satiated their vengeance, they were somewhat cooled, and capable of regarding the consequences of their conduct, to consent that another deputation should be appointed, and go to solicit pardon. Heyns gave his voice publicly for this: secretly, meantime, he was devising means for rendering the breach irreparable; and with that intent, while the deputation were on their way, he mustered ten thousand of his White Hoods, and sacked the castle of Wondelghem, on which the Count had expended not less than 200,000 florins, it being one of his favourite places of abode. He then set fire to it. The flames were visible over all that level country; and for six leagues round the frightful spectacle was repeated, the people every where rising, as at a concerted signal, to plunder and burn the habitations of the nobles. The deputation was still at Bruges when the fires were seen, and the news arrived there. Count Louis, who, having received them with severity at first, had hardly been persuaded by their humble representations to afford them a favourable answer, summoned them again to his presence: I had granted you,' said he, all your demands, and here your people have burnt for me the castle in the world which I liked best! If it were not for my honour, and that I had given you a safe conduct, I would have all your heads struck off! Begone, and tell your cursed people of Ghent that they shall have no peace, and that I will hearken to no treaty till I have them at my mercy to take off as many heads as I may think proper.' But this was the point to which the demagogues' projects were directed. While, therefore, the Count called upon the knights and nobles of Flanders, and distributed them with some German men-at-arms in his fortresses, Heyns dispatched his emissaries round about, and called upon the people to make common cause with the men of Ghent. War was declared then against the Count; he was elected to the command; and, at the head of some ten thousand men, he entered Bruges, the people admitting him in despite of their magistrates and nobles. The Count was then at Lisle preparing for hostilities. A league between the two cities of Bruges and Ghent was proclaimed in the market-place, and the Ghentese having been entertained there two days with great apparent cordiality, sent two hundred hostages to Ghent, and proceeded to Damme, but there Heyns was cut short in his career. Two days he was feasted there; on the third he was taken suddenly ill, removed on a litter, and died the same evening: his death was imputed to poison, given him, it was said, by a woman of rank. It occurred opportunely for the Count; but though, in that age, such a crime would only have been in the common course of policy, and the account with conscience (if any account were taken of it) easily settled by the help of a confessor, it is not

likely

likely that Louis, or his friends, should have understood the character of the Ghentese so ill, as to suppose that obedience and order would be restored among them, if this master-mover of disaffection were taken off.

Heyns's body was received at Ghent in procession by the clergy, and all the honours of a public funeral were performed, as they would have been for a personage of the highest rank. The deacons and hundred-men assembled, and elected four captains in his place, by name Raso Van Herselle, Jan Bruyn, Jan Bol, and Pieter Vander Bosch,-the latter had been the most intimate friend and confidant of the deceased. The troubles had now decidedly assumed the character of a struggle between the commons on one part, and the Count, supported by the nobles, on the other; and the whole of Flemish Flanders declared for the popular cause, the towns of Alost, Termonde and Oudenard excepted; into the latter the greater part of the nobles had retired, and by that means cut off the communication of the Ghentese with Tournay by the Scheldt, while the Count, with a body of Germans and Burgundians, took possession of Termonde, to intercept the commerce of the river on that side. The Ghentese, who had now sixty thousand men in arms, well supplied with artillery, both of the ancient and modern kind, besieged the former place, and attempted to take the latter by surprise. They approached it unperceived, and attacked it at once by land and water. Diederich Van Brederode, one of a family whose name often appears in the history of Holland, resisted their first assault, and the Count, roused from his sleep, carried the standard himself to the walls. The affair lasted from day-break till noon, when the assailants retired with considerable loss to the camp before Oudenard. That place was garrisoned by men on whose courage and honour, and fidelity to the cause in which they were engaged, full reliance might be placed; they resisted the resolute and persevering efforts of the besiegers: but they were cut off from supplies; and the Count, therefore, lest they should be compelled by famine to surrender, negociated. He was persuaded to this by his mother and by the Duke of Burgundy,who acted as mediator, and engaged for the Count that a pardon should be granted, without exception of any person, and that the Count should reside in his good city of Ghent. Peace was then made; but wise men perceived with sorrow, that where there was so much resentment on one side, and so much suspicion on the other, it was not likely to be durable. Louis manifested no intention to perform that part of the condition which would place him among the most refractory of his subjects: in this he was influenced, not by any apprehension for his own safety, but by dislike, for which there was sufficient cause, though to his own previous misconduct

many

many of those circumstances which had provoked it might justly be traced. Repeated instances were made by the people of Ghent that he should fulfil his promise: at length, four-and-twenty of the principal citizens were deputed to bring him back with them, and informed that it was useless for them to return unless they were successful; for, if they came without the Count, the gates should be shut against them. The Count yielded so far to prudence, that being apprized of their coming, he met them with his suite between Bruges and Deynse; but he yielded ungraciously, and simply touching his bonnet as he past, rode on without deigning to notice them farther. He consented, however, to give them audience at Deynse, after he had dined: then they knelt before him, and entreated him to return to his good city of Ghent, where his presence was so greatly desired. He replied, with a tone of calm displeasure,-I doubt not that there are people at Ghent who desire to see me there; but I marvel that there should be so little remembrance of what has past !-They have murdered my bailiff, destroyed the houses of my people, expelled my officers, burnt the castle in the world that I loved best, pillaged my towns, killed my knights, and committed so many evils, that I wish it were possible for me not to remember them, as in spite of myself I do.' Ah, sire,' said they, never think of this! You have pardoned all.' True,' the Count replied, nor do I intend by these words to convey any threats for what has past: I mean only to remind you of the cruelties and felonies of the people of Ghent !'

