“Ye are the prince’s envoys. Eat and drink.”
And the ham began to crackle in the pan and the black puddings also, and the wine went about and glasses were filled. And Lamme fell to drinking like the dry sand and to eating lustily.
Lads and lasses of the farm came in turns and thrust in their noses at the half-open door to look at him labouring with his jaws. And the men, jealous of him, said they could do as well as he.
At the end of the meal Thomas Utenhove said:
“A hundred peasants will go from here this week under pretence of going to work on the dykes at Bruges and round about. They will travel by bands of five or six and by different ways. There will be boats at Bruges to fetch them by sea to Emden.”
“Will they be furnished with weapons and money?” asked Ulenspiegel.
“They will have each ten florins and big cutlasses.”
“God and the prince will reward you,” said Ulenspiegel.
“I am not working for reward,” replied Thomas Utenhove.
“What do you do,” said Lamme, eating big black puddings, “what do you do, master host, to have a dish so savoury, so succulent, and with such fine grease?”