XLVII
Now whenever any money was needed to pay for the expenses of Katheline’s household, Ulenspiegel was accustomed to go by night to the hole by the well wherein had been hidden the money left by Claes. He would lift up the stone that covered the top of the well and would take out a carolus.
One evening the two women were busy with their spinning, while Ulenspiegel sat carving a chest which had been commissioned from him by the town bailiff. And upon the side of the chest he was carving a hunting scene. Very beautiful it was and cleverly carved, with a pack of hounds running in pairs closely following one another, chasing their quarry.
Katheline was there, and Nele asked Soetkin absent-mindedly if she had found a safe hiding-place for her treasure. Thinking no harm, the widow answered that it would be hard to find a safer place than the side of the well wall.
Near midnight of the following Thursday Soetkin was awakened by Bibulus Schnouffius, who was barking fiercely. But soon he was quiet again, and Soetkin, thinking that it was a false alarm, turned over and went to sleep.
The next day when Nele and Ulenspiegel rose at dawn they were surprised to find no Katheline in the kitchen, neither was the fire lit, nor was there any milk boiling on the fire as usual. They were surprised at this and went out to see if perchance she was in the yard. And there they found her, all dishevelled in her linen shift, notwithstanding that it was drizzling with rain, and she was all damp and shivering, and stood there, not daring to come in.
Ulenspiegel went up to her and asked her what she was doing half naked there in the rain?
“Ah!” she said. “Yes, yes. Strange things have happened! Strange, wonderful things!”
And as she spoke she pointed to the ground, and they saw the dog lying there with its throat cut, all dead and stiff.
Ulenspiegel’s thoughts ran at once to the treasure. He hastened to the hole by the well, and found as he had feared that it was empty, and all around the earth scattered about far and wide.
He ran back to Katheline and struck her with his hand.
“Where are the caroluses?” he cried.
“Yes! Yes! Strange things have been happening!” she answered.
At this Nele tried to protect her mother from the wrath of Ulenspiegel.
“Have mercy, have pity,” she cried. “O Ulenspiegel!”
Then he stopped beating the wretched woman, and at the same moment Soetkin appeared on the scene and wanted to know what was the matter.
Ulenspiegel showed her the dog with its throat cut and the empty hole. Soetkin turned pale, and cried out most sorrowfully:
“O God, thou hast brought me low indeed!”
And Nele, seeing how gentle Soetkin was, wept also and was very sorrowful. But Katheline, flourishing a piece of parchment that she held in her hand, began to speak in this wise:
“Yes, yes. Strange things and wonderful have come to pass this night! For he came to me, my good one, my beautiful. And no longer did his face display that ghastly glitter which makes me so afraid. And it was with a great tenderness in his voice that he addressed me. Yes, I was overcome with love for him, and my heart was melted within me. ‘I am a rich man.’ he told me, ‘and soon I will bring thee a thousand florins in gold.’ ‘So be it,’ I answered him. ‘I rejoice for your sake rather than for mine, Hanske, my pet.’ ‘But is there no one else in your cottage,’ he asked, ‘that you love, perhaps, and would rejoice to see enriched by me also?’ ‘No,’ I replied. ‘They that live here have no need of any help of thine.’ ‘You are proud, it seems,’ he answered. ‘Soetkin and Ulenspiegel, are they then so rich as to need nothing?’ ‘They live without the help of any,’ I told him. ‘In spite of the confiscations?’ he asked. But then I laughed aloud, and said that he knew that they would not be such simpletons as to hide their treasure in the house where it could be easily found. ‘Nor yet in the cellar?’ he persisted. ‘Of course not,’ I told him. ‘Nor yet in the yard?’ To that I answered not a word. ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘that would indeed be a piece of imprudence.’ ‘Not so imprudent as all that,’ I answered, ‘for neither walls nor water have tongues.’ And at that he began laughing to himself. Presently he went away, earlier it was than usual. But first he gave me a powder, telling me that if I took it I should be spirited away to the finest of all the Sabbaths. I accompanied him a little way just as I was, as far as the door of the yard, and I seemed half asleep, and soon I found myself, even as he had told me, at the Witches’ Sabbath, and I did not return from thence until the morning. Then it was that I found myself here as you see me, and discovered the dog with his throat cut, and the empty hole. And this is a heavy blow to me, to me that loved him so tenderly, and had given to him my very soul. But whatsoever I have shall be yours, and I will labour with my hands and my feet to keep you alive, never fear.”
But Soetkin said:
“I am become even as the corn beneath the grindstone. God and this devil robber are heavy upon me both at once.”
“Robber do you call him?” cried Katheline. “Speak not so. He is a devil, a devil I say! And for proof I will show to you this parchment which he left behind him in the yard, and on it is written, ‘Forget not to serve me, and behold, in three times two weeks and five days I will render thee back again twice as much again as the treasure I have now taken from thee. Doubt not, or else thou wilt surely die.’ And oh,” cried Katheline, “of a surety he will keep his word!”
“Poor mad thing,” said Soetkin.
And this was the only word of reproach that she uttered.