The druggist bit his lip, and Albert Maurice continued:--"If, indeed, he unhappily have fallen in this rash attempt against the Swiss, say what would you have us do?"
"Nay, nay, speak you," replied the druggist; "for well do we all feel that it is you must lead, and we must follow."
"I see but one thing that can be done," replied the young citizen--"humbly to tender our allegiance and our services to the heiress of the Burgundian coronet, and to petition her to confirm to us our liberties and privileges."
He spoke slowly and calmly, in a tone of voice from which nothing could be gathered in addition to the words he uttered; and in vain did the small dark eyes of his fellow-citizen scan his countenance to discover something more. His face remained completely unmoved, if it was not by a scarcely perceptible smile at the evident anxiety and agitation with which his calmness and indifference affected his companion.
"Good Heaven!" cried the druggist, starting up in the first impatience of disappointed expectation, "Good Heaven! little did I expect to hear such words from your lips! But no!" he added, after a moment's pause of deep thought, during which he rapidly combined every remembered trait in the character of Albert Maurice, with his present affected calmness, and deduced from it a true conclusion in regard to his real motives. "But no! Young man, I have marked you from your childhood. I know you as well as my own son, nay, better--for his light follies have made him an alien to my house, though not to my heart. I have seen your character develop itself. I have seen the wild spirit and petulance of boyhood become, when brought under the sway of maturer reason, that overwhelming enthusiasm, which, like a mighty river, is calm only because it is deep and powerful. Albert Maurice, you cannot deceive me; and let me tell you, that even were the course, which but now you proposed to pursue, that to which your feelings and your reason really led you, the people of this country would leave you to truckle to power alone; and though--wanting one great directing mind to curb their passions, and point their endeavours to a just conclusion--they might cast one half of Europe into anarchy, and rush upon their own destruction, most assuredly they would do so, rather than submit again to a new despot, or place their lives and their happiness in the power of one who owns no law, no justice but his own will."
"Think you they would do so, indeed?" demanded the young citizen, well aware of the fact, but somewhat doubtful still of the entire purity of his companion's motives. "Then, my good friend, we must, as you say, for the safety and security of all, find some one who may lead them to better things; but to succeed we must be cautious; we must trust no man before we try him; and we must first make sure of those who lead, before we rouse up those who are to be led. Ere one step is taken, too, we must ensure the ground that we stand upon, and know what has been the real event of this great battle. Nay, nay, protest not that it is as we have heard, Rumour, the universal liar, sometimes will give us portions of the truth, beyond all doubt; but never yet, believe me, did she tell a tale that was not more than one-half falsehood. But even granting that the chief point be true, at the very threshold of our enterprise, we must learn each particular shade of thought and of opinion, possessed by our great and leading citizens. Nor must Ghent stand alone; each other city throughout all Flanders must be prepared to acknowledge and support the deeds of Ghent."
"You seem to have considered the matter deeply," said the druggist, with a smile; "but I fear such long preparations, and the time necessary to excite the public mind----"
"Fear not," interrupted Albert Maurice, "fear not. You little know the commons, if you suppose that time is necessary to call them into action. A few shrewd words, false or true, it matters not, will set the whole country in a flame as fast as news can fly. Give me but just cause, a good occasion, and an opportunity of speech, and in one half hour all Ghent shall be in arms."
"It may be so," replied the druggist, thoughtfully; "I doubt it not; indeed I know it is so. But, methinks, my dear young friend, that while we are proceeding with such slow circumspection, our enemies may take their measures of precaution also; and as they have the present power, may use and extend it to such good effect that all our efforts will be fruitless. Already the Lord of Imbercourt has returned with a hundred and fifty lances; the number of nobles in the town, with their retainers, will furnish near five hundred more."
"Again, fear not," replied Albert Maurice; "the popular mind is as a magazine of that black hellish compound, which gives roar and lightning to the cannon; one single spark, applied by a fearless hand, will make it all explode at once. The nobles stand upon a mine; and there are those in Ghent who will not fear to spring it beneath their feet should there be need, which Heaven avert. One thing, however, must be done, and that with speed. As a united body, these feudal tyrants are powerful--too much so, indeed--but amongst them there must be surely more than sufficient stores of vanity, wrath, hatred, revenge, and all those other manifold weaknesses, which, skilfully employed, may detach some of their members from their own body, and spread division amongst them. Is there no one could be won?"