[Footnote 16:  Gachard, Doc. ined., i., 199.]

[Footnote 17:  Ibid., 200.]

[Footnote 18:  Waer ic certiffiere dat het dezen nacht niet wel claer ghestaen heeft.]

[Footnote 19:  Lettres de Louis XI, iii., 289.  The king apparently never resented the part played by Dammartin when he was dauphin.  His letters to him are very intimate.]

[Footnote 20:  Lettres, iii., 295. (Toussaint is probably Toustain.)]

[Footnote 21:  Kervyn ed., Oeuvres de Chastellain, vii., xviii. See poem, ibid., 423.  The MS. in the Laurentian Library at Florence bears this line:  “Here follows a mystery made because of the said peace of good intention in the thought that it would be observed by the parties.”  Hesdin is, however, a long way out of the route between Peronne and Namur, where the party was on October 14th.  It would hardly seem possible for journey and visit in so brief a time.]

CHAPTER XII

AN EASY VICTORY

1468

It was in the midst of heavy rains that the journey was made to Namur and then on to the environs of Liege.  Grim was the weather, befitting, in all probability, Charles’s own mood.  The king’s escort was confined to very few besides the Scottish guard, but a body of three hundred troopers was permitted to follow him at a distance, while the faithful Dammartin across the border kept himself closely informed of every incident connected with the march that his scouts could gather, and in readiness to fall upon Burgundian possessions at a word of alarm, while he restrained his ardour for the moment in obedience to Louis’s anxious command.

By the fourth week of October the Franco-Burgundian party were settled close to Liege in straggling camps, separated from each other by hills and uneven ground.  Long was the discussion in council meeting as to the best mode of procedure.  Liege was absolutely helpless in the face of this coalition.  Wide breaches made her walls useless.  Moats she had never possessed, for digging was well-nigh impossible on her rocky site covered by mud and slime from the overflow of the Meuse.  On account of this evident weakness, the king advised dismissing half the army as needless, advice that was not only rejected immediately but which excited Charles’s doubts of the king’s good faith.  Over a week passed and feeble Liege continued obstinate, while each division of the army manoeuvred to be first in the assault for the sake of the plunder.  But advance was very difficult, for the soldiers were impeded in their movements by the slime.  Wild were some of the night skirmishes over the uneven, slippery ground and amidst the little sheltering hills.

On one occasion, “a great many were hurt and among the rest the Prince of Orange (whom I had forgotten to name before), who behaved that day like a courageous gentleman, for he never moved foot off the place he first possessed.