VII
Ulenspiegel said to him one morning:
“Follow me: we are going to pay our respects to a high, noble, powerful, and redoubted personage.”
“Will he tell me where my wife is?” asked Lamme.
“If he knows,” answered Ulenspiegel.
And they went to call on Brederode, the Drinking Hercules. He was in the courtyard of his house.
“What wouldst thou with me?” he asked of Ulenspiegel.
“To speak with you, Monseigneur,” answered Ulenspiegel.
“Speak,” replied Brederode.
“You,” said Ulenspiegel, “are a goodly, valiant, and mighty lord. You strangled, once long ago, a Frenchman within his cuirass like a mussel in its shell: but if you are mighty and valiant, you are also of good counsel. Why, then, do you wear this medal on which I read ‘Faithful to the king even unto the beggar’s wallet?’”