Volume Ii Part 57 (1/2)
”Hearken in Flanders, our beloved land, how there bursts forth the cry of avenging. Armour is polis.h.i.+ng, 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 s.h.i.+ps, 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+p 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 s.h.i.+ps 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 s.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+ps; 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 s.h.i.+p'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 s.h.i.+ps 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: