, crying,
"Ghent! Ghent!"

The charge was so sudden and so fierce that the Bruges people gave way,
and fled in a panic towards the town, with Van Artevelde's men at their
heels in hot pursuit. The Count's regular troops tried to make a stand,
but the burghers of Ghent came upon them so furiously that they too
became panic-stricken and fled. The Count himself ran with all his
might, and as soon as he entered the city he ordered the gates to be
shut. He was so anxious to save himself from the fury of Van Artevelde's
soldiers that he wanted to close the gates at once and leave those of
his own people who were still outside to their fate. But it was already
too late. Van Artevelde's column had followed the retreating crowd so
fast that it had already pushed its head into the town, and there was no
driving it back. The five thousand "troublesome burghers," with their
swords in their hands, and still crying "Ghent!" swarmed into Bruges,
and quickly took possession of the town. The Count's army was utterly
routed and scattered, and the Count himself would have been taken
prisoner if one of the Ghent burghers had not hidden him and helped him
to escape from the city.

Van Artevelde's soldiers, who had eaten the last of their food that
morning in the belief that they would never eat another meal on earth,
supped that night on the richest dishes that Bruges could supply; and
now that the Count was overthrown, great wagon trains of provisions
poured into poor, starving Ghent.

There was a great golden dragon on the belfry of Bruges, of which the
Bruges people were very proud. That dragon had once stood on the Church
of St. Sophia in Constantinople, and the Emperor Baldwin had sent it as
a present to Bruges. In token of their victory Van Artevelde's
"troublesome burghers" took down the golden dragon and carried it to
Ghent.

THE DEFENCE OF ROCHELLE.

HOW THE CITY OF REFUGE FOUGHT FOR LIBERTY.

In the old times, when people were in the habit of fighting each other
about their religion, the little French seaport Rochelle was called "the
city of refuge." The Huguenots, or French Protestants, held the place,
and when the armies of the French king tried to take it, in the latter
part of the sixteenth century, they were beaten off and so badly used in
the fight that the king was glad to make terms with the townspeople.

An agreement was therefore made that they should have their own
religion, and manage their own affairs