Speaking with full assurance of nine florins:
“Host,” said the blind men, proudly, “give us to eat and drink of your best.”
The host, who had heard a mention of the nine florins, believed them to be in their pouches, and asked what they wished to have.
Then all of them, speaking at once, cried out:
“Peas with bacon, a hotchpotch of beef, veal, mutton, and fowl.”—“Are sausages meant for dogs?”—“Who ever smelled the passing of black puddings and white, without seizing them by the collar? I used to see them, alas! when my poor eyes were candles to me.”—“Where are the koekebakken au beurre of Anderlecht? They sing in the pan, succulent and crisp, mother of quart draughts.”—“Who will bring under my nose ham and eggs or eggs and ham, those tender brothers and close friends in the mouth?”—“Where are ye, divine choesels, swimming, proud viands that you are, in the midst of kidneys, of cockscombs, of riz de veau, of oxtails, sheep’s trotters, and abundant onions, pepper, cloves, nutmeg, all in the stew and three quarts of white wine for sauce?”—“Who will bring you to me, divine andouilles, so good that ye say no word when ye are swallowed? Ye came ever straight from Luy-leckerland, the rich country of the happy do-naughts, the lickers up of never-ending sauces. But where are ye, withered leaves of bygone autumns!”—“I want a leg of mutton with beans.”—“I want pigs’ plumes, their ears.”—“For me a rosary of ortolans, with woodcocks for the Paters on it and a fat capon for the Credo.”
The host answered sedately:
“You shall have an omelette of sixty eggs, and for guiding posts for you spoons, fifty black puddings, planted smoking hot on this mountain of nourishment, and dobbel peterman to wash all down with: that will be the river.”
The water came into the mouths of the poor blind men and they said:
“Serve us the mountain, the guideposts, and the river.”
And the Brothers of the Good Red Nose and their goodwives already at table with Ulenspiegel said that this day was for the blind the day of invisible junketing, and that the poor men thus lost the half of their pleasure.