Volume Ii Part 27 (1/2)
”I,” replied Ulenspiegel, ”am of the goodly country of Flanders, a painter, a rustic, a n.o.ble, a sculptor, all together. And through the world in this wise I journey, praising things lovely and good and mocking loudly at all stupidity.”
”If thou hast seen so many countries,” said the ancient man, ”thou canst p.r.o.nounce: Schild ende Vriendt, buckler and friend, in the fas.h.i.+on of Ghent folk; if not, thou art a counterfeit Fleming and thou shalt die.”
Ulenspiegel p.r.o.nounced: Schild ende Vriendt.
”And thou, big belly,” asked the ancient man, speaking to Lamme, ”what is thy trade?”
Lamme replied:
”To eat and drink my lands, farms, fees, and revenues, to seek for my wife, and to follow in all places my friend Ulenspiegel.”
”If thou hast travelled so much,” said the old man, ”thou art not without knowledge of how they call the folk of Weert in Limbourg.”
”I do not know it,” replied Lamme; ”but would you not tell me the name of the scandalous vagabond who drove my wife from her home? Give it to me; I will go and slay him straightway.”
The ancient man made answer:
”There are two things in this world which never return once having taken flight: they are money spent and a woman grown tired and run away.”
Then speaking to Ulenspiegel:
”Dost thou know,” said he, ”how they call the men of Weert in Limbourg?”
”De reakstekers, the exorcisers of skates,” replied Ulenspiegel, ”for one day a live ray having fallen from a fishmonger's cart, old women seeing it leap about took it for the devil. 'Let us go fetch the cure to exorcise the skate,' said they. The cure exorcised it, and carrying it off with him, made a n.o.ble frica.s.see in honour of the folk of Weert. Thus may G.o.d do with the b.l.o.o.d.y king.”
Meanwhile, the barking of the dogs reechoed in the forest. The armed men, running in the wood, were shouting to frighten the beast.
”'Tis the stag and the brocket I put up,” said Ulenspiegel.
”We shall eat him,” said the old man. ”But how do they call the folk of Eindhoven in Limbourg?”
”De pinnemakers, boltmakers,” replied Ulenspiegel. ”One day the enemy was at the gate of their city; they bolted it with a carrot. The geese came and ate the carrot with great pecks of their greedy beaks, and the enemies came into Eindhoven. But it will be iron beaks that will eat the bolts of the prisons wherein they seek to lock up freedom of conscience.”
”If G.o.d be with us, who shall be against us?” replied the ancient man.
Ulenspiegel said:
”Dogs baying, men shouting, branches broken; 'tis a storm in the forest.”
”Is it good meat, stag meat?” asked Lamme, looking at the frica.s.sees.
”The cries of the trackers come nearer,” said Ulenspiegel to Lamme; ”the dogs are close at hand. What thunder! The stag! the stag! take care, my son. Fie! the foul beast; he has flung my big friend down to the earth in the midst of the pans, saucepans, cooking pots, boilers, and frica.s.sees. There are the women and girls fleeing daft with fright. You are bleeding, my son?”
”You are laughing, scoundrel,” said Lamme. ”Aye, I am bleeding; he hath landed his antlers in my seat. There, see my breeches torn, and my flesh, too, and all those lovely frica.s.sees on the ground. There, I am losing all my blood down my hose.”
”This stag is a foresighted surgeon; he is saving you from an apoplexy,” replied Ulenspiegel.
”Fie! rascal without a heart,” said Lamme. ”But I will follow you no more. I will stay here in the midst of these good fellows and these good women. Can you, without any shame, be so hardhearted to my woes, when I walk at your heels like a dog, through snow, frost, rain, hail, wind, and when it is hot weather, sweating my very soul out through my skin?”