When Philip de Bresse and his friends learned what was going on, they hastened to the duke’s chambers “to give him reverence.”  Monseigneur de Bresse was the spokesman in begging the duke that the three above named should be assured of their security notwithstanding the king’s presence at Peronne,—­of security such as he had pledged them in Burgundy and promised for the hour when they should arrive at his court.  On their part they were ready to serve him towards all and against all.  Which petition the duke granted orally.  “The force conducted by the Marshal of Burgundy was encamped without the gates, and the said marshal spoke no ill of the king, nor did the others I have mentioned."[9]

It was, however, a situation in which apprehension was not confined to the men of lower station.  To Louis, looking down from his window, there seemed dire menace in the mere presence of these persons who had heavy grievances against him, and the unfortified private house seemed slight protection against their possible vengeance.  Here, Charles might disavow injury to him as something happening quite without his knowledge.  On ducal soil the safest place was assuredly under shelter patently ducal.  There, there would be no doubt of responsibility did misfortune happen.

Straightway the king sent a messenger to Charles asking for quarters within the castle.  The request was granted and the uneasy guest passed through the massive portals between a double line of Burgundian men-at-arms.  It was no cheerful, pleasant, palatial dwelling-place this little old castle of Peronne.  So thick were the walls that vain had been all assaults against it.[10] Designed for a fortress rather than a residence, it had been repeatedly used as a prison, and the air of the whole was tainted by the dungeons under its walls, dungeons which had seen many unwilling lodgers.  Five centuries earlier than this date, Charles the Simple had languished to death in one of the towers.

This change of arrangement, or rather the disquieting reason for the change, undoubtedly clouded the peacefulness of the occasion.  Yet outward calm was preserved.  Commines asserts that the two princes directed their people to behave amicably to each other and that the commands were scrupulously obeyed.  For two or three days the desired conferences took place between Charles and Louis.  The king’s wishes were perfectly plain.  He wanted Charles to forsake all other alliances and to pledge himself to support his feudal chief, first and foremost, from all attacks of his enemies.  The Duke of Brittany had submitted to his liege.  If the Duke of Burgundy would only accept terms equally satisfactory in their way, the pernicious alliance between the two would vanish, to the weal of French unity.

[Illustration:  PHILIP DE COMMINES.]

Apparently the first discussion was heard by none except the Cardinal Balue and Guillaume de Biche.  Charles was willing to pledge allegiance and to promise aid to his feudal chief, but under limitations that weakened the value of his words.  Nothing could induce him to renounce alliance with other princes for mutual aid, did they need it.  There was a second interview on the following day.  Charles held tenaciously to his position.  Then there came a sudden alteration in the situation, a strange dramatic shifting of the duke’s point of view.