Charles had doubtless made all preparations to combat Louis if need were, and had chosen Peronne for his headquarters with the express purpose of being able to watch France, and, at the same time, he had published abroad that his military preparations were solely for the purpose of keeping his obligations to his allies.  Now these obligations were momentarily removed by the action of those same allies.  Francis of Brittany had entered into amicable relations with his sovereign, young Charles of France had accepted arbitration to settle the fraternal relations of the royal brothers, while the correspondence between Louis and Liege, was still unknown to the Duke of Burgundy.  For the moment, the latter, therefore, had no definite quarrel with the French king.  But he was not in the least anxious for an interview with him.  Charles was as far as ever from understanding his cousin.  Even without definite knowledge of Louis’s efforts to make friends in the Netherlands, Charles suspected enough to turn his youthful distrust of the man’s character into mature conviction that friendship between them was impossible.  But he could not refuse the royal overtures.  His letter of safe-conduct to his self-invited visitor bears the date of October 8th, and runs as follows:[6]

    “MONSEIGNEUR: 

“I commend myself to your good graces.  Sire, if it be your desire to come to this city of Peronne in order that we may talk together, I swear and I promise you by my faith and on my honour that you may come, remain and return in safety to Chauny or Noyon, according to your pleasure and as often as it shall please you, freely and openly without any hindrance offered either to you or to any of your people by me or by any other for any cause that now exists or that may hereafter arise.”

Guillaume de Biche acted as confidential messenger between duke and king.  He it was whom Charles had dismissed from his own service in 1456 at his father’s instance.  From that time on the man had been in Louis’s household, deep in his secrets it was said, and certainly admitted to his privacy to an extraordinary degree.  This letter was written by Charles in the presence of Biche, through whose hand it passed directly to the king.

By October, Louis was at Ham, prepared to move as soon as the safe-conduct arrived.  No time was lost after its receipt.  On Sunday, October 9th, the king started out, accompanied by the Bishop of Avranches, his confessor, by the Duke of Bourbon, Cardinal Balue, St. Pol, a few more nobles, and about eighty archers of the Scottish guard.  As he rode towards Peronne, Philip of Crevecoeur, with two hundred lances, met him on the way to act as his escort to the presence of the duke, who awaited his guest on the banks of a stream a short distance out of Peronne.