and gave her a bloody wound in the forehead.

The bailiff then said to the pale lord:

"Messire, do you know this woman?"

"I do not know her at all," said he, "doubtless it is some mad creature."

But Nele, having raised Katheline from the ground:

"If this woman is mad, I am not, Monseigneur, and I pray that I may die here of this snow that I eat"--and she took up snow in her fingers--"if this man has not known my mother, if he did not borrow all her money, if he did not kill Claes's dog in order to take from the wall of the well at our house seven hundred carolus belonging to the poor dead man."

"Hans, my darling," wept Katheline, bleeding, and on her knees, "Hans, my beloved, give me the kiss of peace: see the blood flowing: my soul has made the hole and would fain come forth: I shall die presently: leave me not." Then in a whisper: "Long ago thou didst slay thy comrade for jealousy, along by the dyke." And she stretched out her finger in the direction of Dudzeele. "Thou didst love me well in those days."

And she caught the gentleman's knee and embraced it, and she took his boot and kissed it.

"What is this slain man?" asked the high bailiff.

"I do not know, Monseigneur," said he. "We have nothing to do with the talk of this beggarwoman; let us forward."

The populace was assembling around them; the townsmen great and small, artisans and rustics, taking Katheline's part, cried out:

"Justice, Monseigneur Bailiff, justice."

And the bailiff said to Nele:

"What is this slain man? Speak in accordance with God and the truth."

Nele spoke and said, pointing to the pale gentleman:

"This man came every Saturday to the keet to see my mother and to take her money: he killed a friend of his, Hilbert by name, in the field of Servaes van der Vichte, not for love, as this innocent distracted woman thinks, but to have for himself alone the seven hundred carolus."

And Nele told of Katheline's loves and what she heard when she was hidden by night behind the dyke that ran through the field of Servaes van der Vichte.

"Nele is bad," said Katheline; "she speaks hardly of Hans, her father."

"I swear," said Nele, "that he used to cry like a sea-eagle to announce his presence."

"Thou liest," said the gentleman.

"Oh, no!" said Nele, "and monseigneur the bailiff and all these noble lords here present see it well: thou art pale not for cold, but with fear. Whence comes it that thy face no longer shines: thou hast then lost thy magic compound wherewith thou wast wont to rub it that it might appear bright, like the waves in summer when it thunders? But sorcerer accursed, thou shalt be burned before the doors of the Townhall. 'Tis thou that didst cause Soetkin's death, thou that didst reduce her orphan son to want; thou, a man of noble rank, doubtless, and who wast wont to come to us burgesses to bring my mother money once only and to take money from her all the other times."

"Hans," said Katheline, "thou wilt bring me again to the Sabbath and wilt rub me again with ointment; do not listen to Nele, she is bad: thou seest the blood, the soul has made the hole and would come forth: I shall die soon and I shall go into limbo where it burneth not."

"Hold thy tongue, mad witch, I know thee not," said the gentleman, "and know not what thou wouldst say."

"And yet," said Nele, "it was thou that camest with a companion and wouldst have given him to me for a husband: thou knowest that I would have none of him; what did he do, thy friend Hilbert, what did he do with his eyes after I had sunk my nails into them?"

"Nele is bad," said Katheline, "do not believe her, Hans, my darling: she is angry against Hilbert who would have taken her by force, but Hilbert cannot do it now; the worms have eaten him: and Hilbert was ugly. Hans, my darling, thou alone art goodly; Nele is bad."

Upon this the bailiff said:

"Women, go in peace."

But Katheline would by no means leave the place where her friend was. And they must needs bring her to her house by force.

And all the people there assembled cried out:

"Justice, Monseigneur, justice!"

The constables of the commune having come up at the noise, the bailiff bade them remain, and he said to the lords and gentlemen:

"Messeigneurs and Messires, notwithstanding all privileges protecting the illustrious order of nobility in the country of Flanders I must needs, upon the accusations and especially upon that of witchcraft, laid against Messire Joos Damman, have his person apprehended until he be judged according to the laws and ordinances of the Empire. Give me your sword, Messire Joos."

"Monseigneur Bailiff," said Joos Damman, with the utmost hauteur and pride of nobility, "in apprehending my person you are transgressing the law of Flanders, for you are not yourself a judge. Now you are aware that it is permitted to arrest without a warrant from a judge only false coiners, robbers on public roads and highways; fire-raisers, ravishers of women; gendarmes deserting their captain; enchanters making use of poison to poison water springs; monks or nuns that have renounced their vows and banished men. And now, Messires and Messeigneurs, defend me!"

Some would have obeyed, but the bailiff said to them:

"Messeigneurs and Messires, as representing here our king, count, and overlord, to whom is reserved the decision of difficult cases, I command and order you, upon pain of being proclaimed rebels, to return your swords to their scabbards."

