The Legend of Ulenspiegel Volume Ii Part 59

"These florins," said he, "were flourishing in flower pots in the traitor's house: there are ten thousand."

Messire Worst said to them:

"Ye did ill to leave your ship; but because of your good success pardon shall be granted to you. Welcome be the prisoners and the satchel of florins, and ye, gallant men, to whom I a.s.sign, after the laws and customs of the sea, a third of the prize: the second will be for the fleet, and another third for Monseigneur d'Orange; string me up the traitor incontinent."

The Beggars having obeyed, they opened afterward a hole in the ice and threw the body of Dierick Slosse into it.

Messire Worst then said:

"Has gra.s.s sprung up around the ships that I hear hens cackling, sheep bleating, cows and oxen lowing?"

"These are the prisoners of our teeth," answered Ulenspiegel; "they will pay ransom of frica.s.sees. Messire Admiral shall have the choicest."

"As for these folk, the knaves and the maidservants, among whom are sprightly and pretty women, I will fetch them back aboard my ship."

Having done so, he addressed them as follows:

"Goodfellows and goodwives, ye are here upon the best ship in the world. Here we pa.s.s our time in jollity, feast, and revel without end. If it please you to depart herefrom, pay ransom; if it please you to stay here, ye shall live like us, toiling hard and eating well. As for these dear women, I accord them, with the admiral's sanction, full freedom of their persons, giving them to know that it is all one to me whether they are fain to keep to their lovers that came upon the ship with them or to make their choice of some stout Beggar here present in order to bear him conjugal company."

But the fair women were all faithful to their lovers, save only one, who, smiling and looking upon Lamme, asked him if he would have her.

"All thanks, dear one," said he, "but I am otherwise bound."

"He is married, poor fellow," said the Beggars, seeing the girl vexed.

But she, turning her back on Lamme, chose another who like him had a good round belly and a good round face.

That day and the following days there were great revels and feastings on board with wines, fowl, and meats. And Ulenspiegel said:

"Long live the Beggar! Blow, sharp wintry winds, we will warm the air with our hot breath. Our heart is afire for freedom of conscience; our stomachs on fire for the enemy's meats. Drink we wine, the milk of men. Long live the Beggar!"

Nele, too, drank from a great golden tankard, and ruddy in the breath of the wind, played the shrill fife. And for all the cold, the Beggars ate and drank rejoicing on the deck.

XVIII

Suddenly the whole fleet perceived upon the bank a black troop among which torches shone and the gleaming of arms; then the torches were put out, and a great darkness reigned.

The admiral's orders being sent round, the alarm was given on the ships, and all fires were quenched; sailors and soldiers lay flat on the decks, armed with axes. The gallant gunners, linstock in hand, watched by the guns loaded with bags of bullets and with chain shot. As soon as the admiral and the captains should call out "A hundred paces!"--which denoted the enemy's distance, they were to fire from the bows, the p.o.o.p, or the broadside, according to their position in the ice.

And Messire Worst's voice was heard saying:

"Death to whoever speaks aloud!"

And the captains said after him:

"Death to whoever speaks aloud!"

The night was moonless, filled with stars.

"Dost thou hear?" said Ulenspiegel to Lamme, in a voice like a whispering ghost. "Hearest thou the voices of the Amsterdammers, and the steel of their skates ringing over the ice? They come swiftly. We can hear them speak. They are saying 'The lazy Beggars are asleep. Ours is the Lisbon treasure!' They are lighting torches. Seest thou their ladders for the a.s.sault, their ugly faces, and the long line of their band deployed for the attack? There are a thousand of them, and more."

"A hundred paces!" cried Messire Worst.

"A hundred paces!" cried the captains all.

And there was a great noise like thunder, and lamentable outcries upon the ice.

"Eighty guns are thundering all together!" said Ulenspiegel. "They are fleeing! Seest thou the torches vanishing away?"

"Pursue them!" said Admiral Worst.

"Pursue them!" said the captains.

But the pursuit did not last long, the fugitives having a start of a hundred paces, and the legs of frightened hares.

And on the men that were crying out and dying on the ice were found gold, jewels, and ropes for the Beggars.

And after this victory the Beggars said one to another: "Als G.o.d met ons is, wie tegen ons zal zijn. If G.o.d is with us, who shall be against us? Long live the Beggar!"

Now on the morning of the third day thereafter Messire Worst was uneasy, and looked for a fresh attack. Lamme leaped upon the deck and said to Ulenspiegel:

"Fetch me to this admiral that would not listen to you when you prophesied a frost."

"Go without any fetching you?" said Ulenspiegel.

Lamme departed, first locking the door of his galley. The admiral was on deck, straining his eyes to see if he did not perceive some movement from the city.

Lamme came up to him.

"Monseigneur Admiral," said he, "may a humble master cook give you a rede?"

"Speak, my son," said the admiral.

"Monseigneur," said Lamme, "the water is thawing in the jugs; the fowl grow soft again; the sausage is laying aside its mildew of h.o.a.r frost; the b.u.t.ter becomes unctuous, the oil liquid; the salt is weeping. It will rain before long, and we shall be saved, Monseigneur."

"Who art thou?" asked Messire Worst.

"I am Lamme Goedzak," he replied, "the master cook of the ship La Briele. And if all those great savants that boast themselves astronomers read in the stars as true as I read in my sauces, they could tell us that to-night there will be a thaw with a great hubbub of storm and hail: but the thaw will not last."

And Lamme went back to Ulenspiegel, to whom he said, towards noon:

"I am a prophet already; the sky grows black, the wind breathes stormily: a warm rain is falling; already there is a foot of water upon the ice."

At night he cried, rejoicing: