Charles was not perfectly at ease in Flemish, but he was wise enough to use that tongue.  One trait of the Ghenters was respect for the person of their overlord.  When that overlord showed any disposition to meet them half-way the response was usually immediate.  So it was now.  The crowd which had been attending to St. Lievin, and not to the duke’s joyous entry, suddenly remembered that his welcome had been strangely ignored.  Their grumblings changed to greetings.  “Take heart, Monseigneur.  Have no fear.  For you we will live and die and none shall be so audacious as to harm you.  If there be evil fellows with no bump of reverence, endure it for the moment.  Later you shall be avenged.  No time now for fear.”

This sounded better.  Charles was sufficiently appeased to address the crowd as “My children,” and to assure them that if they would but meet him in peaceful conference, their grievances should be redressed.  “Welcome, welcome! we are indeed your children and recognise your goodness.”

Then Groothuse followed with a longer speech than was possible either to Charles’s Flemish or to his mood.  This address was equally well received, and matters were in train for the appointment of a conference between popular representatives and the new Count of Flanders, when suddenly a tall, rude fellow climbed up to the balcony from the square.  Using an iron gauntlet as a gavel to strike on the wall, he commanded attention and turned gravely to address the audience as though he were on the accredited list of speakers: 

“My brothers, down there assembled to set your complaints before your prince, your first wish—­is it not?—­is to punish the ill governors of this town and those who have defrauded you and him alike.”

“Yes, yes,” was the quick answer of the fickle crowd.—­“You desire the suppression of the cueillotte, do you not?”—­“Yes, yes.”—­“You want all your gates opened again, your banners restored, and your privileges reinforced as of yore?”—­“Yes, yes.”  The self-appointed envoy turned calmly to Charles and said: 

“Monseigneur, this is what the citizens have come together to ask you.  This is your task.  I have said it in their behalf, and, as you hear, they make my words their own.”

Noteworthy is Chastellain’s pious and horrified ejaculation over the extraordinary insolence of this big villain, who thus audaciously associated himself with his betters:  “O glorious Majesty of God, think of such an outrageous and intolerable piece of villainy being committed before the eyes of a prince!  For a low man to venture to come and stand side by side with such a gentleman as our seigneur, and to proffer words inimical to his authority—­words the poorest noble in the world would hardly have endured!  And yet it was necessary for this noble prince to endure and to tolerate it for the moment, and needful that he should let pass as a pleasantry what was enough to kill him with grief.”