The gentlemen having obeyed, and Messire Joos Damman still hesitating, the people cried out:

"Justice, Monseigneur, justice; let him give up his sword."

He did so then against his will, and dismounting from his horse, he was brought by two constables to the prison of the commune.

All the same, he was not shut up in the cellars, but in a barred chamber, where he had, for payment, a good fire, a good bed, and good food, the half of which the gaoler took.

IV

On the next day the bailiff, the two clerks of the court, two aldermen, and a barber-surgeon went by Dudzeele to see if they might find in the field of Servaes van der Vichte the body of a man along by the dyke running through the field.

Nele had said to Katheline: "Hans, thy darling, asks for the severed hand of Hilbert: this evening he will cry like the sea-eagle; he will come into the cottage, and will bring thee the seven hundred florins carolus."

Katheline had replied: "I will cut it off." And indeed, she took a knife and went forth accompanied by Nele and followed by the officers of justice.

She walked swiftly and proudly beside Nele, whose pretty face the keen air made all rosy and glowing.

The officers of justice, old and coughing, followed her, frozen with cold; and they were all like black shadows on the white plain; and Nele carried a spade.

When they arrived in the field of Servaes van der Vichte and on the dyke, Katheline, walking up to the middle of it, said, pointing to the meadow on her right hand: "Hans, thou didst not know that I was hidden there, shivering at the noise of the swords. And Hilbert cried out: 'This iron is cold.' Hilbert was ugly; Hans is goodly. Thou shalt have his hand; leave me alone."

Then she went down on the left hand, knelt in the snow and cried three times into the air to call the spirit.

Nele then gave her the spade, upon which Katheline made the sign of the cross thrice; then she traced upon the ice the shape of a coffin and three crosses reversed, one on the side of the east, one on the side of the west, and one on the south; and she said: "Three, it is Mars beside Saturn, and three is discovery under Venus, the bright star." She traced after, about the coffin, a great circle, saying: "Begone, evil demon that guardest corpses." Then falling on her knees in prayer: "Devil friend, Hilbert," said she, "Hans, my master and lord, bids me come here and cut off thy hand and bring it to him. I owe him obedience: make not the earth-fire to leap out against me, because I disturb thy noble burying place: and forgive me in the name of God and of the Saints."

Then she broke the ice, following the outline of the coffin: she came to the damp sword, then to the sandy soil, and monseigneur the bailiff, his officers, Nele, and Katheline beheld the body of a young man, chalk-white by reason of the soil. He was clad in a doublet of gray cloth with a cloak of the same; his sword was laid by his side. At his belt he had a chain purse, and a big poignard planted under his heart; and there was blood upon the cloth of the doublet; and that blood had flowed under his back. And the man was young.

Katheline cut off his hand and put it in her pouch. And the bailiff let her do what she would, then bade her to strip the body of all its insignia and clothing. Katheline having asked if Hans had thus commanded, the bailiff replied that he did nothing save by his orders; and Katheline then did what he wished.

When the body was stripped, it was seen to be dry as wood, but not decayed: and the bailiff and the officers of the commune departed, having covered it again with sand: and the constables carried the cloth.

Passing the front of the prison of the commune, the bailiff said to Katheline that Hans was awaiting her there; she went in joyously.

Nele wanted to prevent her, and Katheline always replied: "I would see Hans, my lord."

And Nele wept on the threshold, knowing that Katheline was arrested as a witch for the conjurations and figures she had made upon the snow.

And in Damme men said there could be no pardon for her.

And Katheline was put in the western cellar of the prison.

V

The next day, the wind blowing from Brabant, the snow melted and the meadows were flooded.

And the bell called borgstorm called the judges to the tribunal of the Vierschare, under the penthouse, because of the dampness of the turf.

And the populace surrounded the tribunal.

Joos Damman, being interrogated, confessed that he had killed his friend Hilbert in single combat with the sword. When they said to him: "He was smitten with a poignard," Joos Damman replied: "I struck him on the ground because he died not quick enough. I confess this murder of my own will, being under the protection of the laws of Flanders which forbid the prosecution, after ten years, of a manslayer."

The bailiff, addressing him:

"Art thou not a sorcerer?" said he.

"No," replied Damman.

"Prove this," said the bailiff.

"I will prove it at the proper time and place," said Joos Damman, "but it pleaseth me not to do so as now."

The bailiff then questioned Katheline; she never listened to him, and gazing at Hans:

"Thou art my green lord, lovely as the sun. Take away the fire, my darling!"

Nele, then speaking for Katheline, said:

"She can confess naught but what ye know already, Monseigneur and Messieurs; she is no witch, and only bereft of her wits."

The bailiff then spoke and said:

"A sorcerer is one that, by diabolical means wittingly employed, endeavours to attain somewhat. Now, these twain, man and woman, are sorcerers by intent and deed: he, in having given the ointment for the sabbath, and in having made his face bright like Lucifer in order to obtain money and the satisfying of lewdness; she, in having submitted herself to him, taking him for a devil, and for having given herself up to his desires: the one being the worker of witchcraft, the other his manifest accomplice. There can therefore be no pity, and I must say this, for I perceive the aldermen and the populace over-indulgent in the case of the woman. She has not, it is true, killed or robbed, nor bewitched either beasts or mankind, nor healed any sick by remedies extraordinary, but only by known simples, as an honest and Christian physician; but she would have given up her daughter to the devil, and if this maid had not in her youth resisted with frank and valiant courage she would have yielded to Hilbert and would have become a sorceress like the other. Accordingly, I put it to the members of this tribunal if they are not of the opinion to put both these two to the torture?"

The aldermen made no answer, showing sufficiently that this was not their desire with regard to Katheline.

The bailiff then said, continuing his discourse:

"I am, like yourselves, touched with pity and compassion for her, but this sorceress, bereft of her wits, so obedient to the devil, might she not, had her lewd co-defendant so bidden her, have been capable of cutting off her daughter's head with a sickle, even as Catherine Daru, in the country of France, did to her two daughters at the invitation of the devil? Might she not, if her black husband had so bidden her, have put animals to death; turned the butter in the churn by throwing sugar in it; been present in the body at all the worship and homage to the devil, dance, abominations, and copulations of sorcerers? Might she not have eaten human flesh, killed children to make pasties of them and sell them, as did a pastry cook in Paris; cut off the thighs of hanged men and carry them away to bite into them raw and thus commit infamous robbery and sacrilege? And I ask of the tribunal that in order to discover whether Katheline and Joos Damman have not committed other crimes than those already known and called into account, they be both put to the torture. Joos Damman refusing to confess anything further than the murder, and Katheline not having told everything, the laws of the empire enjoin upon us to proceed as I indicate."

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

And Nele cried: "Grace, Messeigneurs!" and the people cried with her. 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 two guardians to each of them, to beat them every time they would have slept; but the two guardians of Katheline left her to sleep all night, and those of Joos Damman beat him cruelly every time he closed his eyes or even nodded his head.

They were hungry all day on Wednesday, the same night and all Thursday until night, when they were given food and drink, meat salted and saltpetred, and water salted and saltpetred likewise. That was the beginning 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 upon a bench covered with knotted ropes which made them suffer grievously.

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

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

And Katheline said:

"Do not strike him, sirs; you break his poor body. He only committed one crime, for love, when he killed Hilbert. I am athirst, and thou, too, Hans my beloved. Give him to drink first. Water! Water! my body burns. 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 shall remain on these benches and on these cords until he makes a fresh and full confession, and he shall be athirst, and he shall be kept from sleeping."

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

And Katheline replied, groaning:

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

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

"I hear," said she, "the chariot of death and the dry noise of bones. I thirst! And he taketh me to a great river where there is water, water fresh and clear; but this water it is fire. Hans, my dear, deliver me from these cords. Yea, I am in purgatory and I see on high Monseigneur Jesus in his paradise and Madame Virgin so 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 the aldermen. "She must be taken from the bench of torment."

"She is no more mad than I," said Joos Damman; "it is mere play and acting." 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, they are now putting fire in my breast, and the devils fasten me on this cruel 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-pear into her mouth to keep her from setting herself up thus, a low creature like 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 empire to 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 from what they say. That is permitted only when the accused being condemned might, upon the scaffold, speak to the people, and in this way move them, 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 all the torments I am enduring; but in this torture chamber thou shalt undergo the pain of the candles, the strappado, the wooden splinters under the nails of thy feet and hands. They will make thee ride naked astride a coffin whose back will be sharp as a blade, and thou shalt confess that thou art not mad, but a foul witch to whom Satan hath given it in charge to work evil upon noble men. A drink!"

"Hans, my beloved," said Katheline, "be not wroth with thy handmaiden! I suffer a thousand pangs for thee, my lord. Spare him, Messieurs the Judges. Give him a full goblet to drink, and keep but one 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 rise up from her bench; "thou art deceiving me for another, traitor devil. Didst thou know that I was listening to thee behind the dyke when thou saidst that thou wouldst fain have all the money, which was Claes's money? Without doubt it was to go and spend it with her in liquorishness and revelling! Alas! and I that would have given him my blood if he could have made gold of it! And all for another! Be accursed!"

