"You would trust him with your heads?" asked Ludwig of Na.s.sau.

"Head, body, and soul," replied d'Egmont.

"Friend, faithful and true, I will do likewise," said de Hoorn.

But William said:

"It behoves us to be far-sighted, and not to wait for things to happen."

And then my Lord of Egmont spoke again, very excitedly.

"I have arrested twenty-two Reformers at Grammont," he said, "and if their preachings come to an end, and if punishment is meted out to the iconoclasts, the anger of the King will be appeased."

But William said:

"These are mere hopes."

"Let us arm ourselves with trust," said d'Egmont.

"Let us arm ourselves with trust," echoed de Hoorn.

"It is cold steel rather than trust that should be our weapons,"

replied de Hoogstraeten.

Whereupon William the Silent made a sign to the effect that he wished to depart.

"Adieu, Prince without a country," said the Count d'Egmont.

"Adieu, Prince without a head," answered William.

"The sheep are for the butcher," said Ludwig of Na.s.sau, "but glory waits the soldier that saves the land of his fathers."

"That I cannot," said d'Egmont, "neither do I desire to."

"May the blood of the victims fall once again upon the head of the flatterer," said Ulenspiegel.

And then those Lords retired.

Whereupon did Ulenspiegel come down from his chimney, and go straightway to carry the news to Praet. And the latter said: "D'Egmont is nothing better than a traitor. But G.o.d is with the Prince."

The Duke! The Duke at Brussels! Where are the safes and coffers that have wings?

XII

William the Silent went in the way by G.o.d appointed. As for the two Counts, they had already given themselves up to the Duke of Alba, who offered pardon to William as well if only he would appear before him.

At this news Ulenspiegel said to Lamme:

"My good friend, what do you think now? The Duke has sent out a summons through Dubois, the Attorney-General, by which the Prince of Orange, Ludwig his brother, de Hoogstraeten, Van den Bergh, Culembourg, de Brederode, and other friends of the Prince are cited to appear before him within forty days; and if they do this they are a.s.sured of justice and mercy. But listen, Lamme, and I will tell you a story. One day there was a Jew of Amsterdam who summoned one of his enemies to come down and join him in the street, for the Jew was standing on the pavement, but his enemy was looking out of a window just above. 'Come down at once,' said the Jew, 'and I will give you such a blow on the head as will squash it down into your chest, so that your two eyes will look out from your sides like the eyes of a thief from betwixt prison-bars.' But the other answered: 'Even if you promised me a hundred times as much, still I would not come down.' Even so may the Prince of Orange and his friends make reply to him that summons them!"

And so they did, refusing point-blank to appear before the Duke. But the Counts d'Egmont and de Hoorn were not of this mind. And their failure to do their duty brought them nearer to their doom.

XIII

One day in June, a fine warm day it was, a scaffold was set up in the market square at Brussels, in front of the Town Hall. The scaffold was draped in black, and close to it were two tall posts tipped with steel. On the scaffold were a couple of black cus.h.i.+ons and a little table with a silver cross thereon.

And on this scaffold were beheaded the n.o.ble Counts d'Egmont and de Hoorn. And the King entered into their inheritance. And it was of the Count d'Egmont that the amba.s.sador of Francis spake, saying:

"This day have I seen a man beheaded who twice made the Kingdom of France to tremble."

And the heads of the two Counts were placed upon the posts with the iron tips. And Ulenspiegel said to Lamme:

"With a black cloth have they covered both their flesh and their blood. Verily, blessed now are they who keep heart high and sword drawn in the dark days that are coming!"

XIV

In those days William the Silent gathered together an army and invaded the country of the Netherlands from three sides.

And Ulenspiegel was at a meeting of his countrymen at Marenhout. And they were wild with anger and he addressed them in this wise:

"Know you, my friends, that King Philip has taken counsel with the Holy Inquisition, and by their advice he has declared all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to be guilty of high treason. And the charge against them is one of heresy, namely, that either they are heretics themselves, or else that they have put no obstacles in the way of the spread of heretical doctrine. And for this execrable crime the King has condemned them all, without regard to age or s.e.x, to suffer the appropriate penalties--all except a few here and there that are exempted by name. And there is no hope of grace or pardon. And the King will enter into their inheritance. For the scythes of Death are busy through all the wide land that borders the North Sea: the Duchy of Emden, the river-land of Amise, and the countries of Westphalia and of Cleves, of Juliers and Liege, together with the Bishoprics of Cologne and Treves and the lands of France and Lorraine. The scythes of Death are busy over more than three hundred leagues of our soil, and in two hundred of our walled towns, in a hundred and fifty boroughs, in the countrysides and villages and level lands of the whole country. And the King is taking all for his own. And I tell you," Ulenspiegel continued, "that eleven thousand executioners will not be too many for this business. But the Duke of Alba calls them soldiers. And all the land of our fathers is become a charnel-house. Fugitive are all the arts of peace, and all the crafts and industries abandon us now to enrich those foreign lands which still permit a man to wors.h.i.+p at home the G.o.d of conscience. But here the scythes of Death are busy, and the King takes all for his own.

"Our country, as you know, had gained various privileges by gifts of money to princes when they were in need. But now these privileges have all been annulled. And as the result of many an agreement made between ourselves and our overlords we had hoped to enjoy the wealth that came to us as the fruit of our labours. Yet were we deceived. The stone-mason builded for the incendiary, the labourer laboured for the thief. And the King takes all for his own.

"Blood and tears! Everywhere naught but blood and tears! For the scythes of Death are busy--busy at the places of execution and at the trees that serve for gallows by the roadsides; and at many an open grave wherein are thrown the living bodies of our maids. And they are busy in the prison dungeons and within those circles of f.a.ggots that flame around the victims, scorching them little by little to death; or in the huts of straw where they fall suffocated in the fire and the smoke. And the King takes all for his own. And this, forsooth, by the will of the Pope of Rome. The very cities teem with spies that await their share of the plunder. The richer one is the more likely one is to be found guilty. And the King takes all for his own.

"But never shall the valiant men of Flanders suffer themselves to be butchered thus like lambs. For among those who fly away for refuge there are some who carry arms, and these are hiding in the woods....

"The monks verily have denounced them and hold themselves free to kill them and take possession of their goods. But by night and day these refugees, banded together like wild beasts, rush down upon the monasteries and seize the money that has been stolen from the poor, and take it away under the form of candlesticks and reliquaries of gold and silver, ciboria and patens, and other precious vessels of the kind.... Do I not speak truth, my friends? And they drink therefrom that wine which the monks had been keeping for themselves. And when melted down or mortgaged, these vessels will serve to provide money for the Holy War. Long live the Beggarmen!

"And even now they begin to hara.s.s the soldiers of the King, killing and plundering, then back into their lairs. And in the woods by day and night are to be seen the fires which have been lit during the hours of darkness, flaring up or dying down and ever breaking out in some fresh place. These are the fires of our banquetings. All for us the game of the woods, both furred and feathered. We are the masters here. And the peasants load us with bread and bacon whenever we are in need. Look at them Lamme; fierce and talkative, resolute and proud of bearing, they wander through the woods. And they are armed with hatchets and halberds, and with long swords and bragmarts, with arquebuses, pikes, lances, and crossbows. For any kind of weapon is good enough for such brave men, and they need no officers to lead them. Long live the Beggarmen!"