The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl Ulenspiegel in the land of Flanders Part 51

"He is busy eating," answered Ulenspiegel, "eating anything he can set his teeth upon--hard-boiled eggs from the street stalls, smoked eels and salted fish: and all this, forsooth, to help him find his wife. But why are you not she, my sweet? Would you like fifty florins? Would you like a collar of gold?"

But she crossed herself, saying:

"I am not to be bought, nor yet taken."

"Do you love no one?" said Ulenspiegel.

"I love you as my neighbour; but above all I love Our Lord and Our Lady, they that command me to live an honest life. Hard indeed and oftentimes burdensome are the duties that are laid on us poor women. Nevertheless G.o.d gives us his aid. Yet some there are who succ.u.mb to temptation. But this fat friend of yours, come, tell me, is he well and happy?"

Ulenspiegel answered:

"He is gay when he is eating, but sad and pensive when he is empty. I will get him to come and see you."

"Do not do that," she said; "he would weep and so should I."

"Have you ever seen his wife?" asked Ulenspiegel.

"She sinned with him once," the woman answered, "and was condemned therefor to a cruel punishment. She knows that he goes a-seafaring in the cause of the heretics, and this is a cruel thought for a Christian heart. But protect him, I pray you, if he is attacked, and nurse him if he is wounded: his wife ordered me thus to entreat you."

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

"Ah!" she said. "But why will you not return to the bosom of our Holy Mother Church?"

"She eats up her children," answered Ulenspiegel. And he departed.

But one morning in March, while still the cold winds of winter kept the ice frozen, so that the ship of the Beggarmen could not make away, Ulenspiegel came again to the tavern. And the pretty baesine said to him (and there was great emotion and sorrow in her voice):

"Poor Lamme! Poor Ulenspiegel!"

"Why do you pity us so?" he asked her.

"Alas! alas!" she cried. "Why will you not believe in the Ma.s.s? And you did, you would go straight to Paradise without a doubt, and I might be able to save you in this life also."

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

"Is it the snow that you hear falling?"

"No," she said.

"What then?"

"It is death that comes like a thief in the night."

"Death," exclaimed Ulenspiegel. "I do not understand you. Come back and tell me."

"They are there," she said.

"Who are?"

"Who?" she said. "Why, the soldiers of Simonen Bol, who are about to come in the name of the Duke and throw themselves upon you all. And if they treat you well while you are here, it is only as men treat the oxen they mean to kill. Oh why," she cried all in tears, "why did I not know all this before, so that I could have warned you!"

"You must not cry," said Ulenspiegel, "and you must stay where you are!"

"Do not betray me," she said.

Ulenspiegel went out of the house, ran as fast as he could, and went round to all the booths and taverns in the place, whispering to the sailors and soldiers these words: "The Spaniards are coming."

At that they ran every one to the ship, and prepared with all the haste they knew whatever things were necessary for battle. Then they waited for the evening. While they were waiting thus, Ulenspiegel said to Lamme:

"Do you see that pretty-looking woman on the quay there, in a black dress embroidered with scarlet?"

"It's all one to me," answered Lamme. "I am cold and I want to go to sleep."

And he threw his great cloak around his head, and became like a man who was deaf.

But presently Ulenspiegel recognized the woman and cried out to her from the vessel:

"Would you like to come with us?"

"Even to the death," she answered, "but I cannot...."

Then she came nearer to the ship.

"Take this ointment," she said. "It is for you and that fat friend of yours who goes to sleep when he ought to be awake."

And she withdrew herself, crying:

"Lamme! Lamme! May G.o.d keep you from harm and bring you back safe."

And she uncovered her face.

"My wife! My wife!" cried Lamme.

And he would have jumped down to her.

"Your faithful wife!" she said, running the while as fast as ever she could.

Lamme would have leaped down from the deck on to the ice, but he was restrained by a soldier who caught him by his cloak, and the provost addressed him, saying:

"You will be hanged if you leave the ship."

Yet again did Lamme try to throw himself down, but an old Beggarman held him back, telling him that the ice was damp and that he would get his feet wet. And Lamme sat down on the deck weeping and crying ever:

"My wife! My wife! Let me go and find my wife!"

"You will see her again," said Ulenspiegel. "She loves you, but she loves G.o.d more."

"Mad devil-woman that she is!" cried Lamme. "If she loves G.o.d more than her husband, why does she show herself to me so sweet and so desirable? And if she loves me, why does she leave me?"