Soetkin

“ One day Soetkin said to Claes:
“Husband, my heart is sad: it is now three days since Thyl left the house; dost thou not know where he is?”
Claes replied ruefully:
“He is where homeless dogs are, on some highway with a crew of other vagabonds of his own kidney. God was cruel to give us such a son. When he was born, I beheld in him the joy of our age, a tool more [31] in the house; I looked to make a craftsman of him, and wicked fate makes him a thief and a drone.”
“Be not so hard, husband,” said Soetkin, “our son being but nine years old is in the heyday of childish thoughtlessness and folly. ”

“ Now Soetkin and Nele remained away for seven days; and all this time the messenger stayed beneath the roof of Claes, and every night they heard Katheline howling in her cottage over the way:
“Fire! Fire! Make a hole! My soul wants to get out!” ”

“ My husband is a handsome man. A hairy man is he, hot with love. But his knees and his arms, they are cold!” And Soetkin looked at her sadly, wondering what new kind of madness this might be. But Katheline continued:
“Three times three are nine, the sacred number. He whose eyes glitter in the night like the eyes of a cat—he only it is that sees the mystery.”
One evening when Katheline was talking in this way, Soetkin made a gesture of misgiving. ”

“ At Damme Nele the unhappy lived alone with Katheline who still for love called the cold devil who never came.
“Ah!” she would say, “thou art rich, Hanske my darling, and mightest bring me back the seven hundred carolus. Then would Soetkin come back alive from limbo to this earth, and Claes would laugh in the sky: well canst thou do this. Take away the fire, the soul would fain come out; make a hole, the soul would fain come out.” ”

“ Thereafter Soetkin and Ulenspiegel heard a great noise as of many voices. This was the townsfolk, their wives and their children, who now began to cry and shout out all together:
“He was not sentenced to be burnt by a slow fire, but by a quick fire! Executioner, stir up the faggots!”
The executioner did so. But the fire did not flame up quick enough to please the mob.
“Kill him!” they shouted. “Put him out of his misery!” And they began to throw missiles at the provost.
Soetkin cried aloud: “The flame! The great flame!” ”

“ And Claes went away sadly, with Soetkin and Ulenspiegel.
[Contents]
IX
Once again did Soetkin bear under her girdle the sign of approaching motherhood; and Katheline also was in a like condition. But she was afraid, and never ventured out of her house.
When Soetkin went to see her, “Alas!” said Katheline, “what shall I do? Must I smother the ill-starred fruit of my womb? I would rather die myself. And yet if the Sergeant summons me for having a child without being married, they will make me pay twenty florins like a girl of no reputation, and I shall be flogged in the Market Square.” ”

“ Claes looked at Ulenspiegel and said:
“My son, it was wrong of you to go running off along the high roads of the world like any ruffian. You must not do that any more, my boy. You must not leave her alone at home, my widow in her sorrow. For now it is your duty to protect her and take care of her—you, a man.”
“I will, father,” said Ulenspiegel.
“O my poor husband!” cried Soetkin embracing him again. “What crime can we have committed? Nay, we lived our life peaceably together, lowly and humbly, loving each other well—how well Thou, Lord, knowest! ”

“ Soetkin; a voice low as a breath, and a step light as the sound of a gnat’s wings.” Then speaking to Claes’s spirit:—“Husband,” she said, “if thou desirest aught in heaven where God keeps thee in his glory, thou must tell us what it is, that we may carry out thy will.”
Suddenly a blast blew the door open impetuously, filling the chamber with dust, and Ulenspiegel and Soetkin heard the far-off croakings of ravens. ”

“ But Katheline said:
“Under Saturn, four and three mean misfortune. But under Venus, it is the marriage number. Cold arms! Cold knees! Heart of fire!”
Soetkin answered:
“It is wrong to talk in this way of these wicked pagan idols.”
But Katheline only crossed herself and said:
“Blessed be the grey horseman. Nele must have a husband—a handsome husband that carries a sword, a dusky husband with a shining face!”
“Yes,” cried Ulenspiegel, “a very fricassee of a husband, for whom I will make a sauce with my knife!” ”

“ If now thy heart bleeds, murderer, there are fifteen years through which ours have been bleeding; fifteen years that Katheline suffers; fifteen years she had her brain in her head burned by thee; fifteen years that Soetkin is dead by consequence of the torture; fifteen years that we are needy, ragged, and live in abject want, but proudly. Read the paper, read the paper! The judges are God upon earth, for they are Justice; read the paper!”
“Read the paper!” cried the men and women, weeping. “Nele is a brave lass! read the paper! Katheline is no witch!” ”

“ The fishmonger exclaimed:
“Ye search ill: I know that Claes had seven hundred six months ago.” [204]
Ulenspiegel said in his heart: “Thou shalt not be the heir to them, murderer.”
Suddenly Soetkin turning towards him:
“The informer!” said she, showing him the fishmonger.
“I know that,” said he.
“Would you suffer him,” said she, “to inherit from the father’s blood?”
“Rather would I endure a whole day on the torture bench,” replied Ulenspiegel.
Quoth Soetkin:
“I, too, but do not give me away for pity, whatever torment you may see me enduring.”
“Alas! you are a woman,” said Ulenspiegel. ”

“ When Nele and Soetkin returned from Bruges, they found Claes in the kitchen, sitting on the floor like a tailor, sewing buttons on an old pair of breeches. Titus Bibulus Schnouffius barked his welcome; Claes smiled, and Nele smiled in answer. But Soetkin did not take her eyes from the road, gazing continually in hopes to see her beloved Ulenspiegel.
All of a sudden she broke silence. “Look,” she cried, “here is the Provost-Marshal. He is coming along the road with four sergeants of the peace. They cannot be wanting any one from here, surely! ”

“ The fishmonger need pay only one half of the price of his purchase, the other half serving to pay him the reward of his informing, until they should have recovered the seven hundred carolus that had impelled him to his villainy.
Soetkin spent the nights in weeping and the day in the tasks of housekeeping. Often Ulenspiegel heard her talking all alone and saying:
“If he inherits, I shall kill myself.”
Knowing that she would indeed do as she said, Nele [205] and he did all they could to get Soetkin to retire to Walcheren, where she had kinsfolk. ”

“ The executioner unbound Ulenspiegel, and laid him all naked and covered with blood upon Soetkin’s knees, while the barber surgeon put back his bones in their sockets.
All the while Soetkin embraced Ulenspiegel, and said, weeping:
“Son, poor martyr! If the judges will, I shall heal [213] thee, I; but awaken, Thyl, my son! Master judges, if ye have killed him on me, I shall go to His Majesty; for ye have done contrary to all laws and justice, and ye shall see what one poor woman can do against wicked men. But, sirs, leave us free together. ”

“ Highness, I am but a poor mean fellow come into the world like any other, who have lived as I could, imperfect, limited, ignorant, not virtuous, in no wise chaste or deserving of any favour human or divine. But Soetkin died of the effects of the torture and her grief, but Claes burned in a terrible fire, and I was minded to avenge them, and did so once ”

“ Katheline came to Claes in a great state of excitement.
“Whatever is the matter, my good woman?” he asked.
“Alas!” she cried, catching her breath, “behold! This night the ghosts are mowing men down like grass. Little girls are being buried alive. The executioner is dancing on the body of the dead. And broken, this night, is that Stone which has been sweating blood these nine months past and more!”
“Mercy on us!” groaned Soetkin. “Mercy on us, O Lord! This is a black omen indeed for the land of Flanders.”
“Do you see these things with your own eyes wide awake, or perchance in a dream?” ”

“ He will be blessed by God, and blessed of the devil, if it is a devil,” she said, shuddering, “that hath made thee, poor babe that movest in my bosom.”
Soetkin and Katheline brought into the world one a lad, the other a girl. Both were borne to baptism, as son and daughter of Claes. Soetkin’s son was named Hans, and did not live, Katheline’s daughter was named Nele and throve well.
She drank the wine of life from four flagons, two [29] of Katheline and two of Soetkin. And the two women quarrelled softly which should give the babe to drink. ”

“ At length, withered up with sorrow and pain, she said one evening:
“Claes, my husband! Thyl, my son! I thank thee, God who takest me away!”
And she died on a sigh.
Katheline not daring to watch by her, Ulenspiegel and Nele did it together, and all night long they prayed for the dead woman.
At dawn there entered by the open window a swallow.
Nele said:
“The bird of souls, ’tis a good omen: Soetkin is in heaven.” ”

