Page:The Allies Fairy Book.djvu/194

 Nele, as she fell to the ground, rubbed her eyes and saw only the sun rising in golden mists, the blades of grass all tipped with gold also, and the sunbeams gilding the plumage of the sleeping seagulls, so that very soon they woke.

Then Nele looked at herself, and seeing she was naked, she dressed herself hastily; then she saw Ulenspiegel, also naked, and covered him! Thinking he was asleep, she shook him, but he lay like one dead, and she was seized with fear. “Have I,” she said, “killed my beloved with this balm of sight? I too will die! Ah! Thyl, awake! He is cold as marble!”

Ulenspiegel did not wake. Two nights and a day passed, and Nele sat and watched her lover in feverish grief.

Now early on the second day, Nele heard the tinkle of a bell, and saw a peasant carrying a spade; behind him walked, taper in hand, a burgomaster and two sheriffs, the parish priest of Stavenisse and a beadle holding a parasol for him.

They were going, they said, to administer the Sacrament of Extreme Unction to the worthy Jacobsen, 'who had become a “Beggar” from fear, but who when danger was at an end, had returned to die in the bosom of the Holy Roman Church.

Presently they came face to face with the weeping Nele, and saw the body of Ulenspiegel stretched on the grass, covered with his garments. Nele fell on her knees.

“Daughter,” said the burgomaster, “what are you doing beside this dead man?”

Not daring to lift her eyes, she answered:

“I am praying for my beloved, who fell here as if struck by a thunderbolt; I am alone now, and I would fain die also.”

Then the priest rejoiced, saying:

“Ulenspiegel the ‘Beggar’ is dead, praise be to God.