* CHAP. XXXI. THE NOBLES MAKE WAR UPON THE FLEMINGS. • . jokes and mockeries of the noblemen and gentry of Flanders, but were afterwards forry for it, and had once intentions of fending to duke Al-bert of Hainault, to requeft he v ould recal his knights who were making war againft them j burt-on reconfideringthe bufinefs, they thought it would only be loft labour, for the duke would not inter-fere in it. They were unwilling alfb to anger him more, for they fhould fare ill without his country ; and if Hainault, Holland and Zealand were fhut againft them, they might confider them-felves as ruined. They therefore gave up this, and' followed other council, which was to fend to thofe knights and fquires of Hainault who held poffef-fions within Ghent or its dependancy, to come and ferve them under pain of lofing their cftates : they, however, paid no attention to their fummons. • To this effeft, they fent to fir Hervé, lord d'An- * toing, who had an eftate in Ghent, and was alfo conftablc of the caftle, to aflift them, or he would lofe the rights of his caftlewick ; and, becaufe he would not obey their fummons, they razed his houfe of Vienne to the ground. ' The lord d'Antoing fent them word, he would cheerfully HE men of Ghent had been very free in their 171