At this word Claes appeared overwhelmed. The bailiff asked him if he had nothing to say in answer: Claes made a sign with his head to say no.
The bailiff asked him if he did not wish to retract the evil thought that had made him break up the images and the impious error that by reason whereof he had uttered words opprobrious to His Divine Majesty and His Royal Majesty.
Claes answered that his body was His Royal Majesty's but that his conscience was Christ's, whose law he meant to follow. The bailiff asked him if this law was that of our Mother Holy Church. Claes made answer:
Called upon to answer the question whether the Pope is the representative of God upon earth:
Asked if he believed it was forbidden to worship the images of Madame the Virgin and Messieurs the Saints, he replied that it was idolatry. Questioned on the point as to whether auricular confession be a good and salutary thing, he replied:
"Christ said: 'Confess yourselves one to another'."
He was valiant and stout in his answers, though he seemed sorely troubled and affrighted at the bottom of his heart.
Eight o'clock having struck, and the night falling, the members of the court withdrew, deferring till the morrow their final judgment.
In Katheline's cottage Soetkin wept distraught with anguish. And she said over and over again:
Ulenspiegel and Nele embraced her with utmost tenderness. Then taking them into her arms she wept in silence. And then she signed to them to leave her alone. Nele said to Ulenspiegel:
"Let us leave her there, it is her own wish: let us save the carolus."
They went away together; Katheline kept moving round Soetkin, saying:
"Make a hole: the soul would fain escape!"
And Soetkin, with fixed eyes, looked at her without seeing her.
The cottages of Claes and Katheline touched, that of Claes set back with a little garden in front, Katheline's had a patch of ground planted with beans giving upon the street. This patch was surrounded with a green hedge in which Ulenspiegel to get to Nele's and Nele to get to Ulenspiegel's, had made a big hole in their childish days.
Ulenspiegel and Nele came into this garden patch, and from there saw the trooper who with head wagging spat into the air, but the spittle fell back on his doublet. A wicker flask lay by his side: