“All thanks to you,” said Ulenspiegel, “and I promise you that every tavern on the road shall have a thread of it, a thread of that gold which makes Crœsuses of all those rascally tavern-keepers.”
And off he went on his donkey, holding his head up high in air, with the plume in his cap wagging joyously in the breeze.
XXXIV
Now was the season of yellowing leaves, and the winds of autumn were beginning to blow. Sometimes for an hour or two it seemed that Katheline was come into her right mind again, and at such times Claes would say that the merciful spirit of God had come to visit her. Then it was that she had power to throw a charm upon Nele, by signs and incantations, so that the girl was able to see whatever was happening all over the world, in the public squares of the cities, or on the highways, or in the houses themselves.
To-day Katheline was in one of these moods of right-mindedness, and she was eating olie-koekje with Claes, Soetkin, and Nele. Claes said:
“This is the day of His Majesty the Emperor’s abdication. Nele, my dear, do you think you could see as far as Brussels in Brabant?”
“If Katheline wishes me to,” said Nele.
Thereupon Katheline caused her to sit down on a bench, and making sundry passes with her hands, she muttered her incantations, which soon sent the girl off into a trance.
Then Katheline said to her: