The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 30

"Well said," answered Lamme, handing his friend the bottle, "but will you drink, I wonder, to any better purpose?"

Ulenspiegel took the bottle, drank his fill, then handed it back again.

"Call me a Spaniard," he said, "if I've left enough to make a minnow drunk!"

Lamme inspected the bottle. Then, without ever ceasing to groan, he rummaged in his wallet and produced another bottle, and another piece of sausage which he cut up in slices and began to munch in the most melancholy fashion.

"Do you never stop eating, Lamme?" asked Ulenspiegel.

"Often, my son," he replied. "But now I am eating to drive away sad thoughts. Where are you, wife of mine?" And as he spoke, Lamme wiped away a tear. After which he cut himself ten slices of sausage.

"Lamme," said Ulenspiegel, "you should not eat so quickly, taking no thought at all for the poor pilgrim."

Lamme, who was still whimpering, gave four of the slices to Ulenspiegel, who ate them up immediately, and was much affected by their good flavour. But Lamme said, eating and crying all at the same time:

"O wife, O goodly wife of mine! How sweet she was, how beautiful she was! Light as a b.u.t.terfly, nimble as the lightning, and with a voice like a skylark! For all that, she was overfond of fine clothes. Alas, but how well she looked in them! And surely, the flowers also, are they not fond of rich apparel? Oh, if you had seen her, my son--her little hands, so nimble to caress, such hands as you never could have suffered to come in contact with saucepan or frying-pan! And her complexion, which was clear as the day, would surely have been burnt by standing over the kitchen fire. And what eyes she had! Only to look at them was to be melted quite with tenderness. Alas, I have lost her! Go on eating, Tyl; it is good Ghent sausage."

"But why has she left you?" asked Ulenspiegel.

"How should I know?" Lamme replied. "Alas! gone for ever are those days when I used to go to her home a-courting! Then, verily, she would fly away from me, half in love and half in fear! And her arms were bare, as like as not (beautiful arms they were, so round and white), but if she saw me looking at them she would cover them quickly with the sleeve of her gown.

"At other times, again, she would gladly lend herself to my caresses, and I would kiss her closed eyes, and that lovely neck of hers, so large and firm. She would shiver all over, uttering little cries of love, and then, leaning her head backwards, she would give me a playful slap upon my nose. Thereafter she would laugh and I would cry aloud, and we would wrestle together right amorously, and there was naught betwixt us but laughter and fun. But there, there. Is any wine left in the bottle, Tyl?"

Tyl gave him what remained.

"This ham does great good to my stomach," he said.

"To mine also," answered Lamme, "but I shall never see my dear one again. She has fled away from Damme. What say you, will you come with me in my cart to look for her?"

"That will I," answered Ulenspiegel.

So they got up into the donkey-cart, and the donkey set up a most melancholy bray to celebrate their departure.

As for the dog, he had already made off, well filled, without a word to any one.

II

While the cart went lumbering along on the top of the dike, with the pond on one side and the ca.n.a.l on the other, Ulenspiegel sat brooding on the past and cherishing in his bosom the ashes of Claes. He pondered deeply upon that vision he had seen, and asked himself if indeed it were true or false, and if those spirits of Nature had been making mock of him, or if perchance they had been revealing to him under a figure those things that must be done if the land of his fathers were to be restored. In vain did he turn the matter over and over in his mind, for he could not discover what was meant by those words, the "Seven"

and the "Cincture." He called to mind the late Emperor Charles V, the present King, the Governess of the Netherlands, the Pope of Rome, the Grand Inquisitor, and last of all, the General of the Jesuits--six great persecutors of his country whom most willingly would he have burned alive had he been able. But he was forced to conclude that none of these was the personage indicated, for that they were all too obviously worthy of being burnt, and would be in another place. And he could only go on repeating to himself those words of the Lord of the Spring:

When the North Shall kiss the West, Then shall be the end of ruin.

Love the Seven, And the Cincture.

"Alas!" he cried, "in death, in blood, in tears, find the Seven, burn the Seven, love the Seven! What does it all mean? My poor brain reels, for who, pray, would ever want to burn that which he loved?"

The cart by this time had progressed a good way along the road, when all at once a sound was heard of some one stepping along the sand, and of a voice singing:

Oh, have ye seen him, ye that pa.s.s, The lover I have lost, alas!

f.e.c.kless he wandereth, knowing no tie-- Have ye seen him pa.s.s by?

As tender lamb the eagle seizeth, So on my poor heart he feedeth.

Beardless his chin, though to manhood nigh-- Have ye seen him pa.s.s by?

If ye find him, ye may tell Weary with following faints his Nele.

O Tyl, my beloved, hear me, I cry!

Have ye seen him pa.s.s by?

Languisheth ever the faithful dove, Seeking, seeking her fickle love.

So, far more so, languish I-- Have ye seen him pa.s.s by?

Ulenspiegel gave Lamme a blow on his great belly, and told him to hold his breath.

"That," said Lamme, "is a very difficult thing, I fear, for a man of my corpulence."

But Ulenspiegel, paying no further attention to his companion, hid himself behind the canvas hood of the cart, and began to sing in the voice of a man with a bad cold that has drunk well:

In a shaky old cart with age all green, Your f.e.c.kless sweetheart I have seen; And a glutton rides with him, like pig in sty-- I have seen him pa.s.s by.

"Tyl," said Lamme, "you have a wry tongue in your cheek this morning!"

But Tyl put his head out of a hole in the hood:

"Nele, don't you know me?" he said.

And Nele, for it was none other than she herself, was filled with fear, crying and laughing all at the same time, and her cheeks were wet as she answered him:

"I see you, and I know you, you wretch, you traitor!"

"Nele," said Ulenspiegel, "if you want to give me a beating, you will find a stick in the cart here. It is heavy enough in all conscience, and knotted so that it will leave its mark right enough."

"Tyl," said Nele, "are you seeking the Seven?"

"Even so," Tyl told her.

Now Nele carried with her a bag, or satchel, that was so full it seemed likely to burst. This satchel she offered to Tyl, saying: