gravity to the usher, who then tossed names and titles
pell-mell and mutilated to the crowd below. There were Master Loys
Roelof, alderman of the city of Louvain; Messire Clays d'Etuelde,
alderman of Brussels; Messire Paul de Baeust, Sieur de Voirmizelle,
President of Flanders; Master Jehan Coleghens, burgomaster of the city
of Antwerp; Master George de la Moere, first alderman of the kuere of
the city of Ghent; Master Gheldolf van der Hage, first alderman of the
_parchous_ of the said town; and the Sieur de Bierbecque, and Jehan
Pinnock, and Jehan Dymaerzelle, etc., etc., etc.; bailiffs, aldermen,
burgomasters; burgomasters, aldermen, bailiffs--all stiff, affectedly
grave, formal, dressed out in velvet and damask, hooded with caps of
black velvet, with great tufts of Cyprus gold thread; good Flemish
heads, after all, severe and worthy faces, of the family which Rembrandt
makes to stand out so strong and grave from the black background of his
"Night Patrol "; personages all of whom bore, written on their brows,
that Maximilian of Austria had done well in "trusting implicitly," as
the manifest ran, "in their sense, valor, experience, loyalty, and good
wisdom."

There was one exception, however. It was a subtle, intelligent,
crafty-looking face, a sort of combined monkey and diplomat phiz, before
whom the cardinal made three steps and a profound bow, and whose name,
nevertheless, was only, "Guillaume Rym, counsellor and pensioner of the
City of Ghent."

Few persons were then aware who Guillaume Rym was. A rare genius who
in a time of revolution would have made a brilliant appearance on the
surface of events, but who in the fifteenth century was reduced to
cavernous intrigues, and to "living in mines," as the Duc de Saint-Simon
expresses it. Nevertheless, he was appreciated by the "miner" of Europe;
he plotted familiarly with Louis XI., and often lent a hand to the
king's secret jobs. All which things were quite unknown to that throng,
who were amazed at the cardinal's politeness to that frail figure of a
Flemish bailiff.

CHAPTER IV. MASTER JACQUES COPPENOLE.

While the pensioner of Ghent and his eminence were exchanging very low
bows and a few words in voices still lower, a man of lofty stature, with
a large face and broad shoulders, presented himself, in order to enter
abreast with Guillaume Rym; one would have pronounced him a bull-dog by
the side of a fox. His felt doublet and leather jerkin made a spot