And the bells of Notre Dame tolled for the dead.
“For you also the bells are tolling,” said he to Ulenspiegel. “You will be hanged. For you have committed murder.”
“Is this true?” demanded the bailiff.
Ulenspiegel answered:
“I threw into the water the man who denounced Claes and was the cause of his death. The ashes of my father beat upon my heart.”
And the women that were in the crowd said to him:
“Why confess it, Ulenspiegel? No one saw the deed. But now you also will die the death.”
And the prisoner laughed aloud, leaping in the air with a bitter joy.
“He will die,” he said. “He will leave this earth for hell. He will die. God is just.”
“He shall not die,” said the bailiff, “for after the lapse of ten years no murderer can lawfully be brought to punishment in the land of Flanders. Ulenspiegel did a wicked act, but it was done for love of his father: and for such a deed as that Ulenspiegel shall not be summoned to trial.”