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 I shall scratch the earth with my fingers and find thee a treasure; aye, there is such; and I will go with the hazel twig that bends this way and that where there are metals; and I will find it and bring 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, give me but one single drop; I am in the fire; Hans, I know well where there are hazel trees, but we must wait for the spring time."

"Hold thy tongue, witch," said Joos Damman; "I know thee not. Thou hast taken Hilbert for me: it was he that came to see thee. And in thy wicked 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 know thee; it was Hilbert, without doubt, that stole the seven hundred florins carolus; give me to drink; my father will pay a hundred florins for a little goblet of water; but I know not this woman."

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

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

"Thou didst not speak so, Hans, my sweet lord," said she, "when I was sixteen years younger than I am now." Then, beating her head and her breast: "'Tis the fire that is there," said she, "and dries up my heart and withers my face. Do not reproach me with it; dost thou remember when we ate salt meat to drink better, so thou saidst? Now the salt is in us, my beloved, and monseigneur the bailiff is drinking Romagna wine. We do not want wine: give us water. It runs among the grass, 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 casteth me into the fire. Give me to drink; men give water to straying dogs. I am a Christian woman. Give me to drink. I have done no ill to any. Give me to drink."

An alderman then spoke and said:

"This witch is mad only in what concerns the fire she saith burns her head, but she is nowise mad upon other matters, since she helped us with a clear head to discover the remains of the dead man. If the mole is there upon the body of Joos Damman, that sign sufficeth to establish his identity with the devil Hans, for whom Katheline was out 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's shoulders; thou art goodly, Hans, my beloved: give me to drink!"

The tormentor then thrust a long needle into the mole. But it did not bleed.

And the aldermen said one to the other:

"This man is a devil, and he must have killed Joos Damman and taken his 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 fleshy excrescences that can be pricked without bleeding. If Hilbert hath taken this witch's money, for it is she that confesseth to have lain with the devil, he could well have done so by the good and free will of this foul hag. And was thus, being a man of rank, paid for his caresses 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 strength and comeliness?"

The aldermen said one to another:

"See you his diabolical assurance? His hairy wart hath not bled: being an assassin, a devil, and a magician, he would fain pass simply for a duellist, throwing his other crimes on to the devil his friend, whose body he has killed, but not his spirit.... And consider how pale his face is."--"Thus appear all the devils, red in hell, and pale on earth, for they have none of the fire of life that giveth ruddiness to the countenance, and they are ashes within."--"We must put 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 Monseigneur Saint Jacques, his patron, has given him licence to come out of hell. He prays Monseigneur Jesus for him every day. He will have but seven thousand years of purgatory: Madame Virgin wishes it, but Monsieur Satan is against it. None the less Madame does what she has a mind to. Will he go against her? If ye consider well, ye shall see he hath kept naught of his estate and condition as a devil, save the cold body, and also the face luminous as are the waves of the sea in August when it is like to thunder."

And Joos Damman said:

"Hold thy tongue, witch, thou wilt burn me." Then speaking to the bailiff and the aldermen: "Look at me, I am no devil; I have flesh and bones, blood and water. I drink and eat, digest and void like yourselves; 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 pale like 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. Whence did she have the money she lent to Hilbert; whence came those florins that she gave him? Was it not the devil that paid her to accuse and bring death to men of noble birth and guiltless? It is those twain that should be asked who killed the dog in the yard, who dug the hole and went off leaving it empty, doubtless to hide the stolen treasure in another place. Soetkin the widow had placed no trust in me, for she never knew me, but in them, and saw them every day. It is they that 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 hundred carolus. Take away the fire! Take away the fire!" cried she after that. "Give me to drink! to drink! my head burns. God and the angels are 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 staggering and with feet swollen out, for the tormentor had pulled the cords too tight.

"Give her to drink," said the bailiff.

Cold water was given her, and she swallowed it greedily, holding the goblet in her teeth as a dog does with a bone and not willing to let it go. Then they gave her more water, and she would have gone to take it to Joos Damman, but the tormentor took the goblet out of her hands. 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? Why do 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 want to drink, I want to sleep!"

And he shut his eyes, but the tormentor's knechts struck him on the 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 hundred carolus, it was Hilbert. Give me to drink! I never committed sorceries or 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 leave Katheline?"

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

"Untie him," said the bailiff. "Take him back to his prison. But let him thirst and have no sleep until he hath confessed his sorceries and 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 heard him, but without any pity. And when his guardians struck him in the face 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 the king, our head. Give me to drink." But he confessed nothing, and they left 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 round about in the field; and the sun shone bright.

Katheline and Joos Damman were brought before the tribunal; and Damman appeared paler than ever by reason of the torture of the thirst and the 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.