The executioner replied:
“They are all here.”
The judges, having consulted, decided that, in order to come at the truth, they should begin with the woman.
“For,” said one of the sheriffs, “there is no son so cruel or hard hearted as to see his mother suffer without making confession of the crime and so to deliver her; the same will do any mother, were she a tigress at heart, for her offspring.”
Speaking to the executioner, the bailiff said:
“Make the woman sit in the chair and put the baguettes on her hands and her feet.”
The executioner obeyed.
“Oh, do not do that, Messieurs Judges!” cried Ulenspiegel. “Bind me in her place, break my fingers and my toes, but spare the widow.”
“The fishmonger,” said Soetkin. “I have hate and force.”
Ulenspiegel seemed livid pale, trembling, beside himself, and held his peace.