d the casement opposite, and so far as they could see the
room was unoccupied.

"It were easy to put a plank across," Ralph said.

"We must not do that," Walter answered. "The mob are thick in the lane
below--what a roar comes up from their voices!--and a plank would be
surely seen, and we should be killed there as well as here. No, we must
get on to the sill and spring across; the distance is not great, and the
jump would be nothing were it not that the casements are so low. It must
be done as lightly and quickly as possible, and we may not then be seen
from below. Now leave the door open that we may make no mistake as to
the room, and come along, for by the sound the fight is hot below."

Running down the stairs Walter and Ralph joined in the defence. Those
in the house knew that they would meet with no mercy from the infuriated
crowd, and each fought with the bravery of despair. Although there were
many windows to be defended, and at each the mob attacked desperately,
the assaults were all repulsed. Many indeed of the defenders were struck
down by the pikes and pole-axes, but for a time they beat back the
assailants whenever they attempted to enter. The noise was prodigious.
The alarm-bells of the town were all ringing and the shouts of the
combatants were drowned in the hoarse roar of the surging crowd without.

Seeing that however valiant was the defence the assailants must in the
end prevail, and feeling sure that his enemies would have closed the
city gates and thus prevented the English without from coming to his
assistance, Van Artevelde ascended to an upper storey and attempted
to address the crowd. His voice was drowned in the roar. In vain he
gesticulated and made motions imploring them to hear him, but all was
useless, and the courage of the demagogue deserted him and he burst into
tears at the prospect of death. Then he determined to try and make his
escape to the sanctuary of a church close by, and was descending the
stairs when a mighty crash below, the clashing of steel, shouts, and
cries, told that the mob had swept away one of the barricades and were
pouring into the house.

"Make for the stair," Walter shouted, "and defend yourselves there." But
the majority of the defenders, bewildered by the inrush of the enemy,
terrified at their ferocious aspect and terrible axes, had no thought
of continuing the resistance. A few, getting into corners, resisted
desperately to the end; others threw down their