Both coal and cinder if he could!
Then spake the wisps:
“Fire. We are Fire—the avenger of all old tears and all old pains which the people have suffered; the avenger of all the human game that has been hunted for pleasure by the Lords of this land; the avenger of all battles fought to no purpose, of all the blood that has been spilt in prison, of all the men burned at the stake and the women and girls buried alive; the avenger of all the past of blood and chains. The Fire—that is Us—we are the souls of the dead.”
At these words the Seven were suddenly transformed into images of wood, though they still lost nothing of their former outline; and a voice was heard saying:
“Burn the wood, Ulenspiegel.”
And Ulenspiegel turned towards the will-o’-the-wisps:
“You that are made of fire, do your office.”
And the wisps thronged around the seven images, which straightway burst into flame and were reduced to ashes.
And from the ashes there flowed a river of blood.
But out of the ashes arose now seven other figures, and the first said: