“I am sure that they deserved it if it had only
been for what they did for us,” his daughter
said, warmly. “Several times, while you
were getting mother down the stairs, I ran out to
the landing and looked down at the fight. It
was terrible to see all the fierce faces, and the blows
that were struck with pole-axe and halbert, and a
marvel that two young men should so firmly hold their
ground against such odds.”
“We all owe them our lives assuredly,”
Madame Van Voorden said. “Had it not been
for them, undoubtedly I should have died that day.
I was very near to death as it was, and had I seen
my husband slaughtered before my eyes, it would have
needed no blow of knife to have finished me.”
A STARVING TOWN
Many of the leading citizens, hearing of Van Voorden’s
arrival, called in the course of the evening.
The conversation, of course, turned upon the state
of public affairs in Flanders; and Van Voorden inquired
particularly as to the feeling in Bruges, and the
sides taken by leading citizens there.
“That is difficult to say,” one of the
merchants replied. “Bruges has always been
a rival to Ghent, and there has been little good-will
between the cities. The lower class are undoubtedly
in favour of Ghent; but among the traders and principal
families the feeling is the other way. Were Ghent
in a position to head a national movement with a fair
chance of success, no doubt Bruges would go with her,
for she would fear that, should it be successful,
she would suffer from the domination of Ghent.
At present, however, the latter is in a strait, the
rivers are blockaded by the earl’s ships, and
the town is sorely pressed by famine. After the
vengeance taken by the earl on the places that, at
the commencement of the trouble, threw in their lot
with Ghent, she can expect no aid until she shows
herself capable of again defeating the prince’s
army.”
“Of course, at present I know but little how
matters stand,” Van Voorden said. “I
have been so long settled in England that I have hardly
kept myself informed of affairs here. I am thinking
now of making Flanders my home again, but I would
not do so if the land is like to be torn by civil
war; I shall, therefore, make it my business to sojourn
for a time in many of the large towns, and so to learn
the general feeling throughout the country towards
the earl, and to find out what prospect there is of
the present trouble coming to a speedy end. France,
Burgundy, or even England may interfere in the matter
if they see a prospect of gain by it, and in that
case the fighting might become general.”
“Is the feeling of England in favour of Ghent?”
one of the burghers asked, anxiously.
