The burgomaster, seeing that this day was the day for the fair of japes, would listen to them no longer.
Ulenspiegel and the Kwaebakker went away together, the Kwaebakker raised his cudgel on him; Ulenspiegel dodged it, saying:
“Baes, since it is with blows my flour is to be sifted, you take the bran of it—it is your anger: I keep the white—it is my gaiety.”
Then showing him his nether face:
“And here,” he added, “is the door of the oven, if you want to bake.”
XLII
Ulenspiegel as he pilgrimaged would gladly have turned highway robber, but he found the stones too heavy to carry.
He was trudging by chance on the road to Audenaerde where there was then a garrison of Flemish reiters charged with the defence of the town against the French bands that ravaged the country like locusts.
The reiters had at their head a certain captain, a Frisian born, by name Kornjuin. They also overran the low country and pillaged the peoples, who were thus, as usual, devoured on both sides.