truth, I think that never since was his understanding so good as it had been before this battle.”  Before he fell ill, on the 12th of March, Charles issued orders from his camp before Lausanne to his lieutenant at Luxembourg to put under arrest “and visit with the extreme penalty of death, without waiting for other command from us, all the men-at-arms, archers, cross-bowmen, infantry, or other soldiery” who had fled or dispersed after the disaster at Granson; “and as to those who be newly coming into our service it is ordered by us that they, on pain of the same punishment, do march towards us with all diligence; and if they make any delay, our pleasure is that you proceed against them in the manner hereinabove declared without fail in any way.”  With such fiery and ruthless energy Charles collected a fresh army, having a strength, it is said, of from twenty-five to thirty thousand men, Burgundians, Flemings, Italians, and English; and after having reviewed it on the platform above Lausanne, he set out on the 27th of May, 1476, and pitched his camp on the 10th of June before the little town of Morat, six leagues from Berne, giving notice everywhere that it was war to the death that he intended.  The Swiss were expecting it, and were prepared for it.  The energy of pride was going to be pitted against the energy of patriotism.  “The Duke of Burgundy is here with all his forces, his Italian mercenaries and some traitors of Germans,” said the letter written to the Bernese by the governor of Morat, Adrian of Bubenberg; “the gentlemen of the magistracy, of the council, and of the burgherhood may be free from fear and hurry, and may set at rest the minds of all our confederates:  I will defend Morat;” and he swore to the garrison and the inhabitants that he would put to death the first who should speak of surrender.  Morat had been for ten days holding out against the whole army of the Burgundians; the confederate Swiss were arriving successively at Berne; and the men of Zurich alone were late.  Their fellow-countryman, Hans Waldmann, wrote to them, “We positively must give battle or we are lost, every one of us.  The Burgundians are three times more numerous than they were at Granson, but we shall manage to pull through.  With God’s help great honor awaits us.  Do not fail to come as quickly as possible.”  On the 21st of June, in the evening, the Zurichers arrived.  “Ha!” the duke was just saying, “have these hounds lost heart, pray?  I was told that we were about to get at them.”  Next day, the 22d of June, after a pelting rain and with the first gleams of the returning sun, the Swiss attacked the Burgundian camp.  A man-at-arms came and told the duke, who would not believe it, and dismissed the messenger with a coarse insult, but hurried, nevertheless, to the point of attack.  The battle was desperate; but before the close of the day it was hopelessly lost by the Burgundians.  Charles had still three thousand horse, but he saw them break up, and he himself had great difficulty in getting away, with merely a dozen men behind him, and reaching Merges, twelve leagues from Morat.  Eight or ten thousand of his men had fallen, more than half, it is said, killed in cold blood after the fight.  Never had the Swiss been so dead set against their foes; and “as cruel as at Morat” was for a long while a common expression.