"But," objected one of the Deans present, "how shall we obtain entrance into the city to-morrow morning (for that, I suppose, is our object), since the gates are not opened till sunrise?"
"The gates will be opened for us," replied Deconinck; "I shall not leave the city walls till our vengeance is secured. And now, for the present, I have said enough; to-morrow, at the rendezvous, I will give you further orders; meanwhile do you get your companies on foot. I will take immediate measures for removing the Lady Matilda from the neighborhood of a spectacle which befitteth not her presence."
All this Breydel had listened to without any expression of approbation, though his countenance sufficiently betokened the intensity of his satisfaction; but no sooner was the assembly broken up, and he found himself again alone with his friend, than, throwing himself upon Deconinck's neck, while tears trickled down his cheeks: "My best friend!" he exclaimed; "you have brought me back from the bottomless pit of despair. Now can I with an undisturbed heart weep over the remains of my poor mother and sister; and when I lay them in the earth, devoutly add my prayer to the last solemnities. But then—oh, then, when the grave has closed over them, what have I left upon earth to love or to live for?"
"Our country, and our country's greatness!" "Yes, yes; country and liberty—and vengeance! But now, my friend, understand me well; when our land is fairly clear of the French, nothing will remain for me but to shed tears of rage. For then there will be no more heads for my ax to cleave, no corpses for me to trample on, as the hoofs of their horses have trampled down our brothers. What is liberty to me? only the sight of streaming blood can give me joy, now that they have poured out that of the heart from which my own veins were filled. But haste away, and God be with you! I am athirst after the promised vengeance."
''Secrecy and caution, my friend!" was the response; and Deconinck took his leave.
His first care was for the safe removal of the Lady Matilda, for which he speedily made all necessary arrangements; and then, after a short audience with her, he mounted his horse and disappeared in the direction of Ardenburg.
Meanwhile the bodies of Breydel's mother and sister had been duly washed and laid out by the women. A tent had been lined with black stuff, and the two corpses placed upon a bed in the centre of it—their faces exposed to view, the rest of them concealed under an ample pall. Round them burned eight large tapers of yellow wax; and a crucifix, with a silver vessel of holy water, and some palm branches—the emblem of martyrdom— stood at the bed's head. A crowd of women, weeping as they muttered their prayers, knelt by.
Immediately upon Deconinck's departure, Breydel proceeded to the wood, stopped the work, and dismissed his men to their tents, with orders to take all the rest they could without delay, and to be ready for marching the next morning before dawn. He also gave some further directions respectino- the women and children, who were to remain at the camp, and then betook himself to the tent where the bodies were laid out. As soon as he had entered, he bade all present depart, and shut himself in alone with the dead.
More than one leader came up to ask for orders or instructions from his chief, but all in vain; to their loudest entreaties for admission no answer was returned. For some time they respected his sorrow, and waited patiently till he should appear; but when, after hours of expectation, still no sound was heard nor sign given from within the tent, then a terrible fear came over them. They dreaded— they dared not say what. Was Breydel dead? Had he perished of grief, or peradventure by his own hand?
While thus they anxiously speculated, suddenly the tent opened, and Breydel issued forth; but without seeming to take any note of their presence. No one spoke; for the Dean's countenance had that in it which chilled the heart and silenced the tongue. His cheeks were deadly pale, his eyes wandered vaguely around; and many remarked that two fingers of his right hand were red with blood. No one ventured to approach him; an inexpressible ferocity flashed forth in his glances, each one of which sank as an arrow into the soul of him on whom it fell. Above all, the blood which clung to his fingers caused a shudder of horror in the beholders; whence it came they could well divine. Ghastly thought! but doubtless he had laid his hand upon his mother's breast and that blood came from the heart which had so dearly loved him; that fearful touch it was which filled him with his frenzied thirst for vengeance, and lent him the superhuman strength to take it. Thus he wandered speechless through the wood, till the shades of evening falling upon the encampment concealed him from his comrades' eyes.
Arrived at Ardenburg, Deconinck placed his two thousand Clothworkers under the command of one of the chief men of the Guild, and despatched a messenger with instructions to Dean Lindens. The needful measures taken for concentrating the three divisions at St. Cross, he again mounted, and proceeded straightway to Bruges, stabling his horse at a roadside inn not far from the gate, and entering the city on foot. Impediment to his progress there was none; the gates were not yet closed; but the evening was far advanced, and no soldiers were to be seen save the sentinels upon the walls; a dead and awful stillness reigned in all the streets through which he had to pass. Soon he stopped before a house of mean
