sful. Guy,
respected as he was throughout Flanders on account of his age and his
long misfortunes, failed in his attempt, and, faithful to his word, went
back and submitted himself to the power of Philip. "I am so old," said
he to his friends, "that I am ready to die whensoever it shall please
God." And he did die, on the 7th of March, 1304, in the prison of
Compiegne, to which he had been transferred. Philip, all the while
pushing forward his preparations for war, continued to make protestation
of pacific intentions. The Flemish communes desired the peace necessary
for the prosperity of their commerce; but patriotic anxieties wrestled
with material interests. A burgher of Ghent was quietly fishing on the
banks of the Scheldt, when an old man acosted him, saying sharply,
"Knowest thou not, then, that the king is assembling all his armies? It
is time the Ghentese shook off their sloth; the lion of Flanders must no
longer slumber." In the spring of 1304, the cry of war resounded
everywhere. Philip had laid an impost extraordinary upon all real
property in his kingdom; regulars and reserves had been summoned to
Arras, to attack the Flemings by land and sea. He had taken into his pay
a Genoese fleet commanded by Regnier de Grimaldi, a celebrated Italian
admiral; and it arrived in the North Sea, and blockaded Zierikzee, a
maritime town of Zealand. On the 10th of August, 1304, the Flemish fleet
which was defending the place was beaten and dispersed. Philip hoped for
a moment that this reverse would discourage the Flemings; but it was not
so at all. A great battle took place on the 17th of August between the
two land armies at Mons-en-Puelle (or, Mont-en-Pevele, according to the
true local spelling), near Lille; the action was for some time
indecisive, and even after it was over both sides hesitated about
claiming the victory; but when the Flemings saw their camp swept off and
rifled, and when they no longer found in it, say the chroniclers, "their
fine stuffs of Bruges and Ypres, their wines of Rochelle, their beers of
Cambrai, and their cheeses of Bethune," they declared that they would
return to their hearths; and their leaders, unable to restrain them, were
obliged to shut themselves up in Lille, whither Philip, who had himself
retired at first to Arras, came to besiege them. When the first days of
downheartedness were over, and at sight of the danger which threatened
Lille and the remains of the Flemish army a