The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 38

And Ulenspiegel sang this song:

Beat the drum! Beat the drum!

Drums of war!

Slit the carca.s.s of the Duke, Flog him on his hangman's face!

To the death with the murderer!

Beat the drum! Beat the drum!

Drums of war!

With the victims of his wrath Foul corruption let him share!

But long live the Beggarmen!

Christ from Heaven look Thou down, Look upon thy soldiers true, That risk hanging, fire, and sword For thy Word!

And for their dear Fatherland!

Beat the drum! Beat the drum!

Drums of war!

And all drank the toast and cried aloud:

"Long live the Beggarmen!"

And Ulenspiegel drank in his turn from a golden goblet that had once belonged to some monk or other, and proudly he gazed on the wild faces of the brave Beggarmen that stood before him.

"Men," he cried, "wild beasts rather that are my comrades, be you wolves lions, or tigers in very deed, and eat up all the cursed dogs of this King of Blood!"

"Long live the Beggarmen!" they shouted, and yet again they sang the song of

Beat the drum! Beat the drum!

Drums of war!

XV

William the Silent, with his army, was at the gates of Liege. But before crossing the Meuse he made sundry marches and counter-marches, leading the Duke astray, for all his vigilance.

Ulenspiegel applied himself most diligently to his duties as a soldier, worked his arquebus most skilfully, and kept his eyes and ears wide open.

Now at that time there arrived in the camp certain gentlemen of Flanders and Brabant, and these lived in friendly fashion with the colonels and captains of the Prince's following.

But soon there came into being two parties in the camp, who began to dispute one with the other continually, some saying that William was a traitor, others that such accusation was a gross libel on the Prince, and that they who had made it should be forced to eat their words. Suspicion grew and grew like a spot of oil, and at length they came to blows--small companies of six, eight, or a dozen men fighting together in single combat, with all kinds of weapons and sometimes with arquebuses even.

One day the Prince, hearing the noise, came to see what was going on, and walked straight in between the combatants. It chanced that a piece of shot hit his sword and struck it from his side. He stopped the combat, and visited the whole camp, intending to put an end once for all to these combats and to these cries of "Death to William!" "Death to the war!"

Now the day after this adventure, Ulenspiegel had been to the house of a Walloon maiden to sing to her some Flemish love-songs of his. And it was near midnight, and very misty, and Ulenspiegel, being just about to leave the house, thought he heard the cawing of a crow, three times repeated. And the sound came from the door of a cottage close by. And from far off came other cawings, three times repeated, as if in answer. Presently a peasant made his appearance at the doorway of the cottage, and at the same time Ulenspiegel heard steps on the road. Two men came up to the peasant and began to talk to him in the Spanish tongue. The peasant spoke to them, also in Spanish:

"Well? And how goes it?" asked the cottager.

"Well, indeed," the two men answered. "We have been spreading rumours on behalf of the King, and it is thanks to us that the captains and their soldiers are everywhere suspicious and talking among themselves in this wise:

"'The Prince, so the gossip goes--is resisting the King for vile ambition and for nothing else. For by this means he thinks to make himself feared so that he may acquire cities and overlordships as the price of peace. For five hundred thousand florins he would leave in the lurch all the brave n.o.bles who have come out to fight for their country. And it is a fact that the Duke has offered him a complete amnesty, and has promised to restore both him and his chief officers in their possessions, if only the Prince will return to the obedience of the King, and will negotiate with him alone.'

"But they that remain faithful to the Prince make answer to us in this wise:

"'By no means will William have aught to do with the proposals of the Duke. For these are but snares and treachery. For the Prince must surely call to mind what happened to d'Egmont and de Hoorn. And it is well known that the Cardinal de Granville said at Rome, when the two Counts had been taken: "The two gudgeon, verily, have been caught, but the pike has been allowed to escape." For nothing has been taken while William still remains at large.'"

"Is the camp divided in twain then?" asked the peasant.

"It is," replied the two men, "and the division grows greater every day. But whom are those letters for?"

