And thus the French army lay within a quarter of an hour's march of the camp of the Guildsmen of Flanders; the advanced pickets could see one another slowly pacing up and down in the gloom.
The Flemings, as soon as they had intelligence of the approach of the foe, had doubled their guard, and issued orders that no man should lie down to rest unarmed.
CHAPTER VI
The Flemish knights who occupied Courtrai were fast asleep when the tidings of the arrival of the French, passing through the city, and diffusing terror on every side, roused them from their slumbers. Guy commanded the trumpets to sound and the drums to beat; and an hour later all the soldiers lodged within the city were assembled on the walls. As there was reason to fear that the Castellan van Lens would make a sortie into the city during the battle, the men of Ypres were summoned from the camp to watch the French garrison. At the Steenpoort a numerous guard was appointed to keep the women and children within the town; for they were so terrified, that they were bent on fleeing again during the night. Inevitable death seemed to threaten them: on the one side the Castellan van Lens, with his ruthless soldiers, might fall on them at any moment; on the other they saw the small number of their countrymen opposed to the countless hosts of France, and they dared not hope for victory. And truly, but that the heroism and intrepidity of the Flemings blinded them to all thought of danger, they had done well to bethink them of a last parting prayer; for not only did the foot-soldiers in the French camp outnumber those in their own, but there were moreover the two-and-thirty thousand horsemen to be dealt with.
The Flemish commanders calculated with perfect coolness the chances of the coming battle; great as were their valor and eagerness, they could not conceal from themselves their critical position; heroism does not prevent a man from seeing the dark and threatening side of things, nor does it drive out the inborn dread of death; but it inspires a man with might to vanquish and to brave all depressing and disheartening forebodings—further than this the soul can not push its empire over the body. For themselves the Flemings had no fear; but their hearts were full of agonizing anxiety for the liberty of their fatherland—a liberty which was set upon this cast. Notwithstanding, however, the small hope which they dared to entertain, they resolved to accept battle, and rather to die as heroes on the bloody field than survive to endure a debas' ing slavery.
The youthful Matilda and the sister of Adolf, with many other noble ladies, were sent to the Abbey of Groningen, where they would find a safe asylum, even in the event of the French becoming masters of Courtrai. When this and other preliminary matters had been arranged, the knights returned to the camp.
The French general, Robert d'Artois, was a brave and experienced soldier; but, like many others of his fellow-countrymen, he was too rash and self-confident. He deemed it quite unnecessary to take ordinary precautions in his proceedings against the Flemings, so certain was he that his first attack would throw them into hopeless confusion. This rash confidence was shared by all his soldiers to such extent that, while the army of Guy was preparing for battle in the twilight, the French were sleeping on as unconcernedly as though they were quartered in a friendly city. Trusting to their numberless cavalry, they thought that nothing could resist them; whereas, had they been a little less thoughtless, they would have first inspected the field of battle, and disposed their van and rear accordingly. They would then have found that the ground between the two camps was not at all fitted for the action of cavalry—but why should they exercise a superfluous caution? Was the Flemish army worth it? Robert d'Artois thought not!
The Flemings were drawn up on the Groningen Place. Behind them, to the north, ran the Lys, a broad river, which rendered any attack on that side impossible; in front flowed the Groningen brook, which, though now but a narrow watercourse, was then a broad stream; and its shelving marshy banks opposed an insurmountable obstacle to the French cavalry. Their right wing rested on the portion of the walls of Courtrai near St. Martin's Church, and round the left ran a tributary of the Groningen brook, so that the Flemings were posted, as it were, on an island; and any attempt to dislodge them must needs be difficult and perilous. The space which separated them from the French army was a succession of meadows, which lay very low, and were watered by the Mosscher brook, which converted them into a kind of marsh. Thus the French cavalry were obliged to cross two brooks before they could come into action; and this was a very difficult and tedious operation, because the horses' hoofs had no hold on the moist and slippery ground, and at every step the poor animals sank up to their knees in the morass.
The French general took no account of this; he made his plans as though the field of battle were firm and hard ground, and directed the attack in a manner quite at variance with the rules of strategy. So true is it that excessive confidence renders men blind.
Toward break of day, before the sun had shown his glowing disk above the horizon, the Flemings were drawn up in order of battle on the Groningen brook. Guy commanded the left wing in person, and he had about him all the lesser Guilds of Bruges. Eustachius Sporkyn, with the men of Fumes, occupied the centre; the second corps was commanded by John Borluut, and numbered five thousand men of Ghent; the
