Mary of Burgundy; or, The Revolt of Ghent

by G. P. R. James

The vehemence with which the young citizen spoke, the picture of overwhelming misfortunes which he displayed, and the deep tone of patriotic anxiety which his words breathed forth, combined to make his hearers forget the angry bitterness with which he rebuked one of their members, and each turned and gazed, with an expression of terror, in the faces of the others, as the President counted over the rapid losses and misfortunes of their country.

Albert Maurice paused, and Ganay, who was present, remarked, without rising, "Something must be immediately done to remedy all this. Or, doubtless," he added, not unwilling to bring about some imputation of blame upon Albert Maurice for neglect, though unwilling to utter one word of blame himself, "or, doubtless, our noble President has already, with his usual activity, prepared some means of meeting all these difficulties."

"I have!" replied Albert Maurice, sternly; and as he did so, a slight curl of the lip conveyed to the druggist a suspicion that his purpose had been understood. "I have! The difficulty can only be met, the enemy can only be opposed in arms, and the means have been prepared. Seven thousand men have been raised and trained in Ghent, as you all know. Three thousand men are ready to march in the villages round about. Before noon, five thousand more will be in the city from Ypres, and, ere night, five thousand more will have arrived from Bruges; while Brabant and the other provinces are preparing an army of forty thousand men besides. Our power is thus already sufficient to keep the towns of Flanders against the King of France, while forces are marching up to our aid, which will soon enable us to expel him from our land for ever. Provisions for forty days have been prepared, and a magazine of arms is already established at Oudenarde, which is garrisoned by a sufficient force to ensure it from capture. We have still a line of fortified places, which we can soon render secure; and having done so, we can bid the tyrant either retire from our borders, or let his soldiers rot in the field till we reap them with the sword, instead of that harvest which they have mowed ere it was ripe."

A loud and long burst of applause followed this recapitulation of the means which, by the most extraordinary activity, he had collected in so short a space of time to repel the arms of France; and, satisfied with the impression that he had made, Albert Maurice sat down, in order to allow one of the deputies from Ypres to propose a plan of action, which had been previously laid out between them, for the employment of the forces thus raised to the general advantage of Flanders. The worthy burgher, however, though a man of sense, and some military skill, having served during a considerable time with the people of his commune under the Duke Philip, was always an unwilling speaker, and paused for a moment to collect his ideas after the President had sat down.

The Duke of Gueldres instantly seized the occasion, and, anxious to gain the command of the army, proposed to lead it himself against the suburbs of Tournay, together with five hundred men-at-arms which he had raised since his liberation. "The very appearance of such a force in the field," he said, "and led on to some rapid and brilliant expedition, would make Louis XI., who had been well called Le Roi Couard, pause and hesitate, while fresh reinforcements might come up to swell the army of Flanders, and enable it either to risk a general battle, or attempt the re-capture of the towns which had been taken."

To this proposal Albert Maurice strongly objected, and declared that, instead of encountering any further risk than that inevitable in leading a raw and unexperienced army through a difficult country, they ought to make it their chief object to strengthen the garrisons of all the many fortified towns they still possessed, but more especially to throw a considerable force into Lille and Douai, which still held out for the princess, and were plentifully supplied with provisions, but whose respective garrisons were too small to retard the progress of Louis for three days, whenever he should lead his armies against them. In support of this opinion, he showed that troops hastily levied, and unaccustomed to warfare, were much more likely to serve well when defended by stone walls, and commanded by experienced officers, than in the open field against a veteran army. He showed, also, that Tournay itself was not likely long to hold out for France, if Lille and Douai were properly garrisoned with numbers sufficient to sweep the whole neighbouring country of provisions; and he ended by calling upon the states not to be dazzled by the apparent ease of the enterprise proposed by the Duke of Gueldres, for he could assure them that it was the best maxim, both in tactics and policy, never to believe anything impossible, but never to fancy anything easy.

The countenance of the Duke of Gueldres flushed with wrath, to hear himself so boldly opposed by a simple citizen of Ghent, and he was about to reply with hasty vehemence, which would infallibly have ruined all his own designs, had not Ganay started up, and, with all the smooth and plausible art of which he was master, sketched out a plan, which, while it seemed to coincide with that of Albert Maurice, rendered it nearly nugatory, and, at the same time, coincided exactly with that of the Duke of Gueldres.

"The infinite wisdom and skill," he said, "which have been displayed, under all circumstances, by our noble President, should make us receive his opinion with reverence and respect, even were it not evidently founded in knowledge and experience. There can be no doubt, however, in the minds of any one here present, that the preservation of Lille and Douai is absolutely necessary for the security of Flanders, and may also greatly tend to facilitate the very objects proposed by the noble Duke of Gueldres. But the two plans are by no means incompatible. Neither Lille nor Douai can admit of a garrison of more than two thousand men in addition to that with which they are at present furnished. Twelve or thirteen thousand men will be quite sufficient to enable the noble Duke to make his attempt upon Tournay. Let then the President himself, whose military skill we all witnessed, when he served with the men of Ghent under the late Duke Charles, some five or six years ago; let him then lead five thousand men to the aid of Lille and Douai; and, having thrown what force into those places he may find necessary, return with the rest to Ghent; while, in the meantime, the Duke marches forth against Tournay with the rest of the troops which we can spare from the defence of this city."

The feelings which this speech excited in the mind of Albert Maurice were of a very mixed and intricate nature. By this time, from many of those slight and accidental indications by which a skilful observer may read the changes of the human heart, the young burgher had learned that Ganay was no longer the zealous friend he had been, and he felt, rather than remarked, that, with that dark and subtle being there could be no medium between active support and deadly opposition, circumstanced as they were and had been. With this conviction impressed upon his mind, perhaps he might see, or at least suspect, that one object in the proposal of the druggist was to obtain his absence from the city. He might see, too, that the command of a large portion of the army given to the Duke of Gueldres, whose military abilities were well known, would throw immense power into the hands of that prince, becoming already too powerful; and he likewise knew the general dangers attendant upon the absence of a political leader too well, not to dread the consequences of his own departure from Ghent at a moment so critical.

Nevertheless, one of his chief weaknesses was the ambition of military renown; and that ambition had received an impulse which it had never known before, since he had dared to raise his hopes to a princess descended from a race of heroes. He felt, too, within himself, great powers of the kind immediately required, and he trusted that, by the exertion of that energetic activity which characterized all his movements, he should be enabled to accomplish his enterprise--to add, perhaps, some brilliant exploits to all that he had already performed, and to return to Ghent before any great advantage could be taken of his absence by his enemies.