“ Ulenspiegel ground and gnashed his teeth, and Soetkin looked at him with haggard eyes and all in tears.
Nevertheless, when the executioner, having blown out the candles, set the burning brazier under Ulenspiegel’s feet, she cried:
“Master judges, have pity upon him: he knows not what he saith.”
“Why doth he not know what he saith?” asked the bailiff, craftily. [212]
“Do not question her, master judges; ye see full well that she is out of her wits with torment. The fishmonger lied,” said Ulenspiegel.
“Wilt thou say the same as he, woman?” asked the bailiff. ”

“ He said to me, ‘Now I am rich, and will before long bring thee a thousand florins.’ ‘Aye,’ said I, ‘I am more glad for thy sake than for mine, Hanske, my darling.’ ‘But hast thou not here,’ he asked, ‘some other person thou lovest and whom I might make rich?’ ‘Nay,’ I replied, ‘those that be here have no need of thee.’ ‘Thou art proud,’ said he, ‘are then Soetkin and Ulenspiegel rich?’ ‘They live with no help from their neighbours,’ I replied. ”

“ Claes wagged his head and made no answer, and while he slept, Soetkin wept alone. And in the morning, thinking that her son was sick in a corner of some highway, she went out on the doorstep to see if he was not coming back; but she saw nothing, and she sate near the window, looking thence into the street. And many a time her heart danced in her bosom at the sound of the light foot of some lad; but when he passed, she saw it was not Ulenspiegel, and then she wept, poor dolorous mother.
In the meanwhile, Ulenspiegel with his vagabond companions was at Bruges, at the Saturday fair. ”

“ Soetkin did not like to say anything more, for she was not mistress of the house. So she told her son to go and do as Katheline had bidden him. Ulenspiegel ran to the tavern and brought back with him the four quarts of dobbel kuyt. And soon the kitchen reeked with the good smell of pancakes, and every one felt hungry, even the poor afflicted Katheline. ”

“ A bird could break them with its beak. Do not tighten them, sirs—master executioner, I do not speak to you, for you must needs be obedient [209] to these gentlemen’s orders. O do not bid him tighten them; have pity!”
“The fishmonger,” said Soetkin.
And Ulenspiegel held his peace.
However, seeing that the executioner was locking the baguettes tighter still, he cried out again:
“Pity, sirs!” he said. “Ye are breaking the widow’s fingers that she needeth to work withal. Alas! her feet! Will she never walk again now? Pity, sirs!”
“Thou shalt come to an ill end, fishmonger,” cried Soetkin. ”

“ The boys knew Claes by his big voice and the clatter of his shoes. Running to him they would say:
“Good evening, coalman.”
“God give you the like, my cherublings,” Claes would answer, “but don’t come too close, or I shall turn you into blackamoors.”
The little fellows, being bold, would come close all the same; and then he would seize one by the tunic, and rubbing his soft little muzzle with his smutty hands, would send him back like that, laughing in spite of it, to the great delight of all the others.
Soetkin, Claes’s wife, was a good helpmeet, early as the dawn and diligent as the ant. ”

“ Katheline kept repeating:
“Nele is bad. Why hast thou gone so quickly, Hanske, my darling?”
“Where wast thou, ill mother,” said Soetkin, “while they would have taken away thy child’s honour?”
“Nele is bad,” said Katheline. “I was with my black lord, when the gray devil came to us, his face all bloody, and said: ‘Come away, lad: the house is a bad house; the men in it would beat us to the death, and the women have knives at their fingertips.’ Then they ran to their horses and disappeared in the mist. Nele is bad!” ”

“ When Ulenspiegel would come home, complaining of being beaten in some fray, Claes would beat him because he had not beaten the others, and thus educated Ulenspiegel became valiant as a young lion.
If Claes was from home, Ulenspiegel would ask Soetkin for a liard, to go play. Soetkin, angry, would say, “What need have you to go play? It would fit you better to stay at home to tie faggots.” ”

“ Claes threw the window wide and spake to Ulenspiegel.
“Son with the caul,” said he, “lucky son, here is our lord Sun coming to salute the soil of Flanders. Look always on him when thou canst, and whenever thou art in a maze, knowing not what to do so as to do right, ask counsel of him: he is bright and warm; be thou honest as he is bright, and kind even as he is warm.”
“Husband Claes,” said Soetkin, “you are preaching to deaf ears; come, drink, my son.”
And the mother offered the newly born nature’s goodly flagons. ”