Whereupon they all entered into the cottage. A lantern was lit inside, and looking through a crack in the door Ulenspiegel could see them unsealing two letters. These they read with every appearance of enjoyment, and then they all fell to drinking honey-wine. After which the two men came out of the cottage and said to the peasant, still speaking in Spanish:

"The camp split in two, and the Prince captured--that will be worth a dozen gla.s.ses, eh?"

"Those men," said Ulenspiegel to himself, "cannot longer be allowed to live."

But even now they were disappearing in the thick mist, with the lantern which the peasant had brought for them. The light of the lantern shone out intermittently, as if continually intercepted by some dark body. From this Ulenspiegel concluded that the two men must be walking one behind the other.

He raised his arquebus to his shoulder and fired. Then he saw the lantern raised and lowered several times, as if the man who carried it was looking at his fallen comrade, trying to discover where he had been hit and the nature of the wound.

Yet again did Ulenspiegel raise his arquebus, and then when the lantern began to steady itself and to retreat speedily towards the camp, he fired again. Now the lantern swayed, fell to the ground and went out, leaving all in darkness.

Ulenspiegel ran on to the camp, and there he soon encountered the provost with a number of soldiers who had been awakened by the noise of the firing. Ulenspiegel accosted them, saying: "I am the huntsman. Go you now and find the game."

"Brave Fleming," said the provost, "methinks you are a man that knows other ways of talking besides with your tongue."

"Words of the tongue they are but so much wind," answered Ulenspiegel. "But words of lead--they know how to find for themselves a lasting habitation in the carca.s.s of a traitor! Come then, follow me."

And so saying he led them to the place where the two men had fallen. And in very deed the soldiers saw by the light of their lanterns two bodies stretched out on the ground. One was dead, and the other at the last gasp, holding his hand to his heart, and in his hand a letter all crumpled in the agony of death. The soldiers lifted the two bodies, whose clothes clearly showed them to be the bodies of gentlemen, and straightway carried them, still by the light of their lanterns, to the Prince.

Now William was about to hold a council with Frederick of Hollenhausen, the Margrave of Hesse, and other n.o.bles. But the soldiers, who had now been joined by a company of other troopers in green and yellow jackets, stood before the tent, demanding with shouts and cries that the Prince should give them audience.

At length William of Orange came out to them, and the provost began to clear his throat and make other preliminaries for the accusation of Ulenspiegel. But the latter cut in before him, saying:

"My Lord, I had thought to kill two crows, but I have killed two traitors in their stead--two n.o.blemen--belonging to your suite."

Then he told the story of all that he had seen and heard and done. William did not utter a word, but the two bodies were carefully examined in the presence of Ulenspiegel himself and William the Silent, together with Frederick of Hollenhausen, the Margrave of Hesse, Dietrich of Schoonenbergh, Count Albert of Na.s.sau, the Count de Hoogstraeten, and Antoine de Lailang, Governor of Malines. And the soldiers stood by, with Lamme Goedzak, his great belly all of a tremble. Sealed letters were found on the persons of the deceased gentlemen, which had been sent by Granvelles and Noircames, and engaged the recipients to sow division in the Prince's entourage, and by that means to diminish his power and to compel him to yield, so that he might ultimately be delivered up to the Duke and beheaded according to his deserts. "The right procedure is," continued the letter, "to act at first with caution and to use allusive phrases only, so that the army may be led to think that the Prince has already come to a secret understanding with the Duke, for his own advantage. This will arouse the anger of his captains and soldiers, and they will a.s.suredly take him prisoner." Now as a reward for this service it appeared that notes to the value of some five hundred ducats were being sent them on the Fugger Bank at Antwerp, and they were promised a thousand more as soon as the four hundred thousand ducats which were already on their way from Spain had arrived in Zeeland.

The whole plot having been now unmasked, the Prince turned in silence towards the gentlemen, Lords, and soldiers who stood round him. Many of these men he knew to be suspicious of him already, nevertheless, he pointed at the two bodies without speaking a word, intending by this gesture to reproach them for their mistrust. And at this every one present there exclaimed and shouted aloud:

"Long live the Prince of Orange! The Prince is faithful and true!" And such was their anger that they were desirous to throw the two dead bodies to the dogs; but William forbade them, saying: