But a woman who happened to be passing at the moment said:
“If you don’t want to come back with your arms cut off, your backs broken, and your noses in pieces, let me advise you to let this Stercke Pier bray at his ease.”
“Ee—aw! Ee—aw! Ee—aw!” went the boatman.
“Let him sing,” continued the woman. “Only the other day he showed us how he could lift on his shoulders a truck of heavy barrels of beer, and hold back yet another truck that was being dragged forwards by a strong horse. And at the inn there”—and as she spoke she pointed to the tavern of the Blauwe Torre—“it was there one day that he threw his knife at a plank of oak-wood twelve inches thick and pierced it at a distance of twenty paces!”
“Ee—aw! Ee—aw! Ee—aw!” went the boatman, and now he was joined by a youngster of twelve or so, who climbed on to the bridge of the boat, and began to bray in like manner.
But Ulenspiegel answered the woman:
“He’s nothing to us, your Peter the Strong! For however strong he is, we are stronger! See my friend Lamme here. He could eat up two men like that without so much as a hiccup!”
“What’s this you’re saying, my son?” demanded Lamme.
“The truth,” answered Ulenspiegel. “And do not let your modesty contradict me. For of a truth, good people, women and working men of Maestricht, I tell you that before long you shall see my friend here belabouring and beating to nothing this famous Stercke Pier of yours!”
“Be quiet,” said Lamme.