But they found nothing.
Ulenspiegel went to the bailiff’s and said to him:
“I mean to slay the weer-wolf.”
“What gives thee this confidence?” asked the bailiff.
“The ashes beat upon my heart,” answered Ulenspiegel. “Grant me permission to work in the forge of the commune.”
“Thou mayst do so,” said the bailiff.
Ulenspiegel, without saying a word of his project to any man or woman in Damme, went off to the forge and there in secret he fashioned a fine and large-sized engine to trap wild beasts.
The next day, being Saturday, a day beloved of the weer-wolf, Ulenspiegel, carrying a letter from the bailiff for the curé of Heyst, and the engine under his cloak, armed also with a good crossbow and a well-sharpened cutlass, departed, saying to the folk in Damme:
“I am going to shoot sea-mews and I will make pillows for the bailiff’s wife with their down.”
Going towards Heyst, he came upon the beach, heard the boisterous sea curling and breaking in big waves, roaring like thunder, and the wind came from England whistling in the rigging of shipwrecked boats. A fisherman said to him: