I do
not follow the counsel of a murderer.'
"She took up the head by the hair, and
washed it at a clear fountain.
"She mounted her charger proudly, and,
laughing and singing, she rode through the
forest.
"When she reached the middle of the forest,
she met the mother of Halewyn. 'Beautiful
virgin, have you not seen my son?'
"'Your son, the Lord Halewyn, is gone
hunting: you will never see him again.
"'Your son, the Lord Halewyn, is dead. I
have his head in my apron, which is red with
his blood.'
"And when she arrived at her father's gate,
she blew the horn like a man.
"And when her father saw her, he rejoiced
at her return.
"He celebrated it by a feast, and the head
of Halewyn was placed on the table."
Flemish writers claim as entirely their own that epic of the people,
"Reynard the Fox." Their right to it was long contested; nor has
anything been done since the labors of Willems, who, in opposition to
the opinion of William Grimm, settles the authorship of the "Reinaert
de Vos" on Utenhove, a priest of Aerdenburg. It seems natural to
suppose that this most popular of Middle-Age productions should have
originated in the very region which later gave to the world a school
of painting that incarnated on canvas the phases of animal life,
taking its delight and best inspirations in the burlesque side of
human passions.
In its first period, Flemish literature found some encouragement from
its princes.
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