could not do without me; but for a fortnight now I have been getting everything ready for bringing most honor to you and yours.  They would be much surprised if I should now withdraw.”  The king was somewhat embarrassed.  “Constable,” said he, “I would fain have you in my company to-day; you know well that my lord my father loved you and trusted you more than any other; in the name of God and St. Denis do whatever you think best.  You have a clearer insight into the matter than I and those who have advised me.  Only attend my mass to-morrow.”  The battle began with spirit the next morning, in the midst of a thick fog.  According to the monk of St. Denis, Van Artevelde was not without disquietude.  He had bidden one of his people go and observe the French army; and, “You bring me bad news,” said he to the man in a whisper, “when you tell me there are so many French with the king:  I was far from expecting it. . . .  This is a hard war; it requires discreet management.  I think the best thing for me is to go and hurry up ten thousand of our comrades who are due.”  “Why leave thy host without a head?” said they who were about him:  “it was to obey thy orders that we engaged in this enterprise; thou must run the risks of battle with us.”  The French were more confident than Van Artevelde.  “Sir,” said the constable, addressing the king, cap in hand, “be of good cheer; these fellows are ours; our very varlets might beat them.”  These words were far too presumptuous; for the Flemings fought with great bravery.  Drawn up in a compact body, they drove back for a moment the French who were opposed to them; but Clisson had made everything ready for hemming them in; attacked on all sides they tried, but in vain, to fly; a few, with difficulty, succeeded in escaping and casting, as they went, into the neighboring swamps the banner of St. George.  “It is not easy,” says the monk of St. Denis, “to set down with any certainty the number of the dead; those who were present on this day, and I am disposed to follow their account, say that twenty-five thousand Flemings fell on the field, together with their leader, Van Artevelde, the concoctor of this rebellion, whose corpse, discovered with great trouble amongst a heap of slain, was, by order of Charles vi., hung upon a tree in the neighborhood.  The French also lost in this struggle some noble knights, not less illustrious by birth than valor, amongst others forty-four valiant men who, being the first to hurl themselves upon the ranks of the enemy to break them, thus won for themselves great glory.”

The victory of Rosebecque was a great cause for satisfaction and pride to Charles vi. and his uncle, the Duke of Burgundy.  They had conquered on the field in Flanders the commonalty of Paris as well as that of Ghent; and in France there was great need of such a success, for, since the accession of the young king, the Parisians had risen with a demand for actual abolition of the taxes of which Charles V., on his death-bed,