Claes embraced Ulenspiegel and Soetkin, crying the while. But he was the first to dry his eyes, for he put control upon himself, being a man and the head of the family. Soetkin, however, went on crying, and Ulenspiegel kept muttering under his breath:
“I must break these wicked chains!”
And Soetkin said through her tears:
“I shall go to King Philip. He surely will have mercy!”
But Claes answered that this would be no use since the King was wont to possess himself of the property of those who died as martyrs.... He said also:
“My wife and child, my best beloved, it is with sadness and sorrow that I am about to leave this world. If I have some natural apprehension for my own bodily sufferings, I am no less concerned when I think of you and of how poor and wretched you will be when I am gone, for the King will certainly seize for himself all your goods.”
Ulenspiegel made answer, speaking in a low voice for fear of being overheard:
“Yesterday Nele and I hid all the money.”
“I am glad,” Claes answered; “the informer will not laugh when he comes to count his plunder.”
“I had rather he died than had a penny of it,” said Soetkin with a look of hate in her eyes now dry of tears. But Claes, who was still thinking about the caroluses, said to Ulenspiegel: