D2 Op het plein voor de Handelse kerk.

1771

Sum

You look forward to it every year. If only it were the beginning of September again! On Our Lady's Day and its octaves, the square in front of the Handel Chapel offers a colorful sight. It is market, with stores and stalls, covered with linen cloth. Sometimes religion can be so cozy. Half of Brabant comes to Handel in those days.

            'Well, a lot of people anyway.'

Yes, many people. And unfortunately there are sometimes wanton people among them who derive their joy from other leisure activities, such as the wanton destruction of other people's property. This time the Geldrop merchant Frans Paessens is the victim.

"I was eating at the back of my tent on September 8 in the evening when some people came and cut right through the tent cloth, and in such a way that my servant Tieleman, who was working at the front of the tent and if the cutting had gone even a little deeper, could have been hurt dearly.

Three witnesses saw something: Joanna Hobergen, 40, a spinster, Reinier Lievens, 22, a watchmaker, and Maria van Hout, 53, doing all kinds of work.

Joanna helped in her in-laws' tent, Reinier in his parents' tent and Maria has her own tent. Joanna and Reinier saw two young guys hanging around suspiciously in the early evening, but the offense itself, they did not see that happen.

            "Those two guys, they were sons of Jan Strijbos and Jan van Dooren.

Maria, on the other hand, did see two young men cutting through Paessens' linen cloth, but did not know them. She lived outside the village for many years.

Oh well, one and one still remains two. Round up those two cronies!