It was agreed, that the conferences for peace should be holden at Lille, and that the deputies from Ghent should not amount to more than fifty. These preliminaries being settled, the truce was proclaimed throughout the duke's army; and he then gave permission for his men at arms to return to the places they had come from, excepting such as he had left in garrison in the towns aforesaid. The duke went to Brussels, and his ministers to Lille. The ambassadors from France sent a herald to proclaim the truce in Ghent; but as his attendant was dressed in a surcoat of the arms of the duke, namely, the cross of St Andrew, he was seized by the populace, as he was leading his horses to water, and instantly hanged, out of pique to the duke, and by way of revenge for the death of the cutler. The herald returned in safety, but very much frightened. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 140: Hoiguemustre. Q. Waesmustre?] CHAP. XXXVI. THE ARTICLES PROPOSED BY THE AMBASSADORS FROM FRANCE AS THE GROUND-WORK FOR A TREATY OF PEACE BETWEEN THE MEN OF GHENT AND THEIR LORD,--BUT WHICH ARE NOT AGREED TO BY THOSE IN GHENT. On the 22d day of July in the year 1452, the men of Ghent sent a deputation of fifty commissioners to Lille, to treat of a peace with the ministers of the duke of Burgundy and the ambassadors from France: they were also accompanied by master John de Poupincourt, advocate in the parliament. The duke refused at first to attend the conferences, and each party delivered in writing to the ambassadors their separate proposals; but at the entreaty of the ambassadors and his ministers, the duke set out from Brussels, and arrived at Lille on the 27th of August. When the deputies saw that the time for the expiration of the truce was near at hand, they were afraid to remain longer, and returned to Ghent, leaving behind only two heralds and an interpreter. Notwithstanding the departure of the deputies, the French ambassadors soon after gave judgment respecting their dissensions with the duke, and sentenced the men of Ghent to perform the following articles before they obtained peace. They were ordered, in the first place, to close up the gate by which they had marched out to besiege Oudenarde, once every week, on the same day they passed it. Item, the gate by which they had marched to the battle of Rupelmonde was to be shut up for ever. Item, they were to lay aside their white hoods, as having been their badge of rebellion. Item, foreign merchants should no longer be amenable to the bye laws of Ghent, but only to those of the town and ban lieu. Item, no one should be in future banished the town without the cause being specified, which had not been done before.