“But your wife?” persisted Thomas Utenhove. “Where will you find her?”
“Here, I doubt not,” answered Ulenspiegel. “And then I shall harness two of your own horses to one of the wagons, and our two donkeys to the other. In the first wagon will ride my wife and myself, together with my friend Lamme here, and the witnesses of our nuptials. In the second wagon will follow the musicians, the players upon the drum, the fife, and the shawm. And then, with all our joyous wedding-flags a-flying, and with music playing, and we ourselves singing and drinking each other’s healths, we shall ride along at the trot by the high road that leads to the Galgen-veld—the Field of the Gallows—which for us indeed will be the Field of Liberty.”
“I will do all in my power to help you,” said Thomas Utenhove, “but the women and girls will want to follow their men-folk.”
“We will go where God wills,” said a pretty-looking girl who had thrust in her head at the half-opened door.
“You can have four wagons if need be,” said Thomas Utenhove, “and by that means we should be able to convey as many as five-and-twenty men.”
“The Duke will be nicely fooled,” said Ulenspiegel.
“And the Prince’s fleet will gain the service of some fine soldiers,” added Thomas Utenhove.
Then he caused a bell to be rung to summon his footman and his servants, and when they were all assembled he said to them:
“All you that are from the land of Zeeland, women as well as men, listen now to me. Ulenspiegel, who is hither come from Flanders, has a plan to convey you through the enemy’s lines, disguised as the followers in a wedding procession.”
And thereat the men and women of Zeeland cried out with one accord: