"For Liberty!" they cried.
But all the while murmurings were going on among the Flemings. Their hatred of the Walloons who had borne arms against their own native land and for its subjugation under the heel of an alien master was greater almost than their hatred against the Spaniards.
"The Walloons? Horror!" they shouted, even whilst Mark was infusing some of his own ardent enthusiasm into the veins of those five hundred prisoners. "Shame on thee, van Rycke!" whilst one man who has remained nameless to history cried out loudly: "Traitor!"
"Aye! traitor thou!" retorted van Rycke, "who wouldst prefer the lust of killing to that of victory!"
"Burghers of Ghent," he continued, "in the name of our sacred Motherland, I entreat you release these men; let me have them as soldiers under our banner ... let me have them as brothers to fight by our side ... you would shed their blood and steep your souls in crime, let them shed theirs for Liberty, and cover themselves with glory!"
"Yes! yes!" came from the leaders and from the phalanx of fighting men who stood closest to their hero.
"Yes! yes! release them! Let them fight for us!"
The call was taken back and echoed and re-echoed until the high-vaulted roof rang with the enthusiastic shouts.
"Walloons, will you fight with us?" they asked.
"To the death!" replied the prisoners.