“Those who were taken alive were hanged, except some few suffered to escape by the compassionate common soldiers.  Quite a number had their hands chopped off.  I dislike to mention this cruelty but I was on the spot and needs must give some account of it."[26]

The story of the duke’s treatment of the innocent little town of Nesle is painted in colours quite as lurid as the king’s murder of his brother.  There is some ground for the denunciations of Charles, but the gravest accusation, that the duke promised clemency to the citizens on surrender and then basely broke his word, does not deserve credence.  He was in a state of exasperation and the horrors were committed in passion, not in cold blood.[27]

[Illustration:  BURGUNDIAN STANDARD PRESERVED AT BEAUVAIS]

It is delightful to note the king’s virtuous indignation at his cousin’s proceedings, coupled with his regrets that he himself had not destroyed the town.

With the terrible report of the events at Nesle flying before his advance guard, Charles went on towards Normandy.  Roye he gained easily, and then, passing by Compiegne where “Monseigneur the grand master” had intrenched himself, and Amiens with the good burghers whom Louis delighted to honour, he marched on until he reached Beauvais, an old town on the Therain.  Some of the garrison from the fallen Roye had taken refuge there, but the place was weak in its defences, not even having its usual garrison or cannon, as it happened.

Disappointed in his first expectation of picking the town like a cherry, Charles sat down before it.  The siege that followed won a reputation beyond the warrant of its real importance from the extraordinary tenacity and energy of the people in their own defence.  Every missile that the ingenuity of man or woman could imagine was used to drive back the besiegers when the town was finally invested.

From June 27th to July 9th Charles waited, then an assault was ordered.  Charles laughed at the idea of any serious resistance.  “He asked some of his people whether they thought the citizens would wait for the assault.  It was answered yes, considering their number even if they had nothing before them but a hedge."[28] He took this as a joke and said, “To-morrow you will not find a person.”  He thought that there would be a simple repetition of his experience at Dinant and Liege, and that the garrison would simply succumb in terror.  When the Burgundians rushed at the walls their reception showed not only that every point had a defender, but also that those same defenders were provided with huge stones, pots of boiling water, burning torches—­all most unpleasant things when thrown in the faces of men trying to scale a wall.  Three hours were sufficient to prove to the assailants the difficulty of the task.  Twelve hundred were slain and maimed, and the strength of the place was proven.