“If thou hast travelled so much,” said the old man, “thou art not without knowledge of how they call the folk of Weert in Limbourg.”
“I do not know it,” replied Lamme; “but would you not tell me the name of the scandalous vagabond who drove my wife from her home? Give it to me; I will go and slay him straightway.”
The ancient man made answer:
“There are two things in this world which never return once having taken flight: they are money spent and a woman grown tired and run away.”
Then speaking to Ulenspiegel:
“Dost thou know,” said he, “how they call the men of Weert in Limbourg?”
“De reakstekers, the exorcisers of skates,” replied Ulenspiegel, “for one day a live ray having fallen from a fishmonger’s cart, old women seeing it leap about took it for the devil. ‘Let us go fetch the curé to exorcise the skate,’ said they. The curé exorcised it, and carrying it off with him, made a noble fricassee in honour of the folk of Weert. Thus may God do with the bloody king.”
Meanwhile, the barking of the dogs reëchoed in the forest. The armed men, running in the wood, were shouting to frighten the beast.
“’Tis the stag and the brocket I put up,” said Ulenspiegel.
“We shall eat him,” said the old man. “But how do they call the folk of Eindhoven in Limbourg?”