XXXV
As she fell, Nele rubbed her eyes but she could see nothing save the sun that was rising, wreathed in a golden mist. And then the tips of the grass all golden too, in that radiance which was soon to tinge with gold the plumage of the sea-gulls who slept as yet, but were about to awaken.
Nele looked downwards at herself, and seeing that she was naked she put on her clothes with all haste. Then it was that she noticed the body of Ulenspiegel where it lay there, naked also, and him also she covered with his clothes. He seemed to be still asleep and she gave him a shake, but he remained quite motionless like one dead. Then was Nele seized with fear. “Have I killed him?” she cried. “Have I killed my love with this balm of vision? Would that I too might die! Ah, Tyl, wake up! But he is as cold as marble!”
Ulenspiegel did not awake, and two nights passed and a day, and Nele still watched by his side in a fever of grief and fear.
It was at the dawn of the second day of her vigil that Nele heard the sound of a little bell in the distance, and saw presently a peasant approaching with a shovel in his hand. Behind him came a burgomaster with two aldermen carrying candles, and then the curé of Stavenisse with a beadle holding a parasol over his head. It appeared that they were going to administer the Holy Sacrament of Unction to one Jacobsen, a brave Beggarman, who had adopted the new religion by compulsion, but being about to die had returned to the bosom of the Holy Roman Church.
When they came opposite to Nele they found her still crying, and they saw the body of Ulenspiegel laid out on the grass in front of her, covered with clothes. Nele fell upon her knees in front of the little procession.
“My girl,” said the burgomaster, “what are you doing by this corpse?”
Without daring to raise her eyes, Nele made answer:
“I am praying for the soul of my beloved, he that has fallen dead as if struck by lightning. I am alone now, and I am fain to die.”
But already the curé was puffing with pleasure.