"Ha, ha! Master Barber," shouted the Duke, in the rough and brutal tone which he usually employed, when he had no purpose to answer which might require softer speech; "thou canst never shave without water, man, but there is plenty in the canal."
The populace roared their applause; and while Olivier le Dain, keeping his seat with difficulty, made the best of his way back to his inn, and thence for ever out of the gates of Ghent, the Duke of Gueldres rode on, nor stopped till he sprang from his horse at the house of Albert Maurice.
Representatives from all the different cities of that part of Belgium which was then under the dominion of Burgundy, had arrived in Ghent the day before; and at the moment when the Duke of Gueldres approached, the young President was in the act of despatching a deputation to Louis XI. then encamped at Arras. Albert Maurice, be it remarked, went not himself; but at the head of the deputation, on the part of Ghent, was the druggist Ganay.
The Duke of Gueldres found the street before the young citizen's house crowded with horses and horse boys; and the different chambers of the house itself filled with the attendants of the deputies and the officers of the city--messengers, visitors, soldiers, and spectators--displayed a spectacle more like the palace of a sovereign prince than the house of a simple merchant in a Flemish town.
"By my faith," the Duke muttered, as he walked on amidst robes, and embroidery, and gold chains, and furred gowns, "times have strangely changed with the good city of Ghent, since that cursed tyrant shut me up in his old stone rat-trap. Which is Albert Maurice?" he then demanded of a merchant who was passing out; "which is the grand bailli--which is the president of the municipal council?"
"Yonder he stands at the head of the table," replied the merchant, "speaking with the deputies of Utrecht and Bruges."
At that moment the eye of the young citizen fell upon the Duke of Gueldres; and--though he was unannounced, and Albert Maurice had never beheld him before--either from having heard his personal appearance described, or from having seen some picture of him, the burgher at once recognised the prince, and advanced a step or two to meet him.
The Duke of Gueldres was surprised to behold so young a man chosen from amongst the jealous and factious citizens of Ghent, to wield the chief authority of the city, to fill two of the most important offices, and to influence so strongly the councils of all Flanders; but he was still more surprised to find that high and dignified tone in the merchant, which so well became his station. He had been prepared to see the president in possession of vast power, but he now perceived that his power was greatly derived from his superiority to his class, and he at once saw the necessity of suiting his demeanour, for the time at least, to the man. With a degree of suavity which no one knew better how to assume, when it answered his purpose, than Adolphus, Duke of Gueldres, that base and brutal prince, now, with his manner softened down to an appearance of mere generous frankness, thanked the young citizen for his liberation, and told him that he had good reason to know that the happy event was solely owing to his intervention.
Albert Maurice at once gracefully complimented the duke on his enlargement, and disclaimed all title to gratitude for an act which, he said, emanated from the princess herself. He had, he acknowledged, strongly advised her to the course she had pursued, when she had condescended to consult him upon the subject; but he assured the duke that she had first spoken of her kinsman's liberation, before he had ventured to propose such a proceeding.
"Well, well," replied the duke, "I knew not that my fair cousin was so generous, but I will kiss her pretty cheek in token of my thanks, which, perhaps, she will think no unpleasant way of showing one's gratitude."