The next day he entered that city; the magistrates received him at the gates and kissed his hand; and every mark of respect was shown him by the people; but he returned their salutes ungraciously, passing through them instantly, and scarcely deigning to incline his head towards them. Presents were brought him, with all humility on the part of those by whom they were offered, and to these persons he said, that his intention was strictly to observe the good peace which had been concluded; but that the association of the White Hoods must be broken up, and that there must be satisfaction for the murder of the bailiff, which the family of the deseased required at his hands. If, by the latter demand, as is probable, pecuniary satisfaction were meant, it might easily have been obtained; but there was a gross imprudence in venturing so soon to measure his strength against the popular party. They took the alarm at this declaration, and on the morrow, when he rode into the market-place, attended by his knights and the principal inhabitants, to harangue the people, the most resolute of the malcontents were there, armed, and wearing the white hood. He spoke to them at considerable length, mildly, kindly,

and

;

and it is said prudently also, and he was heard in silence: he repeated, that he pardoned all the offences which had been committed against him, and would no more hear them mentioned but he added, that no more must be committed, and that the white hoods must be laid aside. Murmurs were then heard. He requested them to separate peaceably: the White Hoods remained, they offered him no salute as he passed through them; but he saw, or thought that he saw marks of insult and of defiance. In a few days, therefore, he left the city without taking leave of the magistrates, and went to Lisle. The better part of the citizens were grieved; they saw that the Count was deeply displeased, and that he had as little confidence in the Ghentese as they could have in him; but the White Hoods were masters: the four captains whom they had chosen domineered in the city, and, under their absolute authority, preparations were made for defending it, in the struggle which was now foreseen. The demagogues were as desirous of plunging into this, as the quiet and orderly part of the inhabitants were of remaining in obedience and peace; and the influence of the turbulent party was soon confirmed by an act of outrageous cruelty which the kinsmen of the bailiff perpetrated. They declared war in their own name against the city in this quarrel, and intercepting in the Scheldt forty barges belonging to Ghent, they cut off the ears, noses and fingers of the bargemen, put out their eyes, and sent them in that deplorable state to their townsmen.

While the magistrates endeavoured to make the people perceive that this atrocity was in no degree imputable to the Count, Jan Bruyn got together five thousand men, with whom he surprised Oudenard, which, upon the security of the peace, had been left without garrison; threw down its gates and its walls, and proclaimed, in defiance of the Count, that he did this by authority of the city of Ghent. The magistrates disavowed this violence as promptly and sincerely as the Count condemned the conduct of Hauterive's relations: they banished Bruyn as a disturber of the peace, and Louis also banished the Hauterives. Had there been. the same prudence in his advisers, which, under far more difficult. circumstances, was observed by these citizens, order might yet have been restored; but they counselled Louis to take vengeance, for which he was but too well disposed: accordingly, having re-fortified Oudenard, he called upon his cousin of Brabant to give up Bruyn who had retired to Ath; and, having got this demagogue into his power, put him to death at Lille, and at the same time executed some of the ringleaders of the popular party at Ypres. All who had any reason to apprehend an inquiry into their conduct, they who, with the best motives, had taken part in

the

the popular cause, as well as those who had been influenced only by the worst, perceived now that they had no mercy to expect if the Count were to become that absolute master which he aimed at being. Pieter Vander Bosch took advantage of an occasion on which the persons best disposed to obedience dared not speak further in support of an opinion against which the Count himself was acting: he declared that there could be no security for them while a single gentleman's house or castle were left standing; and the rabble accordingly went forth to burn and to destroy. Knights and esquires necessarily then took arms in their own defence: the commons in Brabant and Hainault took part with those of Flanders; and a war of castes ensued, the most dreadful of all wars, in which no quarter was given. Louis was in great strength, for the popular feeling, on one side, was in no slight degree counterbalanced by that principle of fidelity towards their lords which prevailed under the feudal system, wherever feudal power was not enormously abused. The nobles and gentry, not of this disturbed province alone, but of Artois and Burgundy, came to his standard, understanding that it was now their common cause: he had reconciled himself unto the king of France, and expected support from thence; and he had gathered also a desperate band of criminals, by proclaiming pardon to all exiles and fugitives who should join him.

It was of great importance that Bruges should declare in his favour. The rapid growth of that city, which, at this time, was the most opulent in Europe, is briefly described by John of Ypres in his Chronicle. Baldwin, the first Count of Flanders, founded, and fortified it against the northern pirates. Settlers established themselves without the gate by the bridge, to supply the garrison; tradesmen came thither with their wares, victuallers and vintners followed for their accommodation, and inns were built for those who could not be lodged within the walls: erat verbum eorum, vadamus ad pontem: ubi tantum accreverunt habitationes, ut statim fieret villa mayna, quæ adhuc in vulgari suo nomen pontis habet, nempe Brugghe in eorum vulgari pontem sonat. Topographers, however, have differed whether this city derives its name from its many bridges or from this one; but the former is less likely, because the number is much greater at Ghent. There was a rivalry between the two cities, much as they depended upon each other for their prosperity; there was a great difference also in the character of their inhabitants; the merchants residing at Bruges, the manufacturers at Ghent, though Bruges also had its manufactures. Both people were sufficiently turbulent, but Comines. distinguishes between them in this respect, marvelling that heaven should have spared the one, which was the well-head of all

evils