truly, and I have always fo faid, that; by God* John Lyon will be the ruin of us all. Curfed be the hour when you would riot eonfent to my pro-pofal ; fori had you fufFered me to have killed him I could then have eafily done it j but now he is out of our reach, and we clare not attempt even to hurt him, for he has more power in this town than the earl himfelf/ * Gilbert, replying, fàid j '-Hold thy tongue, fool : whenever I pleafe, with the affiftance of my lord I can put down thefe white hoods j and fome of them who now wear them will not, in a fhort time, havp heads to put them on/ Several of the moft difcreet men of the town were ordered to wait on the earl as ambafladors ; and I believe that Matthew Gilbert, the deacon of the pilots, was one of thofe chofen to go thither. John Lyon was the caufe of this, becaufe, if they fhould bring, back any harfh anfwer, he would fhare the difgrace of it. They departed, and found the earl ats Male*, and managed the bufinefs fo well that at laft the earl affented to all their demands, as well in regard to the prifoner detained at Erclo, as in his inten-tions to prefervc inviolate all their franchifes, and alfo in forbidding the people of Bruges ever again to dig on the territories belonging to Ghent. All this he promifed ; and, the more to pleafe the ci- • It would feem from Bicau's grand, atlas, that the domain and park of Male had been drowned by the fra fmce this time. The carl of Flanders was born there, and thence called Louis de Male, 1 ** • . • ' tfcens Ill