Willems, the prince of good fellows, they called him.

And now they will rejoice, no doubt, at his downfall.

A crowd of imbeciles.

In his abasement he was yet aware of his superiority over those fellows, who were merely honest or simply not found out yet.

A crowd of imbeciles! He shook his fist at the evoked image of his friends, and the startled parrot fluttered its wings and shrieked in desperate fright.
In a short glance upwards Willems saw his wife come round the corner of the house.