They hastened out of that city after midday, and went three leagues till they reached the river which flows through Ghent. They went to a small town on the bank of the river where the King has a strong castle, with a hundred soldiers always guarding it. Willebroeck is its name. The next day they went to Vilvorde, a very strong town where the Archduke has a strong castle. Every nobleman of the country meriting death by his own misdeeds, who obtains as an act of grace and concession that he shall not suffer death in public before the people, is brought to that same castle. Under God, not many persons in the world except the governor know what death and end they meet, but they never come out again.