n that place, I will do nought
without your advice." "Ah! well!" said Dubois, "can you really be
haughty and cruel? The Flemings like to be treated so; with them you
must make no more account of the life of men than you do of larks when
the season for eating them comes." "I will do what shall be necessary,"
said Van Artevelde. The struggle grew violent between the count and the
communes of Flanders with Ghent at their head. After alternations of
successes and reverses the Ghentese were victorious; and Count Louis with
difficulty escaped by hiding himself at Bruges in the house of a poor
woman who took him up into a loft where her children slept, and where he
lay flat between the paillasse and the feather-bed. On leaving this
asylum he went to Bapaume to see his son-in-law, the Duke of Burgundy,
and to ask his aid. "My lord," said the duke to him, "by the allegiance
I owe to you and also to the king you shall have satisfaction. It were
to fail in one's duty to allow such a scum to govern a country. Unless
order were restored, all knighthood and lordship might be destroyed in
Christendom." The Duke of Burgundy went to Senlis, where Charles VI.
was, and asked for his support on behalf of the Count of Flanders. The
question was referred to the king's council. The Duke of Berry
hesitated, saying, "The best part of the prelates and nobles must be
assembled and the whole matter set before them; we will see what is the
general opinion." In the midst of this deliberation the young king came
in with a hawk on his wrist. "Well! my dear uncles," said he, "of what
are you parleying? Is it aught that I may know?" The Duke of Berry
enlightened him, saying, "A brewer, named Van Artevelde, who is English
to the core, is besieging the remnant of the knights of Flanders shut up
in Oudenarde; and they can get no aid but from you. What say you to it?
Are you minded to help the Count of Flanders to reconquer his heritage,
which those presumptuous villains have taken from him?"

"By my faith," answered the king, "I am greatly minded; go we thither;
there is nothing I desire so much as to get on my harness, for I have
never yet borne arms; I would fain set out to-morrow." Amongst the
prelates and lords summoned to Compiegne some spoke of the difficulties
and dangers that might be encountered. "Yes, yes," said the king, "but
'begin nought and win nought.'" When the Flemings heard of the king's
decision they sent respectful le