“Will a denier be enough for you?” she would say.
Now it should be noted that a denier is equal to six liards.
Thus did his mother dote on Ulenspiegel even to excess; and when Claes was not there, he was king in the house.
VIII
One morning Soetkin saw Claes pacing up and down the kitchen with head bent, like a man lost in thought.
“Whatever is the matter with you, my man?” she asked him. “You are pale, and you look angry and distracted.”
Claes answered her in a low voice, like a dog growling.
“The Emperor is about to reissue those cursed placards. Death once again is hovering over the land of Flanders. The Informers are to have one half of the property of their victims, if so be that such property does not exceed the value of one hundred florins.”
“We are poor,” Soetkin said.