If Frederic doubted the surety of his bargain, it is not surprising.  It was notorious how the duke had played fast and loose with his daughter’s hand, withdrawing it from the grasp of a suitor as the greater advantages of another alliance were presented to him, or as the mere disadvantage of any marriage at all became unpleasantly near.  Vigorous man of forty that he was, Charles had no personal desire to see a son-in-law, in propria persona, waiting for his shoes—­a fact perfectly patent to the emperor, as it was to the rest of the world.

The task of making the imperial adieux was entrusted to the imperial chamberlain, Ulrich von Montfort, who duly presented his master’s formal excuses to the duke, on the morning of November 25th.  “Important and urgent affairs had necessitated his presence elsewhere.  The arrangement discussed between them was not broken but simply postponed until a more convenient occasion rendered its execution possible,” etc.

The Strasburg chronicles report that Charles was in a towering rage on receiving this communication.  He clinched his fists, ground his teeth, and kicked the furniture about the room in which he had locked himself up.[21] But by the time these words were penned, these authors were better informed than Charles about the ultimate result of the emperor’s intentions.  The duke may have been angry, but he certainly controlled himself sufficiently to give several audiences in the course of the day—­to envoys from Lorraine among others—­and was ready to take his own departure by evening, not doubting that the crown and sceptre, carefully packed with the mountain of his valuable treasure, would assuredly fulfil their destiny in the near future.  Treves was left to its pristine repose, and Charles was the last man to realise that in its silence were entombed for ever his chances of wearing the prematurely prepared insignia.

[Footnote 1:  This comment of the Strasburg chronicler, Trausch, is quoted by De Bussiere in his Histoire de la Ligue contre Charles le Temeraire, p. 64.  Kirk (ii., 222) points out that this contemporary had a peculiar hostility towards Charles.]

[Footnote 2:  Guillaume Faret or Farrel.  His Hist. de Rene II. is lost.  This citation from it is found in La Guerre de Rene II. contre Charles le Hardi, by P. Aubert Roland.]

[Footnote 3:  He had been made knight of the Golden Fleece at the May meeting.  From this time on some member of the Nassau family was prominent in Burgundian affairs.]

[Footnote 4:  Gachard, Doc. inedits, i., 232.  Letter from Treves, October 4, 1473.]

[Footnote 5:  About this time Louis XI. made strenuous efforts to unravel the mystery of his brother’s death. (Letter to the chancellor of Brittany, Lettres de Louis XI., v., 190.)]

[Footnote 6:  Gachard could not explain this phrase.  It might easily refer to the desired investiture.]