The mob
invaded the Hotel de Ville, where the magistrates were assembled.
The Baillie, Jean Deprysenaere, trusting to his influence as the
local representative of the Count of Flanders, left the council
chamber, and tried to appease the rioters. He was set upon and
killed. Then the crowd rushed into the council chamber, seized
the other magistrates, and locked them up in the belfry, where
they remained prisoners for some days. The leaders of the revolt
met, and resolved to kill their prisoners, and this sentence was
executed on the Burgomaster and two of the Sheriffs, who were beheaded
in front of the Halle in the presence of their colleagues.[*] It
was by such stern deeds that the fierce democracy of the Flemish
communes preserved their rights.
[Footnote *: Vereecke, p. 41.]
Each town, however, stood for itself alone. The idea of government
by the populace on the marketplace was common to them all, but they
were kept apart by the exclusive spirit of commercial jealousy.
The thirst for material prosperity consumed them; but they had no
bond of union, and each was ready to advance its own interests
at the expense of its rivals. Therefore, either in the face of
foreign invasion, or when the policy of some Count led to revolt
and civil war, it was seldom that the people of Flanders were united.
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