What are they called?

VAN MUCK.

Jan Bulsen and Carl Kortz.

(Trumpets are heard at a little distance.)

HERALD.

Hark to the regent's trumpets.

VAN MUCK.

He has finished

His daily rounds, and will be here anon.

SIR FLEUREANT.

Name me a place of meeting.

VAN MUCK.

The west dyke,

Behind the sutler Merlick's tent.

SIR FLEUREANT.

Do thou

And Kortz, and Bulsen, at the hour of nine,

Be there to take my orders. Get thee gone,
And be not seen till then.

Go this way out,

That so the regent meet thee not.

[Exit VAN MUCK.

That seed

Is sown, but whether I shall reap the fruits,

Is yet in Artevelde's arbitrement.

Let him comply, and those three hens shall meet

To hatch an addle egg.

HERALD.

'Tis more than time

That I were fairly on the road to France.

You're pushing on apace.

SIR FLEUREANT.

Our thrift lies there.

Spare time, spend gold, and so you win the day!

'For strongest castle, tower, and town,
The golden bullet beateth down!'

(Trumpets again.)

Enter VAN ARTEVELDE.

ARTEVElde.

You are equipped, I see, for taking horse;

I pray you have Sir Charles of France informed

It was your diligence with such speed dismissed you,
And not my lack of hospitality.

HERALD.

My lord, we surely shall report in France

That we were well and bounteously entreated.

Thankfully now, my lord, I take my leave;

Sir Fleureant follows, and ere night will reach

The hostel where we rest.

ARTEVElde.

[Exit HERALD.

You are not, I will hope, so much in haste?

SIR FLEUREANT.

My lord, I tarry but an hour behind,

And not for idleness. My lord, I'm charged
With a strange mission, as to you 'twill seem,
But of great moment, from his grace of Bourbon.

ARTEVELDE.

Sir, I attend; his grace has all my ears.

What would he?

SIR FLEUREANT.

He has voices more than ten

In the king's council; and as they may speak
Touching this war, 'twill likely be resolved.

Now he is not implacably, as some,

Envenomed, and if justice were but done him
He might be pacified, and turn the course

Of these precipitate counsels.

ARTEVELDE.

By mine honour,

If there be justice I can render him,
He should receive it from my ready hands,
Although his voice in council were as small
As a dog-whistle. What may be his grief?

SIR FLEUREANT.

My lord, he sent you letters that pourtrayed
His grief in all its blackness. To be short,
He wants his paramour; the damsel fair
Whom you surprised, sojourning at the court
Of Louis Mâle, the day that Bruges was taken.

A servant of the prince, 'tis his desire

She be consigned, to take her to the palace

At Senlis.

ARTEVELDE.

To the hands of whom she will

I yield the lady, to go where she will,

Were it to the palace of the prince of darkness.

But at the lady's bidding it must be,

Not at the prince's.

SIR FLEUREANT.

Do I learn from this

The lady is reluctant?

ARTEVELDE.

By no means.

The dangers of the journey have deterred her
From taking my safe-conduct heretofore,

When, at the instance of the Duke of Bourbon,
I offered it; but, having come thus far

Toward the frontier, she may travel hence
In your protection safely.

To see her, and she doubtless will comply.

Attendance here!

Enter an ATTENDANT.

Inform the foreign lady,

That with her leave, at her convenient leisure,

I will entreat admittance for some words

Of brief discourse.

[Exit ATTENDANT.