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An iron lamp, that swung under the vaulted entrance of the antique ergastula, threw a dim light around the gate of the underground cell and also partially lighted it within. Steps were heard. A leude appeared followed by slaves bearing baskets and bowls. "Boys! Here's some beer for you, also wine, venison, bread and cheese. Eat, drink and be merry. The son of the King is on a visit at the burg."
They were emptying cup upon cup. The count's leude had returned to the burg in quest of the pretty blonde slave girl. While waiting for him, Bishop Cautin, hardly able to contain himself for the joy that he anticipated in the possession of the girl whom he coveted, had returned to his seat at the table.
It almost looks, you vainglorious rustic, as if you took us for thieves." "Neroweg offers his hospitality in the way that suits him," put in Sigefrid, the count's leude, in a tone of muffled anger; "those who eat the meat and drink the wine of this house have no right to complain of the dishes if these don't suit them, let them go and fill up elsewhere."
On the 4th of July, Vendome suddenly marched from Braine le Leude, intending to capture the fortress of Oudenarde. Small bodies of troops were sent off at the same time to Ghent and Bruges, whose inhabitants rose and admitted the French.
"The irons must not be allowed to cool off." "What a jig will not the cub dance on that row of burning irons, if he was in the plot with the other thief to steal your dish!" "And yet what a wondrous miracle is about to be accomplished if the cook is really innocent!" remarked another leude with impatient curiosity. "To walk over red-hot plow-shares without burning one's feet!
These thinges beinge done, he preached vnto the King the blessednes of the life, led accordyng to the pleasure of the goddes, and exhorted him thervnto: as also to frame his maners and doinges vnto vertue, and not to giue eare to that, that leude men should counsaile him, but to followe those thynges that led vnto honour and vertue.
So precipitate was his flight and headlong his bewilderment that he nearly upset the leude who, back at that moment from his errand to the count's burg, entered the hall pushing before him the young blonde slave whom he was sent in quest of: "Here is the slave girl, Odille," said the leude.
At the sight of those black men rising from under the ground, and yelling as if possessed, the leude who brought in the young slave also believed that they issued from hell, and rushed out close upon Neroweg's heels, crying: "The demons! The demons!" More and more frightened by these cries, the count ran to the stable, leaped upon his horse, and dashed full tilt away from the episcopal villa.
Vendome, finding himself anticipated, fell back to Braine le Leude without firing a shot. But though Marlborough had so far foiled the enemy, it was clear that he was not in a condition to take the offensive before the arrival of Prince Eugene, who would, he trusted, be able to come to his assistance; and for weeks the armies watched each other without movement.
After the ceremony of signing was concluded the bishop gave the Frankish count absolution for the murder of his brother and offered him three full cups of wine to comfort him. "Sigefrid," said the count to his leude, smothering a last sigh of regret, "be a good friend to me; ride to my burg; take Odille the spinner girl on the crupper of your horse and bring her here."
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