“Tyl, I think you have no principles at all. Who are you?”
“I am,” said he, “a son that Chance begat one day on High Adventure.”
“You are not afraid to speak well of yourself,” she told him.
“That’s for fear that others will praise me.”
“Would you go so far as to help such of your brethren who have suffered for the Faith?”
“The ashes of Claes beat upon my breast.”
“There is something splendid about you, Tyl, when you say that,” she told him, “but who is this Claes?”
“He was my father,” answered Ulenspiegel, “that was burnt alive for the Faith.”
“Verily you are not at all like my husband, the Count de Meghen,” she said, “for he, if he could, would bleed to death the country that I love. For you must know that I was born in the glorious city of Antwerp. And now I will make known to you that the Count has entered into an agreement with the Councillor of Brabant to bring into that very city of Antwerp a regiment of infantry.”
“I must inform the citizens of this,” said Ulenspiegel. “Behold, I will go there immediately, swift as a ghost.”