Volume I Part 57 (1/2)
”Full?” said she, ”not yet, Traveller in a hurry.”
”Wait,” repeated Ulenspiegel. ”Must I have no teeth left to eat you raw with, darling? You do not answer, you smile with your eyes clear brown and your lips red as cherries.”
The girl, looking craftily at him, replied:
”Why dost thou love me so quickly? What is thy trade? Art thou beggar, art thou rich?”
”A beggar,” said he, ”am I, and rich at the same time, if you give me your darling self.”
She replied:
”That is not what I want to know. Dost thou go to ma.s.s? Art thou a good Christian? Where dost thou dwell? Wouldst thou dare to say that thou art a Beggar, a true blue Beggar resisting the proclamations and the Inquisition?”
The ashes of Claes beat upon Ulenspiegel's breast.
”I am a Beggar,” said he, ”I would fain see dead and eaten by worms the oppressors of the Low Countries. Thou lookest on me confounded and astonied. This fire of love that burns for thee, darling, is the fire of youth. G.o.d lighted it; it flames as the sun s.h.i.+nes, until it dieth down. But the fire of vengeance that broodeth in my heart, G.o.d lit that as well. It will be the sword, the fire, the rope, conflagration, devastation, war, and ruin to the murderers.”
”Thou art goodly,” said she, sadly, kissing him on both cheeks, ”but hold thy peace.”
”Why dost thou weep?” answered he.
”You must always,” she said, ”watch here and elsewhere wherever you are.”
”Have these walls ears?” asked Ulenspiegel.
”No ears but mine,” said she.
”Carven by love, I will stop them with a kiss.”
”Mad lover, listen to me when I speak to you.”
”Why? what have you to say to me?”
”Listen to me,” she said, impatient. ”Here comes my mother.... Hold your tongue, hold your peace above all things before her....”
The old Sapermillemente woman came in. Ulenspiegel studied her.
”Muzzle full of holes like a skimming ladle,” said he to himself, ”eyes with a hard false look, mouth that would laugh and grimace, you make me curious.”
”G.o.d be with you, Messire,” said the old woman, ”be with you without ceasing. I have received moneys, Daughter, good moneys from Messire d'Egmont when I took him his cloak on which I had embroidered the fool's bauble. Yes, Messire, the fool's bauble against the Red Dog.”
”The Cardinal de Granvelle?” asked Ulenspiegel.
”Aye,” said she, ”against the Red Dog. It is said that he denounces their doings to the King; they would fain bring him to death. They are right, are they not?”
Ulenspiegel answered not a word.
”You have not seen them in the streets clad in a gray doublet and opperst-kleed, gray as the common folk wear them, and the long hanging sleeves and their monks' hoods and on all the opperst-kleederen the fool's bauble embroidered. I made at least twenty-seven and my daughter fifteen. That incensed the Red Dog to see these baubles.”
Then speaking in Ulenspiegel's ear: