"And John van Gistel, the cowardly traitor! is he to come off scot-free?"
"John van Gistel is to hang; he must pay for the blood of Deconinck's old friend. But he must be the only one."
"What! and the other false Flemings are to escape scatheless? Master Breydel, Master Breydel, that's too much for me; I can not away with it."
"They'll have punishment enough; disgrace will be their portion; shame in their hearts, and contempt on the lips and countenances of all good men. Were it nothing, think you, that each comer should throw bastard, coward, and traitor in your face? That's what remains for them."
"Faith, master, you make my blood run cold; a thousand deaths were better than that. What a hell upon earth for them, if only they had one spark of the true Fleming in their souls!"
They were now silent for a few moments, listening attentively to a sound as of distant footsteps which caught their ears; but it soon died away, and then Breydel resumed:
"The French savages have murdered my poor aged mother. I saw with my own eyes how the sword had pierced her heart through and through —that heart so full of love for me. They had no pity on her, because she had given birth to a right unbending Fleming; and now I will have no pity on them; so shall I avenge my country and my own blood together."
"Shall we give quarter, master? Shall we make prisoners?"
"May I perish, if I make a single prisoner, or grant one single man his life! Do they give quarter? No, they murder for murder's sake, and trample the corpses of our brethren under their horses' hoofs. And think you, Martin, that I, who have the bloody shade of my dear mother ever before my eyes, can so much as look upon a Frenchman without breaking into a fit of downright madness? Oh, I should tear them with my teeth, were my ax to break with the multitude of its victims! But that can never be; my good ax is the long-tried friend and faithful partner of my life."
"Listen, master, again there's a noise in the direction of Damme. Wait a moment."
He put his ear to the ground, then raised his head again.
"Master, the Weavers are not far of]f," he said; "maybe some four bowshots."
"Come, then, let us up! Do you pass quietly along the ranks, and take care that the men lie still. I will go and meet Deconinck, that he may know what part of the wood is left open for his people.
In a few moments four thousand Weavers advanced from different sides of the wood, and immediately lay down upon the ground in silence, according to the orders they had received. The stillness was but little broken by their arrival, and all was soon perfectly quiet again. A few men only might have been seen to pass from company to company, bearing the order to the captains to meet at the eastern end of the wood.
Thither, accordingly, they all repaired, and grouped themselves round Deconinck to receive his instructions, who proceeded thus to address them:
"My brothers, this day's sun must shine upon us as freemen or light us to our graves. Arm yourselves, therefore, with all the courage which the thought of country and liberty can kindle in your bosoms; bethink you that it is for the city in which the bones of our father's rest, for the city in which our own cradles stood, that we are this day in arms. And remember—no quarter! Kill is the word; death to every Frenchman who falls into your hands! that not a root of foreign tares may remain to choke our wheat. We or they must die! Is there one among you that can entertain a spark of compassion for those who have so cruelly murdered our brothers, on the gallows and under the hoofs of their horses? for the traitorous foes who have imprisoned our lawful Count in foul breach of faith, and poisoned his innocent child?"
A low, sullen, terrible murmur followed, and seemed to hover for a moment under the overarching branches.
"They shall die!" was the universal response.
"Well, then," pursued Deconinck, "this day we shall once more be free. But that is not enough; we shall still need stout hearts to make good our freedom; for the French king will soon have a new army in the field against us; of that doubt not."
"So much the better," interrupted Breydel; "there will only be so many more children weeping for their fathers, as I do now for my poor murdered mother. God rest her soul!"
The interruption had broken the flow of Deconinck's harangue; lest, therefore, time might fail him, he proceeded at once to give the necessary instructions:
"Well, then," he said, "now hear what we have to do. As soon as the clock of St. Cross strikes three, you must get your men upon their feet, and bring them into the road in close order; I shall be on before you under the city walls, with a body of my own people. The gates will almost instantly be opened to us by the Clawards inside; do you then march in as quietly as possible, and each of you take the direction I shall now give you. Master Breydel, with the Butchers, will occupy the Spey Gate, and then all the streets round about Snaggaert's Bridge. Master Lindens, do you take possession of the Catherine Gate, and advance your men into the adjacent streets up to Our Lady's Church. The Curriers and Shoemakers are to occupy the Ghent Gate, and from thence to the Castle. The other Guilds, under the Dean of the Masons, will hold the Damme Gate, and all the neighborhood of St. Donatus' Church. I, with my two thousand
