The Legend of Ulenspiegel Volume Ii Part 57

"Hearken in Flanders, our beloved land, how there bursts forth the cry of avenging. Armour is polishing, the swords are a-whetting. All are astir, athrill like the strings of a harp in the warm breeze, the breath souls that cometh from grave pits, from torture fires, from the bleeding corpses of the victims. All, Hainaut, Brabant, Luxembourg, Namur, Liege the free city, all! Blood sprouts and springs up. The harvest is ripe for the sickle. Long live the Beggar.

"Ours the Noord-Zee, the wide North Sea. Ours are good guns, proud ships, the bold band of redoubted seamen: rogues, robbers, soldier-priests, gentlemen, townsfolk, and artisans fleeing persecution. Ours to all of us joined together for the work of freedom! Long live the Beggar!

"Philip, king of blood, where art thou? D'Alba, where art thou? Thou dost cry out and curse and blaspheme, thou with the holy hat, the Holy Father's gift. Beat the drums of joy. Long live the Beggar! Drink all!

"The wine flows into the golden cups. Drain it with glee. Priestly robes on the backs of rough men are flooded with the red liquor; banners, ecclesiastic and Roman, wave in the wind. Eternal music! To you, fifes squealing, bagpipes droning, drums beating, peals of glory. Long live the Beggar!"

XVII

The world was then in the wolf month, which is the month of December. A thin sharp rain was falling like needles upon the sea. The Beggars were cruising in the Zuyderzee. Messire the Admiral summoned by trumpet the captains of houlques and flyboats on board his ship, and with them Ulenspiegel.

"Now," said the Admiral, addressing himself first of all to Ulenspiegel, "the Prince is minded to recognize thy good devoirs and trusty services, and names thee as captain of the ship La Briele. Herewith I hand thee the commission engrossed upon parchment."

"All thanks to you, Messire Admiral," replied Ulenspiegel: "I shall be captain with all my little power, and thus captaining I have great hope, if G.o.d help me, to uncaptain Spain from the lands of Flanders and Holland: I mean from the Zuid and the Noord-Neerlande."

"That is well," said the admiral. "And now," he added, speaking to them all, "I will tell you that the folk of Catholic Amsterdam are going to besiege Enckhuyse. They have not yet come out from the Y ca.n.a.l; let us cruise about in front that they may stay inside there and fall on each and all of their ships that may show their tyrannical carcases in the Zuyderzee."

They made answer:

"We will knock holes in them. Long live the Beggar!"

Ulenspiegel, returned to his ship, called his soldiers and his sailors together on the deck, and told them what the admiral had decided.

They replied:

"We have wings, the which are our sails; skates, which are the keels of our ships; and giant hands, which are the grapples for boarding. Long live the Beggar!"

The fleet set forth and cruised in front of Amsterdam a sea league away, in such a sort that none could enter or come out against their will.

On the fifth day the rain ceased; the wind blew sharper in the clear sky; the Amsterdam folk made no stir.

Suddenly Ulenspiegel saw Lamme come up on deck, driving before him with great blows of his wooden ladle the ship's truxman, a young man skilful in the French and Flemish tongues, but more skilful still in the science of the teeth.

"Good-for-naught," said Lamme, beating him, "didst thou deem thou couldst scatheless eat my frica.s.sees before their due time? Go up to the masthead and see if aught budges on the ships of Amsterdam. Doing this thou wilt do well."

But the truxman answered:

"What will you give me?"

"Dost thou think," said Lamme, "to be paid without doing the work? Thieves' sp.a.w.n, if thou dost not climb, I shall have thee flogged. And thy French shall not save thee."

"'Tis a beauteous tongue," said the truxman, "a tongue for love and war."

And he climbed the mast.

"Well! lazybones?" asked Lamme.

The truxman answered:

"I see naught in the town nor on the ships." And descending:

"Now pay me," said he.

"Keep what thou hast stolen," replied Lamme; "but such gains are no profit; thou wilt doubtless vomit it up."

The truxman, climbing again to the masthead, cried out suddenly:

"Lamme! Lamme! there is a thief going into the galley."

"I have the key in my pouch," rejoined Lamme.

Ulenspiegel then, taking Lamme apart, said to him:

"My son, this great tranquillity of Amsterdam affrights me. They have some hidden project."

"I thought of that," said Lamme. "The water is freezing in the jugs in the cupboard; the fowl are like wood; h.o.a.r frost whitens the sausages; the b.u.t.ter is a stone, the oil is all white, the salt is dry as sand in the sun."

"'Tis a frost at hand," said Ulenspiegel. "They will come in great numbers to attack us with artillery."

Going on board the admiral's ship, he told his fear to the admiral, who answered him:

"The wind blows from England: there will be snow, but it will not freeze: go back to your ship."

And Ulenspiegel went away.

That night heavy snow fell; but soon, the wind blowing out of Norway, the sea froze and was like a floor. The admiral beheld the sight.

Then fearing lest the Amsterdam folk might come over the ice to burn the ships, he bade the soldiers make ready their skates, in case they might have to fight around and away from the ships, and the gunners of the iron guns and the bra.s.s to pile up heaps of cannon-b.a.l.l.s by the gun carriages, to load the pieces, and to keep the portfires always well lighted.

But the Amsterdam folk never came.

And so it was for seven days.

Towards evening on the eighth day Ulenspiegel gave orders that a good feast should be served to the sailors and men at arms, to make them a cuira.s.s against the sharp wind that was blowing.

But Lamme said:

"There is nothing at all left now but biscuit and small beer."

"Long live the Beggar!" said they. "'Twill be Lenten revelry until the hour of battle."

"Which will not strike soon," said Lamme. "The Amsterdammers will come to burn us our ships, but not on this night. First they must needs a.s.semble themselves together around fires, and there drink many a measure of wine mulled with Madeira sugar--may G.o.d give us thereof--then having talked till midnight with patience, logic, and full stoups, they will decide that there are grounds for coming to a decision to-morrow as to whether they shall attack or not attack next week. To-morrow, again drinking wine mulled with Madeira sugar--may G.o.d give you thereof--they will decide anew with calm, patience, and full stoups, that they must a.s.semble together another day, to the end that they may know if the ice can or cannot bear a great band of men. And they will have it proved and essayed by men of learning, who will lay down their conclusions upon parchment. Having received which, they will know that the ice is half an ell in thickness, and that it is solid enough to bear some hundreds of men with field guns and artillery. Then a.s.sembling themselves together once more to deliberate with calm, patience, and many stoups of mulled wine, they will debate whether, by reason of the treasure seized by us from the men of Lisbon, it is more suitable to a.s.sault or to burn our ships. And being thus perplexed, but temporizers, they will none the less decide that they must capture and not burn our ships, notwithstanding the great wrong and hurt they would do us by that."

"You say well," replied Ulenspiegel; "but see you not those fires kindle up within the town, and folk bearing lanterns running busily about there?"