"
At this bold speech there was instant commotion. For the nobles
and merchants of Holland, four centuries and a half ago, were at
open strife with one another. The nobles saw in the increasing
prosperity of the merchants the end of their own feudal power and
tyranny. The merchants recognized in the arrogant nobles the only
bar to the growth of Holland's commercial enterprise. So each
faction had its leaders, its partisans, its badges, and its
followers. Many and bloody were the feuds and fights that raged
through all those low-lying lands of Holland, as the nobles, or
"Hooks," as they were called--distinguishable by their big red
hats,--and the merchants, or "Cods," with their slouch hats of
quiet gray, struggled for the lead in the state. And how they DID
hate one another!
Certain of the younger nobles, however, who were opposed to the
reigning house of Holland, of which Count William, young
Jacqueline's father, was the head, had espoused the cause of the
merchants, seeing in their success greater prosperity and wealth
for Holland. Among these had been the young Lord of Arkell, now a
sort of half prisoner at Count William's court because of certain
bold attempts to favor the Cods in his own castle of Arkell.
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