On the 2d day of December, sir Philip de Lalain, a young, bold and enterprising knight, made an excursion to the walls of Ghent with the garrison of Oudenarde. Two hundred men on horseback sallied forth out of Ghent, and a combat commenced; when one of the principal townsmen was killed at the onset, who had, a little before, taken a youth of the duke's party prisoner, and made him his page.
The page, seeing his master dead, hastened to surrender himself to sir Philip, and assured him that upwards of four thousand men had sallied out at different gates to surround and make him and his party prisoners: it therefore behoved him to secure a retreat. At this moment, full three hundred men on horseback issued out of the gates, on which sir Philip began to retreat, often wheeling round to skirmish and check the enemy. Sir Philip de Lalain, his brother, having heard of his danger, hastened out of Oudenarde, with all he could collect at the moment, to his succour: he was then within a league of Oudenarde, skirmishing all the time with the ghent men, who pursued him with great caution, that their other divisions might arrive to their support; but the Picards, noticing this, made their retreat good into Oudenarde,—and the ghent men took up their quarters for the night at an abbey half a league from that town, and on the morrow returned to Ghent.
Not long afterward, the Companions of the Verde Tente, to the amount of ten thousand, advanced into Hainault, killed many of the peasantry, and burnt from sixteen to seventeen villages without any molestation. A few days prior to this excursion, about fifty English marched out of Ghent on pretence of attacking the Picards, but they went to Dendermonde and surrendered themselves to sir Anthony, the bastard, who received them very graciously, and enrolled them among his own men.
One of the duke's commanders, hearing that the ghent men were marching back from Hainault, hastened toward Ghent to meet them on their return,—and, being in great force, attacked them, and slew more than two hundred: the rest saved themselves in Ghent, except some prisoners the Picards had made and carried to Dendermonde.
CHAP. XLI.
THE GHENT MEN SEND A DEPUTATION TO THE COUNT D'ESTAMPES, TO MEDIATE A PEACE.—IMMEDIATELY AFTER THEY BESIEGE COURTRAY, BUT WITHOUT SUCCESS.—THEY ARE NEAR TAKING PRISONER THE DUCHESS OF BURGUNDY, ON HER ROAD TO BRUGES.
While the Companions of the Verde Tente were thus employed in the field, the municipality of Ghent sent to entreat the count d'Estampes to procure passports from the duke their lord, that a deputation might wait on him respecting a peace. The count succeeded in obtaining them passports,—and the place of conference was fixed at Bruges, whither the duke sent some of his ministers, and the count d'Estampes as his representative.
The ghent men sent thither a deputation, with a carthusian friar, and an ancient knight called sir Baudouin de Bos, whom they had long kept prisoner on account of their suspicions of his fidelity to them, he having declared an opinion contrary to their proceedings; and they even had him carried, with his eyes banded, to the scaffold to behead him: he would have suffered death, had not some steady friends, by their exertions, prevented it. These ghent commissioners behaved with the greatest insolence and pride on their arrival at Bruges, as if they had no way acted wrong toward their prince; and on their departure, they received no answer. They all returned except the knight and the Carthusian, who refused to accompany them back and remained in Bruges. The other commissioners staid so long on their road to Ghent that the term of their passports expired, and, falling in with a body of Picards, they were made prisoners and carried back to Bruges: among them were two of the greatest enemies the duke had in Ghent.
When the men of Ghent learnt that their deputies were prisoners, they sallied forth, on the 17th of February, in great numbers, and in three divisions. In this array they came before Courtray, the marshal of Burgundy being then absent with the duke at Lille. There was at this time in the town a very valiant and adventurous knight from Picardy, called Gauvain Quieret, who, fearless of their numbers, issued out with the few people he had, and began a sharp skirmish; but he was soon forced to retreat into the town, as the ghent men were too many: he could not, however, retire without the loss of two of his men at arms and one archer. The ghent men then attacked the suburbs; but they were so well defended that they gained nothing, except killing one man at arms: they now returned to Ghent.
On the 2d of March following, sir Anthony, the bastard, on his advance toward Ghent, fell in with a considerable body of the enemy, and charged them so rapidly that he slew more than fifty, and took many prisoners, whom he carried to Dendermonde.