the famous Roland, whose iron tongue had called the citizens, generation
after generation, to arms, whether to win battles over foreign kings at
the head of their chivalry, or to plunge their swords in each others'
breasts, were all conspicuous in the city and celebrated in the land.
Especially the great bell was the object of the burghers' affection, and,
generally, of the sovereign's hatred; while to all it seemed, as it were,
a living historical personage, endowed with the human powers and passions
which it had so long directed and inflamed.

The constitution of the city was very free. It was a little republic in
all but name. Its population was divided into fifty-two guilds of
manufacturers and into thirty-two tribes of weavers; each fraternity
electing annually or biennally its own deans and subordinate officers.
The senate, which exercised functions legislative, judicial, and
administrative, subject of course to the grand council of Mechlin and to
the sovereign authority, consisted of twenty-six members. These were
appointed partly from the upper class, or the men who lived upon their
means, partly from the manufacturers in general, and partly from the
weavers. They were chosen by a college of eight electors, who were
appointed by the sovereign on nomination by the citizens. The whole
city, in its collective capacity, constituted one of the four estates
(Membra) of the province of Flanders. It is obvious that so much liberty
of form and of fact, added to the stormy character by which its citizens
were distinguished, would be most offensive in the eyes of Charles, and
that the delinquencies of the little commonwealth would be represented
in the most glaring colors by all those quiet souls, who preferred the
tranquillity of despotism to the turbulence of freedom. The city
claimed, moreover, the general provisions of the "Great Privilege" of the
Lady Mary, the Magna Charta, which, according to the monarchical party,
had been legally abrogated by Maximilian. The liberties of the town had