This being done, the ambassadors, with the exception of the count de St Pol, went to Ghent, where they were received most honourably. They informed the townsmen, assembled in numbers at the town-hall, of the commission they had been intrusted with by the king of France, and the remonstrances they had in consequence made to the duke of Burgundy, and his answer. The ghent men, on hearing this, said, that indeed their lord was too hard and merciless to them; that he wanted to deprive them of their privileges, which they would never suffer to be done; and told the ambassadors, that if they had nothing more to say, they might leave the town instantly. They therefore immediately departed, and returned to the duke of Burgundy. CHAP. XXXV. THE CUTLER OF GHENT IS MADE PRISONER IN BATTLE.--THE GHENT MEN ARE DEFEATED.--THEY ARE AGAIN DEFEATED AT HULST AND MOERBEKE. The french ambassadors had scarcely left Ghent, when upward of five thousand men in arms issued forth to combat the duke's army wherever they could meet it. They had chosen for their leader a cutler of Ghent, a large heavy man, who had boasted that he would overcome the duke; and his townsmen promised, that if he should succeed, they would make him lord of Waes, and indeed of all Flanders. They marched for Hulst, a large village, in which was Anthony bastard of Burgundy with a strong force of well-tried men at arms, thinking to surprise him: but he had received intelligence of their coming, and advanced out to meet them. A sharp engagement took place, when they were defeated, with the loss of full three thousand men, and the cutler and several of the ghent men were taken. The bastard sent them to his father, the duke, who had them all hanged, or strangled, because they would not ask his pardon; and such was their obstinate hatred to him that, although they were promised mercy if they would ask it, they refused. This was surely a wonderful sign of obstinacy! Those who had escaped from this battle, to the amount of two thousand, fled to Moerbeke, wherein was a large company of their townsmen, then besieged by the Hollanders, ignorant of this defeat at Hulst. On seeing such numbers approach, the Hollanders drew up in battle-array, and attacked them with such effect with their cross-bows that many were slain. In the mean time, the bastard, who had pursued them, now came up; and they were so severely handled that, of the two thousand, few, if any, escaped death or being made prisoners. The garrison of Moerbeke, witnessing the discomfiture of their countrymen, abandoned the town and fled to Ghent; so that when sir Anthony de Bourgogne and the Hollanders were preparing to attack the intrenchments, they found them empty, and entered the place without resistance, which they plundered of every thing worth taking away, and then set the town on fire.