Not to be fear'd is to be nothing here.
And wherefore have I taken up this office,
If I be nothing in it? There they go.

[Shouts are heard. Of them that pass my house some shout my name, But the most part pass silently; and once

I heard the cry of Flanders and the Lion.'

Re-enter Page.

PAGE.

The knights that newly have arrived from Bruges Pass down the street, my lord, and many with them.

ARTEVELDE.

Give me my cloak and dagger! There, enough-
Thy service is perform'd. Go to thy sports,
But come not near the market-place to-day.

To be the chief of honourable men

Is honour; and if dangerous, yet faith
Still binds them faster as the danger grows.
To be the head of villains,-what is that
But to be mind to an unwholesome body—
To give away a noble human soul
In sad metempsychosis to the brutes,
Whose carrion, else exanimate, but gains
A moment's life from this, then so infects
That altogether die the death of beasts.

These hands are spotless yet

[Exit Page.

[A pause.

Yea, white as when in infancy they stray'd Unconscious o'er my mother's face, or closed With that small grasp which mothers love to feel. No stain has come upon them since that timeThey have done nothing violent—

SOENE VI.-The exterior of the Stadt-House. Two external flights of stone stairs meet in a landing-place or platform, midway in the front of the building and level with the first floor. On this platform appear SIR GUISEBERT GRUTT, with the aldermen of sundry guilds and the deans of the several crafts of butchers, fishermen, glaziers, and cordwainers. Also VAN ARTEVELDE, VAN DEN BOSCH, FRANS ACKERMAN, VAN NUITRE, and others of their party. SIR GUISEBERT GRUTT descends some steps, and meets SIR SIMON BETTE, as he is coming up from the street.

SIR GUISEBERT (aside to SIR SIMON BETTE).

God's life, sir! where is Occo?

SIR SIMON.

Sick, sick, sick.

He has sent word he's sick and cannot come.

SIR GUISEBERT.

Pray God his sickness be the death of him!

SIR SIMON.

Nay, his lieutenant's here, and has his orders.

VAN DEN BOSCH (aside to ARTEVELDE).

I see there's something that hath staggered them. Now push them to the point. [Aloud.] Make way there, Ho!

ARTEVELDE (coming forward).

Some citizen hath brought this concourse here.

Who is the man, and what hath he to say?

SIR GUISEBERT.

The noble Earl of Flanders of his grace

Commissions me to speak.

[Some White-Hoods interrupt him with cries of 'Ghent,' on which
there is a great tumult, and they are instantly drowned in the
cry of 'Flanders.'

SCENE VI.]

PHILIP VAN ARTEVELDE.

ARTEVELDE.

93

33

What, silence! peace!

Silence, and hear this noble Earl's behests,
Deliver'd by this thrice puissant knight.

SIR GUISEBERT.

First will I speak-not what I'm bid to say,
But what it most imports yourselves to hear.
For though ye cannot choose but know it well,
Yet by these cries I deem that some of you
Would, much like madmen, cast your knowledge off,
And both of that and of your reason reft
Run naked on the sword-which to forefend,
Let me remind you of the things ye know.
Sirs, when this month began ye had four chiefs
Of great renown and valour,-Jan de Bol,
Arnoul le Clerc, and Launoy and Van Ranst :

Where are they now? and what be ye without them?
Sirs, when the month began ye had good aid
From Brabant, Liege, St. Tron, and Huy and Dinant:
How shall they serve you now? The Earl sits fast
Upon the Quatre-metiers and the Bridge:
What aid of theirs can reach you? What supplies?
I tell you, sirs, that thirty thousand men

Could barely bring a bullock to your gates.
If thus without, how stand you then within?
Ask of your chatelain, the Lord of Occo;
Which worthy knight will tell you-

ARTEVELDE (aside to VAN DEN BOSCH).

Mark you that?

[Then aloud to SIR GUISEBERT.] Where is this chatelain, your

speech's sponsor?

SIR GUISE BERT.

thus:

He's sick in bed; but were he here, he'd tell you
There's not provision in the public stores
To keep you for a day. Such is your plight.
Now hear the offer of your natural liege.
Moved to compassion by our prayers and tears,
Well aided as they were by good Duke Aubert,
My Lady of Brabant and Lord Compelant-
To whom our thanks are due,-the Earl says
He will have peace, and take you to his love,
And be your good lord as in former days;
And all the injuries, hatreds, and ill-will
He had against you he will now forget,
And he will pardon you your past offences,
And he will keep you in your ancient rights;
And for his love and graces thus vouchsafed
He doth demand of you three hundred men,
Such citizens of Ghent as he shall name,
To be deliver'd up to his good pleasure.

VAN DEN BOSCH.

Three hundred citizens !

ARTEVELDE.

Peace, Van den Bosch.

Hear we this other knight. Well, worthy sir,
Hast aught to say, or hast not got thy priming,
That thus thou gaspest like a droughty pump?

VAN DEN BOSCH.

Nay, 'tis black bile that chokes him. Come, up with it! Be it but a gallon it shall ease thy stomach.

SEVERAL CITIZENS.

Silence! Sir Simon Bette's about to speak.