he wrote, he signed himself Philip Van Artavelde, protector of Flanders.'

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Only two towns still held out for the Earl of Flanders, who was completely dispossessed of all the rest of the country. These were Lille, where the earl resided, and Oudenarde, which was strongly fortified, and into which the earl had sent all the best soldiers he could gather together, and had placed it under the care of a very brave and skilful commander, named Daniel de Haluyn.

"Philip Van Artavelde resolved on taking Oudenarde, and, accordingly, after committing the charge of Bruges to Peter du Bois, he collected an army of a hundred thousand men, and marched thither. He made many attacks on the place, but without any success, for neither he nor any of his captains had much knowledge of the art of taking walled cities. Indeed Froissart laughs at him, and says he knew much better how to fish with a rod and line in the Scheldt and Lys, than to attack a fortress.

Finding that he could make no impression on the town, he surrounded it on the land side with his troops; and as the Ghent men had the command of the river, and had, besides, driven large stakes into its bed to prevent the approach of any vessels, he effectually prevented the people in the town from receiving any supplies, hoping thus to starve them into submission. But as they had plenty of provisions, they held out stoutly.

"The camp before Oudenarde presented a curious scene, for the Ghent men carried on their business there as if they had been at home. They had halls for cloth, furs, and merceries. Every Saturday was the market, to which were brought, from the neighbouring villages, all sorts of groceries, fruits, butter, milk, cheese, poultry, and other things. There were taverns, as plenty as at Brussels, where Rhenish wines, and those of France, Malmsey, and other foreign wines were sold cheap. Every one might go thither, and pass and repass with

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out peril; that is to say, of Brabant, Hainault, Germany, and Liege, but not those of France.

"Whilst the army lay before Oudenarde, parties were continually going out, who burned and destroyed all the gentlemen's houses in the country. Amongst others, they plundered a beautiful house belonging to the earl, called Marle, where he had been born; and as if they were desirous of doing every thing to vex and annoy him, they broke the font in which he had been baptized, battered to pieces and carried away the silver cradle in which he had been nursed, and the tub he had been bathed in when an infant. These things especially provoked him.

"These plundering parties at length carried matters rather too far, for on one of their expeditions they went beyond their own bounds, and burned several villages in the French territory. The Earl of Flanders had before applied for help from France; but he was much disliked there, and his re