The magnificence remained unrivalled in the history of royal conferences.  The very troopers wore habits of cloth of gold over their steel, while their embroidered saddle-cloths were fringed with silver bells.  Surpassing all others, were the heralds-at-arms of the various individual states which acknowledged Charles as their sovereign, seigneur, count, or duke as the case might be.  They preceded their liege lord, clad in their distinctive armorial coats, ablaze with colour.  Before them were the trumpeters in white and blue, their very instruments silvered, while first of all rode one hundred golden haired boys, “an angel throng.”

It was so difficult to decide as to the requisite etiquette of escort, that the emperor and duke agreed to separate on the fairly neutral ground of the market-place.  Each proceeded with his own suite to his lodgings, Frederic to the archbishop’s palace, and Charles to the abbey of St. Maximin, which had conferred on him, some years previously, the honorary title of “Protector.”  His army was quartered within and without the city.  Two days for repose and then the first official interview took place, which is described as follows, by an unknown correspondent, evidently in the ducal suite:[4]

“Yesterday, which was Sunday, Monseigneur waited upon the emperor and escorted him to his own lodging which is in the abbey of St. Maximin.  My said lord was clad in ducal array except for his hat.  The emperor wore a rich robe of cloth of gold of cramoisy, and his son was in a robe of green damask.  As to their people, both suites were very brave, jewelry and cloth of gold being as common as satin or taffeta.  Monseigneur received the emperor in a little chamber decorated with hangings from Holland that many recognised.

“The emperor made the Bishop of Mayence his mouthpiece to describe the stress of Christianity and to urge Charles to lend his assistance.  Having listened to this address, Monseigneur requested the emperor to please come into a larger place where more people could hear his answer.  Accordingly they entered a hall decorated with the tapestry of Alexander, while the very ceiling was covered with cloth of gold.  There was a dais whereon stood a double row of seats.  Benches and steps were spread over with tapestry wrought with my lord’s arms.  Thither came the emperor and mounted the dais with difficulty....  Mons., the chancellor, clad in velvet over velvet cramoisy, first pronounced a discourse in beautiful Latin as a response to what had been said by the seigneur of Mayence.  Then, showing how the affairs of my said lord were affected by the king, he began with an account of the king’s reception by Monseigneur, whom God absolve [evidently the late duke], in his own residence, and he continued down to the present day, dilating upon the great benefits, services, and honour by him [Louis] received in the domains of Burgundy, and the extortions he had