I.'s hostile manoeuvres and
of blind hatred on the part of the Ghentese; and all the Princess Mary's
passionate entreaties were powerless both with the king and with the
Flemings to save them from the scaffold. And so Mary, alternately
threatened or duped, attacked in her just rights or outraged in her
affections, being driven to extremity, exhibited a resolution never to
become the daughter of a prince unworthy of the confidence she, poor
orphan, had placed in the spiritual tie which marked him out as her
protector. "I understand," said she, "that my father had arranged my
marriage with the emperor's son; I have no mind for any other." Louis in
his alarm tried all sorts of means, seductive and violent, to prevent
such a reverse. He went in person amongst the Walloon and Flemish
provinces belonging to Mary. "That I come into this country," said he to
the inhabitants of Quesnoy, "is for nothing but the interests of Mdlle.
de Burgundy, my well-beloved cousin and god-daughter. . . . Of her
wicked advisers some would have her espouse the son of the Duke of
Cleves; but he is a prince of far too little lustre for so illustrious a
princess; I know that he has a bad sore on his leg; he is a drunkard,
like all Germans, and, after drinking, he will break his glass over her
head, and beat her. Others would ally her with the English, the
kingdom's old enemies, who all lead bad lives: there are some who would
give her for her husband the emperor's son, but those princes of the
imperial house are the most avaricious in the world; they will carry off
Mdlle. de Burgundy to Germany, a strange land and a coarse, where she
will know no consolation, whilst your land of Hainault will be left
without any lord to govern and defend it. If my fair cousin were well
advised, she would espouse the _dauphin_; you speak French, you Walloon
people; you want a prince of France, not a German. As for me, I esteem
the folks of Hainault more than any nation in the world; there is none
more noble, and in my sight a hind of Hainault is worth more than a grand
gentleman of any other country." At the very time that he was using such
flattering language to the good folks of Hainault, he was writing to the
Count de Dampmartin, whom he had charged with the repression of
insurrection in the country-parts of Ghent and Bruges, "Sir Grand Master,
I send you some mowers to cut down the crop you wot off; put them, I pray
you, to work, and spare not some cas